Student-made newsletter sees widespread support in opening days

A student-made online newsletter to tackle the stigma that Auckland is ‘boring’ has seen a surge of support in its opening days.

The newsletter’s creator, 19-year-old student Sacha, says that Auckland is not a boring city, it’s just that events and activities are not well advertised and promoted.

The Auckland Bagel weekly newsletter collects and promotes smaller and less known events and activities in Auckland that young adults and students may be interested in.

“The most common thing I hear [about Auckland] is just it’s boring, [...] if there was a widespread media or a way to tell people there are fun things to do, like there is his play, there's this movie, there's this event, I think it could help.

Sacha says that he has resonated well with the public, seeing more than 1500 subscriptions in the opening weekend after he launched the newspaper on Reddit.

“I made the post, and I think in the first couple hours we got like 600 subscribers, and it was just unimaginable”, says Sacha.

Auckland Council’s Senior Policy Manager Liz Civil says that investing in Auckland’s night-time economy, supporting major events and partnering with universities is a key part of making Auckland a “thriving city centre”.

“We encourage everyone to find out what’s on offer in the city and their neighbourhood and get involved. There are so many activities on offer in Auckland, designed to help people connect and feel that they belong.

She says that the Council invests in many events and programmes and is developing open spaces to make the city centre an attractive and vibrant place for young people.

Civil says that one of the focus areas of the ‘Thriving Rangatahi’ programme is improving connection and belonging for young people, and this includes creating council run events and programmes, but also supporting other ventures like the Comedy Festival, Auckland Writers Festival and Laneway.

Sacha puts this down to a media in New Zealand which is not made for younger audiences and their interests.

“I think the media in New Zealand is quite old-fashioned, when you look at the New Zealand Herald or 1News, most of their target is an older crowd, like it’s not really targeted towards a younger crowd.

He says that the support for his newspaper has only reinforced his feeling that something needs to change to bring more young people into the city centre.

“The demand and support has just been phenomenal, I wasn't expecting it at all. This is not just me and a couple of friends, this is clearly a big issue in our generation.