High-profile and controversial figures often use PR consultancies and the media to help clean up their public perception. But as Pattrick Smellie of BusinessDesk reports, it can easily go the other way. Every journalist loves an exclusive scoop. So much so that last weekend, the country’s main rival news publishers, NZME and Stuff, both published … Read more
The pandemic put unbearable pressure on New Zealand’s media this year, but also saw it gain larger and more engaged audiences than ever before. Duncan Greive wraps his head around what it all means. Subscribe and listen via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or via your favourite podcast provider. For the final 2020 episode of my media podcast … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin for Tuesday November 17, today a collaborative effort by a few Spinoff editors standing in for Alex Braae. Presented in partnership with Z Energy. In today’s edition: NZ meat industry shaken by Covid claims, cabinet mandates mask use, and trio of SkyCity executives very abruptly call it quits. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Review finds rest home with Covid outbreak breached care obligations, Coster clarifies rubber bullet comments, and Otago University forecasts heavy losses. Something slightly different today: Rather than a lead story with lots of detail, today’s Bulletin will be about rounding up a whole lot of news … Read more
Duncan Greive assesses an extraordinary morning for New Zealand’s media. In the space of a tumultuous half hour New Zealand’s media landscape has been utterly transformed, with Stuff CEO Sinead Boucher completing an audacious management buyout from its Australian owners Nine, while hundreds of staff are about to be laid off at MediaWorks. The two … Read more
NZME asked the commerce commission for urgent approval to buy Stuff for $1. Minutes later, Stuff’s owner said it was no longer in talks with NZME. In the space of a chaotic few hours, the long-running courtship between print media giants NZME and Stuff dramatically escalated, as NZME informed the sharemarket that it was seeking … Read more
At today’s online meeting of the Epidemic Response Committee, media representatives have appeared in the unfamiliar seat of the interviewed rather than the interviewer. Here’s a highlights package. Committee chair Simon Bridges opened by acknowledging the parlous situation the New Zealand media find themselves in. He also noted that representatives of NBR and Māori TV … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bleak Treasury scenarios show massive unemployment looming, rest home cluster claims more lives, and students disappointed at support package. The scenarios are in for how Treasury expects Covid-19 to affect GDP and unemployment rates, and they’re pretty bleak. You can read a report on them here, but … Read more
There’s a desperate scramble to stop more major media companies failing. Duncan Greive explains what’s going on – and how it might play out. The most recent edition of the reigning newspaper of the year, the Sunday Star-Times, was a pearler. It opened with a substantial analysis from political editor Luke Malpass about the tension … Read more
The shockingly fast collapse of Bauer presents the government with a momentous choice, says Duncan Greive. Will it save the media industry, or concentrate on its own? This moment was always coming. The long, steady flow of advertising revenue to the tech giants has left the private sector media gaunt, much leaner than is healthy … Read more
The Covid-19 crisis in media has claimed New Zealand’s last surviving radio station solely dedicated to sport. Amid a wider crisis in media funding right now, the first outlet has been forced to close the doors – and it isn’t likely to return. Staff at Radio Sport have been told that the station has been … Read more
Just a tiny handful of print publications will continue through the lockdown, with only daily newspapers specifically identified as being able to continue. Duncan Greive spoke to publishers of magazines and community newspapers about the impact on them and their communities. Publishers of magazines and community newspapers are reeling, after a ruling from their regulators … Read more
The Fold podcast returns for March into a media world transformed by the impact of Covid-19. Host Duncan Greive records a monopod to assess its impact. In last month’s edition of this podcast, The Spinoff editor Toby Manhire and I discussed RNZ’s Concert debacle. At the time, it was the biggest story in media; now … Read more
What does the pandemic mean for an industry already in peril? Duncan Greive surveys an anxious media scene. The rapid global spread of the Covid-19 virus contains a paradox for media. It has generated enormous levels of interest in what is a multi-dimensional and fast-moving story, which has seen ratings and traffic volumes boom. Additionally, … Read more
Senior news executives have reacted with disappointment and anger to a new taxpayer-funded RNZ ad campaign attacking their work and business models, writes Duncan Greive. RNZ has launched a new brand campaign which takes explicit aim at its commercial competition, attacking both advertising-funded and paywalled news sites. The campaign is running on out-of-home media and … Read more
NZME, New Zealand’s largest media company, released its 2019 financial report yesterday. Michael Andrew checks in on the health of huge brands like the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB. It was apparently a good year for NZME, which yesterday reported a strong financial performance with $19.7m operating profit and the growth in its digital subscriptions … Read more
The merger of TVNZ and RNZ is a huge boost for government-controlled media. Duncan Greive asks what that means for the rest of the sector. Last year, NZ on Air convened a meeting of senior executives from almost all the main news organisations in New Zealand. Around 20 surrounded a large table at the Heritage … Read more
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies. This story was first published on 20 October, 2019. Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert … Read more
Looking back on 10 years which saw New Zealand’s media transform from a position of near-limitless power and influence to the deeply humbled reality of today. At the end of 2009 I had resigned from my first good job, convinced that print media was finished. The good job was as editor of Real Groove, a … Read more
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies. Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert on both expressing its feelings and trolling it into … Read more
Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee with which she tells … Read more
Kris Faafoi sits down with The Spinoff’s managing editor to discuss all that bedevils a rowdy sector with big problems and high expectations. After months of trying, the new broadcasting minister Kris Faafoi finally arrived at The Spinoff’s offices for an interview in early March. It was 4pm on Friday, and we drank a beer … Read more
A prominent ad promoting the National Party and the CEO of Air New Zealand, Christopher Luxon, could be in breach of the law. An advertisement promoting Christopher Luxon and the National Party appeared in this morning’s newspaper – but the National Party says it had nothing to do with it. The half-page ad taken out … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Energy poverty in the spotlight with winter approaching, Nelson activist sews up statement on consumerism, and NZ Herald releases paywall plans. The country’s best current affairs TV show has put the spotlight on energy poverty, which is both a symptom and a cause of serious hardship. Energy … Read more
Duncan Greive concludes his survey of the state of New Zealand’s media in 2018 with a look at some of the smaller and emerging players – including Spark, Bauer Media and Māori Television. Spark’s emergence as a genuine media contender is the highlight of a fascinating year amongst the mini majors – a loose group … Read more
The owner of both Newstalk ZB and the Herald retains a singular influence in the New Zealand media. But anonymous rival executives have doubts about its ability to pull off a paywall in 2019 – a move which shapes as the boldest in our media, writes Duncan Greive. If there is a single common theme … Read more
As Marcus Lush reveals ‘outrage about the NZME Christmas Party’, we launch our crowd-sourced investigation into the contemporary reality of the festive work do. Last night Newstalk ZB’s evenings host Marcus Lush blew the lid on a major New Zealand media scandal for the festive season. The issuing of invitations to radio and publishing giant … Read more
Stuff-Me is dead, with the merger between media companies Stuff and NZME once again denied by the courts. A different combination now looms large as a possibility, but would it work? At a certain point, you probably have to accept that they’ll never let you be together. That’s the harsh lesson for Stuff and NZME, … Read more
The pay TV giant has lost customers, it’s making less out of each one, and has cut prices. Yet Duncan Greive reckons their annual result shows they might yet find a way out of the woods. Sky has completed a highly unusual feat in legacy media – reporting an increase in underlying profit, up 2.6% … Read more