Ministry of Words: Keith Newman

Author, freelance writer and producer Keith Newman has had four non-fiction titles published in New Zealand dealing with historical subjects including Maori prophet T. W. Ratana and the movement he founded, the early missionaries and their relationships with the Maori people and a history of the Internet in New Zealand.

After 20-years research Reed published his work Ratana Revisited - An Unfinished Legacy, the first work on the Ratana Church and movement for nearly 25-years. Then two years later he was asked by Penguin, which took over Reed Publishing, to write a condensed less athletic version which was published as Ratana - The Prophet in 2009.

In between he was commissioned by The Internet Society of New Zealand (InternetNZ) to write the history of the Internet in New Zealand. His 20-plus years writing about computing and technology for Computerworld, Network World and PC Magazine has put him in the idea position as he was writing about the subject matter as it evolved.

The resulting book Connecting the Clouds - The Internet in New Zealand (Activity Press 2008) is also published as a wiki and available free under a Creative Commons license.

Wordworx web and CDs

Keith Newman has hosted one of the longest running free content sites in New Zealand, as the webmaster of the Wordworx site, and has been writing about telecommunications and technology since the dawn of the 1980s.

Under the umbrella Wordworx he archives many of the articles and features he has written over the past 25-years, including the annual Digital lifestyle magazine Home Technology which he write and edits.

He also hosts articles on New Zealand music and rhyhtm 'n verse poetry which has been released on two CDs, Buzz Words in 1997 and Cleaning Out the Garage in 2002.

Rock from the edge

Keith Newman has written produced and narrated over 20 programmes for Radio New Zealand National's Musical Chairs series, mainly dealing with pop and rock musicians from the period of the 1960s and 1970s, predominantly those who had recording success localy and toured offshore. He's working on an as yet unpublished book called Rock from the Edge.

Early years

Keith Newman was raised in Feilding in the central North Island of New Zealand and trained as a reporter from the age of 17 working on newspapers in Palmerston North and Waipukurau before joining the old NZBC as a radio and TV journalist. He spent two and a half years in Sydney managing and promoting rock bands before returning to Palmerston North in the late 1970s to start entertainment magazine Get Up 'n Go.

In 1981 he joined the news staff at Radio 2XS in Palmerston North where he produced a number of radio documentaries. He moved to Auckland in 1984 to work as a sub-editor on a weekly newspaper then went on to work as a feature writer and sub editor with Suburban Newspapers in 1986 before joining the Auckland Sun in 1988.

Freelance writing

From 2000 onward he has been a regular contributor to e.nz, the magazine of the Professional Engineers Institute of New Zealand (IPENZ), CIO (Chief Information Officer), Telecommunications Review and NZ Security magazine.

In the late 1980s he became news editor of the New Zealand IT industry magazine Computerworld then editor of Network World. After seven years with publisher IDG he was recruited to establish PC Magazine in New Zealand which he edited for 18 months to late 1996.

He worked with the New Zealand Herald's business technology section as a freelancer for over two years, including writing entrepreneur profiles. He wrote a monthly technology column for Auckland's Metro magazine for three years.

Keith Newman currently lives in the coastal village of Haumoana in Hawke's Bay with his wife, artist Paula Novak.

Awards

• sway.tech Hi-tech journalist of the year, PricewaterhouseCoopers hi-Tech Awards 2009
• New Zealand Radio Awards: Blerta Years, Radio New Zealand National, Best Produced Music Feature, 2007
• Best Magazine Feature Writer, IC&T, Qantas Media Awards 2004
• Journalist of the Year 2004, Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ)

Books published

• Bible & Treaty: Missionaries Among the Maori (Penguin 2010)
• Ratana the Prophet, Raupo-Penguin (2009)
• Connecting the Clouds – the Internet in New Zealand, Activity Press / InternetNZ (2008)
• Ratana Revisited - An Unfinished Legacy (Raupo/Reed 2006)