I don't think I've ever been in North & South's demographic sweet spot, but like Metro it's easy to forget what a bracing gust of fresh air they were in the 80's -- it wasn't just the "long-form" stories, but the attitude and strong editorial identity and point of view that many have pissed you off no end but was hard to ignore..

To a large degree, N&S stooped to the lowest common denominator for a while, then cleaned up its act after the 'Asian Angst' debacle. I just hope TVNZ can learn from that after Henrygate.