The Bulletin editor Stewart Sowman-Lund reflects on the year – what you were reading and what you engaged with the most – and looks ahead to 2025.
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We’ve made it. Welcome to the final edition of The Bulletin for 2024. It has been a very long year. This morning, we’re going to take a look back at the biggest moments from this newsletter over the past 12 months – the most read pieces, the most engaged with, the topics that got the most attention. And then we’ll take a little dive into what we might be seeing more of in 2025. Hopefully we can end on a positive note, but who knows – it’s been one of those years. I’ll say up top that I’ve loved writing this newsletter every morning and appreciate all 40,000+ of you that subscribe. Thank you!
The five biggest Bulletins of 2024
While I’m proud to say that every edition of The Bulletin is well read, some pieces shoot well above the rest. The five biggest Bulletins of the year were:
- The haka that circled the globe: Toby Manhire stepped into the editor’s chair and immediately delivered the most read edition of The Bulletin in 2024, revealing the startling number of times Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s haka in the debating chamber was viewed online.
- Luxon didn’t meet the hīkoi, but he won’t be able to hide from what comes next: In the wake of the nationwide hīkoi to parliament, this Bulletin from exactly one month ago today looked at the political aftermath.
- The ‘self-perpetuating downward spiral’ in our mental health system: An exceptional cover story from The Spinoff’s Gabi Lardies looked at how people who need mental health help can end up in destructive cycles and prison.
- Golriz Ghahraman’s resignation raises questions about life in political spotlight: Remember when The Bulletin was edited by Anna Rawhiti-Connell? This newsletter from the start of January looked at the resignation of Green MP Golriz Ghahraman and the questions it raised about the nature of political life.
- Calls for leadership and delivery: kickstarting the political year ahead: In the same week, Anna looked at the start of the political year and a national hui that set the stage on race relations.
- Bonus: What’s going on at The Warehouse? Not the biggest in terms of email opens, but undoubtedly the biggest Bulletin we’ve republished on The Spinoff homepage this year. A lot of you wanted to know what was going on at The Warehouse!
The most engaged with Bulletins
Likes and comments aren’t everything, but they do give an indication of the topics of most interest (or they’re just pointing out typos and grammatical errors, also appreciated). Here are the five most engaged with Bulletins on Substack.
- Luxon didn’t meet the hīkoi, but he won’t be able to hide from what comes next: There it is again!
- How the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill played out: Another Bulletin on race relations in Aotearoa that attracted a lot of correspondence.
- The tax questions circling Chris Hipkins and Labour: Oh those tax questions, they be circling – and they will for the next two years. Will Labour settle on a capital gains tax, a wealth tax, or something else? We’re still waiting to find out.
- Budget 2024 in 10 crucial reads: A small reading list for the day after the budget.
- What’s in and what’s out for Labour’s 2026 campaign: Another Bulletin looking at how Labour is positioning itself two years out from the next election.
- Bonus: Calls for airfare inquiry: Are we in a cost of flying crisis? Undoubtedly The Bulletin that caused the most readers to send me emails (a lot of them unhappy with me focusing on airfares and not the wider implications of flying). I’m always learning, always listening.
The biggest topics
Obviously, The Bulletin largely covers major political news as they tend to dominate the news cycle and, by design, this newsletter is a wrap of what’s making headlines. But a few key topics emerged as the most engaged with across 2024.
Healthcare: We routinely returned to the subject of health, from leaked memos, to widespread redundancies, and the $1.4bn turnaround job promised by the coalition government. There was the end of the Covid inquiry, fears of a new bird flu epidemic, and questions over why money was being given to Mike King over other mental health support providers.
The state of the nation: As noted above, you were really interested in how Labour was rebuilding itself ahead of the next election. But we also spent time looking at the Greens, Act, and the late surge of Te Pāti Māori in the polls. Not to mention, local councils got a show too – from a scrapped reform of local government to the PM’s fiery directive to stop focusing on “nice to haves”.
Time for some original reporting: I’ve really enjoyed having the chance to weave some original reporting into The Bulletin this year, and the stats show you’ve enjoyed it too. There was my deep dive into the Ministry of Health’s missing puberty blockers “evidence brief”, an investigation into a mysterious new suicide prevention charity, and a look at why police had called a driver why they were still driving down the motorway.
In-depth reports: The Spinoff has published dozens upon dozens of excellent, well-researched cover stories this year – and we’ve done our best to promote those via The Bulletin. I’d like to reshare, in particular, Zeni Gibson’s remarkable and horrifying first person account (as told to Maddie Holden) of being stalked for nearly a decade, and Claire Mabey’s deep dive into Narrative Muse.
Looking ahead
While the above is of course not a scientific exercise in what’s making the news, it’s nonetheless interesting. Some of the bigger themes – healthcare, race relations, the state of the wider economy – will undoubtedly drag into the new year. This has been a tough year. We’ve lost dozens, likely hundreds, of excellent journalists. The Spinoff hasn’t been immune and as a result I’ll be scaling back my work in the new year – you might notice The Bulletin looking a little trimmer than it has been since I took over (which some of you may appreciate, let me know). That’s unfortunate, of course, but I remain optimistic (most of the time, anyway).
The Spinoff has had a big year, with over 38 million minutes spent reading our stories and close to 1.2m podcast downloads (did you listen to Juggernaut?). We’re not alone – Newsroom recently shared its report card for 2024 and Mediawatch looked back on some of the big moments from the year. Media commentator Gavin Ellis wrote this week that he refused to see the past year only in terms of what has been lost – and I applaud that approach. “Our journalists can take real pride from some of what they have done. They demonstrate they have the knowledge, talent and intellect to deliver on their solemn obligations,” he wrote.
It hasn’t all been doom and gloom, and there’s no reason next year can’t be even better. I’ll be back on January 13. See you then and have a wonderful summer wherever you are.