A prominent critic, Duncan Wise, comments:

Pat O'Dea asks what is in store for the future. Alister Taylor claims to have a number of promising features lined up. Highlights in the local content of the next few issues will be a Sam Hunt review of the Johnny Cash concert, Dick Nicholls on "The Taniwha Disaster 1973", and Murray Horton on film maker Rudall Hayward. Branching away from the arts will be yet another Tony Simpson feature on the Labour Party and its boss. Hope you get it right this time, Tony! And there will be some analysis of the local press and N.Z. sunday papers, plus a probe into the N.Z. Record Industry itself. The 'Random Notes' column will provide local food for gossip.

Taylor claims he intends to broaden the scope of "Rolling Stone", by introducing substantial political material into its current hip/rock content. In pop culture itself "Rolling Stone" is close to being no more than a sophisticated propaganda machine for hip capitalists and other exploiters of rich young people. It is a truism within the trade that all publicity, no matter how critical, is good publicity.

On the evidence of this first N.Z. edition of "Rolling Stone" there is a urgent need for the magazine to extend its scope. Of its fifty-two pages, only about a half of one page is devoted to an attempt to cover the world scene in any perspective other than "cultural". The "World News Roundup" is a pathetic collation of but eight items, including one on cannabis reform in Texas and another on hard-core porn. In effect this is no better than the cable pages of the dailies from which censors at both ends hack out the real news. A responsible World News Roundup in "Rolling Stone" would be an excellent start towards improving the magazine.