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I have awarded the Quote of the Year 2024 to my dear wife, Jenny Lynch. Over the top of the morning newspaper she looked at me and said: “Stupidity seems to be a national pastime”.
Lest I be accused of nepotism, I offer as evidence countless news stories, interviews, and utterances from the past 12 months. I exclude social media from my body of evidence on the grounds that it would be too much like shooting fish in a barrel.
Hidden in every nightmarish landscape there has to be a glimmer of hope. And, unless we look for it, we are sentenced to a form of purgatory. So, while I am struggling to retain my optimism in the face of claims that I am naïve beyond my (advanced) years, I refuse to see New Zealand media’s past year only in terms of what has been lost.
I was heartened to see that New Zealand Geographic has reached the 10,000 subscribers it needed to continue publishing. I was encouraged by Duncan Greive’s note that The Spinoff added 3,000 recurring members in less than two weeks in response to a plea for financial support. He said in an email: “The goal remains the goal, but between the new members and some one-off donations, we’re feeling much better about where we’re at going into summer, and cautiously optimistic that with a lot of work we can achieve that big goal some time in the new year.”
Then my old colleague Tim Murphy also came to my rescue with an email that included a link to Newsroom’s report to readers for 2024 (you can read it here). In the report was a section titled “Journalism with impact”. It listed the news site’s prominent investigations and analyses, demonstrating that accountability journalism is alive in this country. It was work of which Murphy and his co-editor Mark Jennings could be justly proud.
Had other outlets chosen to follow Newsroom’s end-of-year example I am sure they, too, could have pointed to where their journalism had worked as it should – speaking truth to power.
Our journalists can take real pride from some of what they have done. They demonstrate they have the knowledge, talent and intellect to deliver on their solemn obligations. That’s the good news.
However, the news is never all good. In the past, I have referred to such fine examples as ‘oases of good journalism’, recognising that they exist in an otherwise arid desert. There is still much wrong with the way the editorial content of our news media is being produced and that, together with a raft of systemic failures, has placed the industry in jeopardy. And in 2024, the sand encroached even further. Continue reading “News media’s hellish year, as seen by a cock-eyed optimist”
Maybe, just maybe, the Sunday Star-Times has signalled the beginning of a sea change in New Zealand’s newspapers.
No, I’m not talking about its appallingly badly designed front page last weekend – I rest my case with the picture above and apologise if its visual disruption gives you a migraine. I am referring to the reset of its content to reflect the realities of where a weekly print publication should sit in the media landscape.
Editor Tracy Watkins has changed the SST in recognition of the indisputable fact that people no longer get their ‘news’ from a newspaper but through the immediacy of digital delivery.
I see all five metropolitan dailies and their Saturday offspring, plus the two Sundays, either in physical form or e-editions. Too often I open them only to find stories that I have already read, or which reiterate what I have seen elsewhere online.
Watkins maintains that the SST has changed over time to reflect changing audience habits and the impact of digital platforms. To an extent that is true, although too much of the content of its forward pages has still been news that may have been overtaken, derivative material that lacks perceived ‘freshness’, or stories that do not have a persuasive connection with readers. With commendable honesty, she acknowledged the most recent reader survey found “we lack relevance, lack balance, and we’re too expensive”.
She is moving to change that perception and the results are encouraging. Continue reading “A glimmer of the role that newspapers should serve”
The Spinoff last week sent up a distress flare whose red glare lit up not only a ship in peril but sent a clear message that seaworthiness cannot be judged on popularity.
In an open letter on its platform, The Spinoff’s founder, chief executive, and editor stated that the gap between the number of people who enjoy what The Spinoff does, and the number prepared to pay for it, was too large. The letter followed the worst monthly financial decline in its 10-year history, with the platform later revealing its revenue was down by a third in September.
The organisation founded by Duncan Greive appeals to a uniquely wide audience – from Gen-zers to Baby Boomers whose cultural interests are not frozen in the 60s. Its financial situation, however, has forced it to make significant staff cuts, freeze all freelance editorial commissions, put two of its newsletters to sleep, and even pause its popular Friday Poem.
The letter made a plea for donations, and mirrored what New Zealand Geographic publisher James Frankham did a few weeks ago. There was, however, one significant difference: Frankham was soliciting subscriptions while The Spinoff asked for donations.
And last weekend James Frankham told supporters that his magazine is now less than 500 away from reaching its sustainability target of 10,000 subscribers (if you haven’t done so already, put your hand in your pocket).
Subscriptions seek an ongoing commitment and can be either habit-forming or self-renewing. They have a certainty that extends beyond donations, through which a donor can feel they have ‘done their bit’ with a one-off few dollars.
I can understand The Spinoff’s reluctance to go down a paywalled path. A sizeable proportion of its audience have never paid for news and don’t see why they should start now. Their view – and their experience – is that subscriptions are for movies and other forms of entertainment.
To paywall The Spinoff would therefore come at considerable risk. However, it may well be time for Duncan Greive to open a conversation on the matter with his audience. He and his management team have been open with the public on their financial plight and their call for support. Unless an avalanche of money comes their way through donations, they should poll their users on the question of a paywall. While I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to this, it could be a simple choice: Paywall or nothing Continue reading “Spinoff distress flare signals all in peril on media sea”