Tim Murphy 
Tim Murphy analyses the latest GfK radio listenership figures and finds evidence that the NewstalkZB juggernaut is finally starting to slow. Radio ratings out today will have been a bittersweet dessert for the executives of MediaWorks as they launched their television new season at a lunch at the Northern Club. Sweet because their radio division … Read more
The Commerce Commission has rejected the NZME-Fairfax merger in a bold draft decision that plays down forecasts of digital doom. Is there any way back from here, asks former Herald editor-in-chief Tim Murphy. An early disclaimer: I merrily predicted on Day One and again as late as yesterday that the Fairfax-NZME merger would be approved … Read more
This is not a tabloid story, taking things out of context and boasting a headline like: “Sex Scandal Made Me a Better Mayor” – Len Brown But you could see how it could appear under that title. For, in a more nuanced, reflective and brutally self-aware way, that is what Len Brown said, when we … Read more
Australian rugby teams have been mostly awful this year, but there’s a plan to turn things around, and it starts with a Super Rugby overhaul. Tim Murphy reports. Don’t feel sorry for Australian rugby. Don’t feel pity for its pitiful season. Don’t give the buggers a break. Because they’re already plotting their comeback. Root, branch and Aussie ruthlessness. Having … Read more
Rugby is getting a new festival event next year to kick-off the season in style – in the scorching hot league paradise of Brisbane. But what’s it all about, and why do we need it? Tim Murphy spent 48 hours among the tatts, T-shirts and thongs to find out. They don’t do things by halves … Read more
It’s more Dilapidated Valley than Silicon Valley, but at the bottom of a hill beneath TV3 in Eden Terrace lies a brand new, hi-tech facility bringing together dudes, nerds and the hopes of a city and government’s innovation plan. Tim Murphy was at the opening of Grid/Akl – Uptown. If you want cut-through in your … Read more
A Spinoff/SSI poll shows National’s support slipping in Auckland. Tim Murphy looks at why the blue tide might be going out in our biggest city (Hint: it has something to do with a housing Apocalypse). One intriguing result from this week’s Spinoff-SSI poll of voters is that the Government’s lead in the party vote has fallen considerably … Read more
Tim Murphy wonders why New Zealand rugby fans can’t have a show that’s fun and and irreverent and, well, more like rugby league’s The Footy Show*. The problem with rugby in New Zealand is that it is only a game of two halves. Two world-class halves of on-field action. The third, critical part – the TV … Read more
As Auckland contemplates a future of greater housing density with more crowded suburbs and schools, there’s an extreme, low-rise example happening in three of its suburbs. Tim Murphy spent some time in Tāmaki and listened to the man pulling it apart. Auckland’s biggest housing project, the Tāmaki Regeneration, is something to behold. It is on … Read more
Enough heeding a small group of angry residents, time to listen to the experts. That was the message yesterday at the launch of the pro-Unitary-Plan campaign group Coalition for More Homes, writes Tim Murphy. The rowdy hordes have had their say on the Unitary Plan. Now it’s time for the experts. So says the prosaically … Read more
Attempts to have Māori Statutory Board members excluded from the vote on the Unitary Plan called for a proper Mayor in the Chair. So up stepped Len Brown. Tim Murphy watches a critical chapter of council squabbling Have we just witnessed Len’s Last Stand? One day after the Unitary Plan landed back in the Auckland … Read more
The just-released commercial radio ratings show a continuation of the long-running swing to MediaWorks. Tim Murphy assesses the disturbing implications for a pre-merger NZME. Today is a day when careers are made and ended. At radio stations around the country, star presenters and executives have been waiting by their mobiles to confirm if they are … Read more
Sky TV is attempting to massively restrict online coverage of the Rio Olympics – and both the Herald and Stuff are considering staying home in protest, reports Tim Murphy. Don’t criticise the Sky commentators. Don’t make Gifs. And hold off for, say, three hours. These are some of the controversial conditions Sky TV is believed to have … Read more
Last month Paul Henry continued its strong gains in the ratings war against Breakfast, despite losing Aunty Hilary. Following his supportive piece for Paul Henry‘s one year anniversary, Tim Murphy returns to explain what TVNZ should do next. Hey, Hilary, get back from dancing in the rain at Pakiri Beach and help TVNZ out. The … Read more
This morning, John Key conceded some of his loudest and most persistent critics are right – about one thing at least. Tim Murphy was there to watch the Prime Minister change tack. John Key this morning conceded the government is not spending enough on the nation’s most vulnerable. In the midst of a political winter dominated by homelessness … Read more
The spotlight in the latest Auckland debate belonged to a National Party insider already being tipped for the deputy mayoralty. Tim Murphy introduces Desley Simpson, and marks the candidates’ efforts out of 10 One name dominated the latest Auckland mayoral debate in a church foyer in Meadowbank – and it wasn’t any of the five … Read more
Once Bill Ralston was the baddest man in New Zealand journalism. Now he’s running for council. Over a long lunch at Prego Tim Murphy asks him why. I tried to warn Bill Ralston not to stand for the Auckland Council. ‘Don’t do it Bill’ I tweeted when talk grew late last year of his interest … Read more
The only universally understood business in Auckland today is housing. So what better metaphor for Tim Murphy to use to describe the motivations and implications of today’s Sky-Vodafone deal. The Parable Vodafone New Zealand and Sky TV are happy next door neighbours. Two houses. One with a view, the other with a sprawling yard. Both valuable. Both relied on by … Read more
Former Herald editor-in-chief Tim Murphy has now read the 130-page media mega-merger application to the Commerce Commission three times. Here he examines the central argument, along with the long bows, flying pigs, and echoes of Napoleon. They must have smiled at times in the flash headquarters of NZME and the “character” K Rd digs of … Read more
On the final day of the Tripartite Economic Summit, Tim Murphy discovers how a talk fest can get real-world results – and gets a lesson in American-style positive thinking. Read Tim’s recap of day one of the summit here. The United States Ambassador to New Zealand, His Excellency Mark Gilbert, has a three word family … Read more
It sounds like a bureaucratic bore, but Auckland’s Tripartite Economic Summit, with guests including a British YouTube superstar and an American political “rock star”, is the hottest ticket in town. Tim Murphy reports from day one. YouTuber Tom Cassell – who is globally famous as Syndicate Tom – has been walking and talking around Auckland, … Read more
Amid reports of NZME and Fairfax NZ being carved off from their Australian owners, former Herald editor-in-chief Tim Murphy considers the prospects for a merger between NZ’s two big newspaper groups DitchMe. AbandonMe. MarryMe off to Fairfax. The Australian owner of the New Zealand Herald and NewstalkZB and a clutch of lesser radio stations, websites … Read more
Mark Thomas was just 30 when, on the cusp of becoming a National MP, he was publicly knifed by his own Prime Minister and made history. He was our first sacrificial lamb under the MMP electoral system, ruthlessly cut by Jim Bolger two days before general election day in 1996, when National decided Act’s Richard … Read more
The front runner for Auckland’s top job has been a Labour politician for three decades, but now he’s embracing independence. And the ticker is good for another 20 years of toil, he tells Tim Murphy Phil Goff is shedding his tribal Labour Party skin. He is starting to like his new look and feel as … Read more
Tim Murphy brings you perhaps the finest court transcript in New Zealand’s long and glorious judicial history. On January 12 2016 Taranaki Judge Allan Roberts announced his retirement, as reported by the Taranaki Daily News. A man named Troy LaRue found the story on social media, and made an uncomplimentary remark about Roberts’ appearance. Unluckily, he was summonsed to … Read more
Tim Murphy was a sceptic when Victoria Crone’s candidacy for the Auckland mayoralty was announced. But watching her form at a public meeting on Thursday has him questioning that judgement. It’s rumoured among Auckland’s political cognoscenti that Victoria Crone, should she fail to pull off a miracle and win the Super City mayoralty, has been promised … Read more
Helen Clark faced the United Nations overnight in a marathon session in New York to pitch her case for becoming the next secretary-general. Former Herald editor-in-chief Tim Murphy set the alarm to watch. It was billed as the “Job Interview in Front of the Whole World”. Live-streamed from the United Nations in New York, one … Read more
A year ago today, New Zealand’s most idiosyncratic broadcaster returned to our televisions (and airwaves) with his self-titled show. Tim Murphy explains how he became a reluctant fan. I didn’t expect to like the Paul Henry show. I didn’t much like the idea of Paul Henry. Not just because of the Dikshit puerility and Governor-General offence. … Read more
The former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, Tim Murphy, reports from day one of Labour’s party-critical Future of Work conference. “They’re stuffed,” a journalistic acquaintance said when told I was going to cover the Labour Party’s Future of Work conference. He is not unsympathetic to progressive causes and is temperamentally attuned to helping the weak, and sharing … Read more