Numbers are curious figures: They can be up or down, big or small, true or misleading, good news or bad, welcome or unwelcome.
In the past week or so New Zealand’s media had been enveloped in something of a numerical avalanche about itself, And what was good news for some was decidedly the opposite for others.
But, first, let me get something else off my chest.
NZME’s new streaming video breakfast show Herald NOW has debuted. And it’s refreshing to see that from start to finish it is about news.
It stands in stark contrast to TVNZ’s Breakfast and its giggly magazine format punctuated by obligatory bulletins and couch-bound conversations.
Ryan Bridge fronts Herald NOW. He is, of course, no stranger to breakfast television, He was a mainstay of TV3’s AM Show before Warner Bros Discovery axed it as a prelude to walking away from news production entirely.
However, the new show is not a remake of AM, in spite of the scheduled reappearances of familiar political panellists David Seymour and Chloe Swarbrick (the former was interviewed on the first show, but his fellow panellist was absent), and Mark Richardson who is swapping sports commentary for financial observations. Richardson’s role – he is now a financial advisor at Forsyth Barr – was previewed last week but the inaugural financial slot on the show was filled by his colleague Zoe Willis. Bridge previewed the lineup in the Weekend Herald.
The new show’s strong news focus was obvious from the outset. It comes from a glassed-off space in the Herald’s Auckland newsroom, with busy journalists all-too-obvious in the background. The set has none of the enforced casualness of couches: It is a radio studio with video cameras. And Ryan Bridge has no coffee-sipping co-hosts with whom he is expected to exchange inane banter to ease you gently into the day. Continue reading “Herald streaming breakfast show’s best ingredient – news”→
The impending appointment of Steven Joyce as chair of NZME may be the best thing that has happened to the media company in quite some time.
The former National government minister has a background that is eminently suited to recharging a board that has been at a strategic low ebb.
Joyce’s political past will doubtless give rise to criticism from the Left that he is a Capital-C-Conservative ‘plant’. He is certainly no Keir Hardie but nor is he hard right.
I admit that my perceptions of Steven Joyce changed after he left politics. Like many, my view of him had been based largely on media reports. I thought he was hardline, doctrinaire and sometimes brutal. That changed after I had read his autobiography On the Record and had a long conversation with him over lunch.
Joyce is not the man I had imagined. And his political leanings are more small-c-conservative than I had thought. Witness this line from his book when he is deciding which party he might join at the start of his political career: “While I was attracted to some of ACT’s policies, it could be a little uncompromising and doctrinaire, and in my experience the world was a little more complicated and nuanced”. So is Steven Joyce.
I do not expect a Joyce chairmanship of the NZME board to be defined by his political past. I expect it will without doubt be defined by his knowledge of the media scene and his strategic and governance skills. Continue reading “Steven Joyce may be just what NZME needs”→
Excoriating is the word that may best describe expat Canadian James Grenon’s 11-page critique of NZME. His forensic examination of the board he hopes to replace and the company’s performance is a sobering read.
You may not have seen the letter. At the time of writing, it was still sitting behind the New Zealand Herald’s Premium paywall. It is, however, available through the New Zealand Stock Exchange. You can access it here.
Mr Grenon is highly critical in a number of areas that he breaks down into sections in the letter. The headings include:
“The combined performance of the two core businesses has been mediocre, to sliding, for the past eight years, despite a temporary period of COVID gains”.
“There has been a consistent pattern of over promising and under delivering since COVID”.
“Public disclosure is weak, with a slant that I interpret as supporting the status quo”.
Mr Grenon’s letter includes an analysis of NZME’s share price in relation to the perceived value of its OneRoof real estate marketing arm, and the company’s dividend policy. He claims “the disclosure on these two critical elements is, in my opinion, lacking or even misleading”. He also criticises levels of management-level remuneration and high levels of staff turnover which he says “does not suggest a happy working environment”.
NZME’s board has yet to respond to the letter stating – in a note to the New Zealand Stock Exchange accompanying the release of Mr Grenon’s letter – that it will do so in its notice to shareholders before the annual general meeting on April 29.
Were that the sum total of his challenge to the present board, it might be characterised as simply a move to improve the group’s financial performance and its return to shareholders. Much of what he says will, in fact, resonate with ordinary shareholders worried about the group’s financial performance and direction. It may well attract even more votes at the April AGM than he currently commands.
