The real sideswipe

By Matt Cooney, December 14, 2006 @ 1 am

Ana Samways is showing how new-media journalism for the masses might work.

Idealog January/February 2007, page 26. Photograph by Simon Young

Ana Samways already writes ‘Sideswipe’, the bit of the Herald that everyone reads (Aucklanders, anyway). But in 2006 she also launched head-first into the brave new media world, breaking stories and covering the best of the explosion of online creativity and humour on her Spare Room website. In a country where the big industry players still take a guarded approach to the web, Samways is showing how new-media journalism for the masses might work.

Samways and partner Steven Shaw set up Spare Room with some ambitious targets. “It’s not a vanity project, or a way to make a book deal or get an editorship at a paper magazine,” she says. “Our plans are to make some money out of it. We’re thinking long-term.”

In fact, they want Spare Room Publishing, their company, to become a cross-media mini-empire. The website is just the first venture, but it’s already making waves.

Spare Room sparked a national story when Shaw noticed that customer reviews of products on Telecom’s Ferrit online store were actually written by staff. But when local media jumped on the story without noting the source—normal practice on most newspapers—outraged bloggers were quick to make their displeasure known. (The New York Times, however, was happy to credit Spare Room.) Spare Room also publicised the SPCA’s controversial ‘De-sex your pet’ campaign and a viral video mash-up of Annette Presley’s interview with Mark Sainsbury.

But the online hi-jinks are presented with a human touch, because Samways is determined that Spare Room isn’t read just by the digerati. “We want broad appeal. I think the web has to be brought to everyone. With humour and smart-dinner-party conversation, everyone can have a say without feeling too intimidated.”