Tag: NZME

How crunchy are the Herald NOW numbers?

Let me say at the outset: I like NZME’s video breakfast show Herald Now.

It has the hallmarks of a serious news programme designed to inform me at the start of the day, and the relaxed manner of its host Ryan Bridge belies his skill in asking questions that put interviewees on the spot.

It has the ability to attract newsmakers from the Prime Minister and former judges to sports stars and social workers in Gaza. Its rotating list of panellists spans a useful social spectrum.

Ryan Bridge plays a key role in the show’s success but, even when he is not there, the format retains its appeal. Last week, seasoned television journalist Garth Bray (now with NZME’s BusinessDesk) was a quality stand-in who maintained the same pace and inquisitive style.

So, I was not surprised when NZME crowed that the show has attracted 2.4 million views in July. Well, that was the number from one survey source but it could include double-ups  where the same people watched on different platforms. By another measure, the programme has a million ‘unique viewers’ a month.

Herald Now screens on the Herald’s digital platforms and on YouTube. I watch it through the latter on the tv set in our lounge. And that is what roused my curiosity over the audience statistic proudly announced by NZME. When I logged onto the programme on YouTube one day last week it told me there were 407 other viewers. On another day, the number was about 1400. That suggests that the vast majority view it on the Herald’s platforms.

Fair enough, but what does either Herald Now audience survey number actually tell us? Continue reading “How crunchy are the Herald NOW numbers?” →

Far-reaching consequences of cloaking this man’s past

New Zealand’s Supreme Court last week re-affirmed the absolute right to a fair trial. In the process it denied citizens another fundamental right in an attempt to hide the past from jurors.

The court handed down its decision in an appeal over a takedown order that required Herald publisher NZME and other media to remove all stories relating to the previous convictions and character of a man now serving his second open-ended sentence of preventive detention.

The takedown is now moot because Damon John Exley (pictured above) has already been convicted and sentenced in the case during which the take-down order was made and then successfully appealed by NZME. Exley (also known as John Douglas Willis) was granted leave to take the matter to the Supreme Court, which elected to continue the appeal because it “raised a point of public importance”.

That process meant a takedown order remained in force during his trial on charges of rape, assault with a weapon, and abduction while an escapee from Rimutaka Prison where he was already serving a term of preventive detention. However, the jury was aware of some of his past convictions because the Crown had been given leave to introduce a list in what is known as propensity evidence.

Last week the Supreme Court found in Exley’s favour and said the Court of Appeal had been wrong to quash the takedown order. It found that the was “a real risk to Mr Exley’s fair trial rights if the material was accessed by a juror”.

The judgement has far-reaching effects because it found the right to a fair trial is absolute and the test to be applied “does not involve the balancing of the right to a fair trial against other rights, including freedom of expression”. It overturns the previous two-step test that first assessed whether continued publication represented a real risk of prejudice to a fair trail, but which then asked whether a takedown order would be a reasonable limitation – set out in Section 5 of the Bill of Rights Act  – on the right to freedom of expression. That limitation requires that it be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”. Continue reading “Far-reaching consequences of cloaking this man’s past” →

Numbers, damned numbers…and the smell of gaslighting

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.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ reference to “your Tory owners at NZME” on Newstalk ZB was about as clever as thinking a hand grenade was something you hold after pulling the fuse. It was just plain dumb. Continue reading “Numbers, damned numbers…and the smell of gaslighting” →

Herald streaming breakfast show’s best ingredient – news

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” →