Pantograph Punch episode tiles for an Artis in Residence feature. File pic Photo: Pantograph Punch
One of New Zealand's few online arts magazines is going into an indefinite hiatus, with a crisis in arts publishing given as the reason.
Directors of Pantograph Punch, alongside two other publishers, took their concerns to the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage last week, saying the static funding provided to Creative NZ since 2006 has meant small publishers were unable to survive.
Pantograph Punch director Van Mei said they have been in crisis for a long time.
"Maybe five years ago, it would've been, we're at the cliff edge, staring at the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
"Now, it feels like we are mid-splatter, and I'm not sure if there is an ambulance at the bottom at the cliff."
They are concerned for what stories will be lost with the closure of independent publishers.
"How come the values and the knowledge and the creative expertise that we hold aren't being protected right now?"
Creative NZ receives most of its funding from the Lottery Grants Board, making up 70-75 percent of their revenue, with the rest topped up by the government.
Since 2006, Creative NZ has received one funding increase from the Labour government in 2020, as a one-off Covid-19 pandemic support.
Pantograph has had conversations with Creative New Zealand, its immediate funder, and escalated the problem to the ministry last week.
Mei said they presented to the ministry to raise awareness of an unsurvivable environment for publishers like Pantograph Punch.
"We've seen across the last years, revenue is down and funding is down. The crisis of arts publishing and what's happening to Pantograph isn't happening to Pantograph alone.
"For all of us, we're having to make these incredibly tough decisions. The basic sustainability of our operations is at constant threat.
"There's a whole lot of love and a whole lot of community behind these spaces, but very often they are run on threadbare budgets. The knowledge and the skills of what we do aren't valued."
The magazine has been publishing online for 14 years, and Mei said it had curated an audience of writers and readers whose voices were not heard elsewhere in New Zealand.
"We have a really diverse readership of Māori, Pasifika, Asian, queer, takatapui, disabled - many many different communities that have come to feel like Pantograph can be a space for home for them."
Writers 'gutted'
They said it has been heartbreaking to give the news of a temporary closure to their writers.
"We've let a couple of writers know and their response has been that they're really gutted, because for some of them Pantograph is the only safe space where they feel like they can share their words to the world.
"There are a couple places [where writers can go], all of them are run on zero-dollar budgets. That is the concern as well, that we're losing funding for these specific communities."
Mei worries for the stories that would not be told without places like Pantograph Punch.
"In publishing houses, people of colour, let alone Māori, are very very often in the minority, and they are the minority of books that are published in Aotearoa, which is a real problem in terms of the stories that people receive, and the knowledge and the ways we think about the world and think about other people."
In a statement, Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith said he had not made any funding decisions ahead of the 2024 Budget announcement.
"However, a priority for me is ensuring that the money we are spending is going to the right places, and is spent wisely," he said.
Mei said the indefinite hiatus will give them time to find other options for the survival of Pantograph Punch.
"I am really hopeful for Pantograph, but I guess I don't want to make any promises, and there's things that need to be figured out first."