We’ve been waiting for the tipping point, where online really surges against broadcast media. It just arrived, says Duncan Greive, who has read NZ on Air’s epic new audience behaviour survey so you don’t have to. The release of NZ on Air’s audience survey is on its way to becoming the most important event in … Read more
National leader Simon Bridges went on Radio Live this afternoon and came out in favour of the two big NZ media print companies’ bid to merge. Does that mean it will become a partisan issue? Doing a long radio spot as a politician is difficult. An issue can come up basically out of nowhere, the … Read more
Redactions which disappeared due to a technical glitch point to a standoff which pits NZ on Air and the big private media companies against RNZ. The stakes? A huge funding boost which could shape the future of our media. A standoff is brewing between RNZ and NZ on Air over who will control the annual … Read more
NZME and Stuff are working together wherever they can, regardless of what the watchdog and high court have to say about it. Update 21 February: Stuff announced further closures and redundancies below – this story has been updated to incorporate this news. A week before Christmas the High Court stepped in to save journalism from itself. … Read more
Unless you have eight eyes like some kind of politically-engaged spider, your second most important decision tomorrow will be choosing which channel to watch the election results on. Luckily, we’re here to help For the Spinoff’s election night plans, scroll all the way to the foot of this page 1 NEWS Vote 17 Election Night … Read more
Every time the radio survey results come out we get the same amazing news: everyone killed it! Duncan Greive reads the press releases and tries to figure out what’s really going on. EVERY NZME STATION INCREASES LISTENERS MEDIAWORKS RADIO REMAINS THE NUMBER ONE RADIO NETWORK IN NEW ZEALAND WITH ITS LARGEST EVER REACH Record Audiences … Read more
The Commerce Commission was right to reject a bid by NZME-Fairfax that would have created a dominance unprecedented in a western democracy, and now the paywalls need to go up, writes Peter Griffin The Commerce Commission’s rejection of a plan for our two biggest media companies to merge is one of the most significant determinations from the regulator … Read more
The challenge for anyone, politicians especially, who opposed the idea of a Fairfax-NZME merger on high principle is to find a practical solution as news media go deeper into the storm, writes Toby Manhire The Commerce Commission would make a rubbish journalist. Not only did it fail repeatedly to meet its own deadlines in issuing a … Read more
Last week plans for a new news-based site, run by Mark Jennings and Tim Murphy, thudded prematurely into public view. What are the former mainstream news chiefs’ plans for the venture, could they have done more to stop the crisis they now hope to remedy, and can they sign up John Campbell to cover the … Read more
Sure, you could read every submission to the Commerce Commission on the proposed merger of NZME and Fairfax, but time is money and your social media-addled attention span is short. Henry Oliver understands, and is here to help. Yesterday, the Commerce Commission published the public versions of the submissions received in response to its draft … Read more
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
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
A Vodafone-Sky merger works for companies waking up to new realites about content, distinctiveness and immediacy. Whether it’s good for consumers is another matter altogether, argues Paul Brislen. There are two major trends in the telecommunications market that directly relate to the Vodafone-Sky-TV merger. The first is the commoditisation of everything. If you can reduce … 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
Opinion: The marriage of Fairfax NZ and NZME may make sense in commercial terms, but it’s bad for depth, diversity and democracy, writes Paul Brislen If you want to know about a burning platform that’s forcing change, talk to a journalist. “Do 10% more with 10% less” has become the new strategy. And that’s in … 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
Alex Casey binges the entire catalogue of WatchMe, NZME’s brand new on demand local video platform. Following in Family First’s footsteps, today NZME launched their own video on demand service, with a focus on 100% locally-made shows. Starting first with the comedy genre, the platform promises zero cost, zero pesky apps (are apps actually pesky?). … Read more
The merging of NZME’s news teams from its various operations in print, radio and online into one all-purpose news gathering is due to be completed by the end of the year. As we’ve previously noted, the great smooshing of 2015 has already begun with a handful of journalists and columnists for The New Zealand Herald now … Read more