Tag: The Post

First points to Hooton for daily editorials in The Post

Aristotle may have warned us that one swallow does not make spring, but Matthew Hooton’s first-week-in-the-chair decision to reinstate daily editorials in The Post is a welcome portent of things to come.

So, too, is his decision to establish an Editorial Leadership Team to “guide the daily leaders on the issues that matter to New Zealand and New Zealanders”. In other words, Hooton has sent the strongest signal that the daily editorial will not be simply a re-masted version of his now-discontinued opinion column in the New Zealand Herald.

Announcing the move last week, The Post said Hooton will chair the team along with associate editor Luke Malpass and national affairs editor Andrea Vance. The other members of the team suggest the spectrum of editorial subjects will be wide-reaching. Its full membership includes chief arts correspondent André Chumko, political editor Henry Cooke, Auckland business editor Dita De Boni, assistant editor Kelly Dennett, chief sport news director Mark Geenty, chief Wellington news director Marc Greenhill and Auckland editor Amelia Wade. Others will contribute as required on specialised topics.

The first editorial, published yesterday, was a well-researched and well-articulated critique of failed government projects – large-ticket items that had produced little or nothing in spite of having public money thrown at them. The peg on which it was hung was the outrageous immigration facial recognition software scandal now subject to an enquiry by the State Services Commissioner.

The leader was measured but pulled no punches: “…failure has ceased to be an exception. It has become a governing philosophy. That is a far graver scandal than any single abandoned project.”

It was prominently displayed across the top half of a page and was attributed to “The Post Editorial Leaders Team”. The aim is to produce editorials based on team consensus but Hooton has taken the highly unusual step of allowing dissenting members of the team to disassociate themselves publicly from the collective point of view. Continue reading “First points to Hooton for daily editorials in The Post” →

Matthew Hooton’s controversial appointment: A smart move?

 It takes a lot to bowl over seasoned journalists but the appointment of Matthew Hooton as editor-in-chief of The Post in Wellington skittled more than a few. Even the Stuff website described it as “a bombshell move”.

Hooton’s background is political communication and public relations. He was one of Jim Bolger’s press secretaries and a National Party strategist. He has never been a journalist, although his commentaries have been a regular feature in the New Zealand Herald and other publications.

His website describes him as “the country’s leading centre-right political commentator”. It goes on to say he “is well connected with the most senior figures in all three parties in New Zealand’s centre-right National-Act-NZ First Coalition Government and with the Opposition Labour Party.” Perhaps he is not on the Green Party or Te Pāti Māori invitation lists.

Although he has widespread consulting experience beyond politics, it is his perceived political leanings that will create the greatest controversy over his appointment at The Post.

There will be critics aplenty, who will see The Post being printed on blue paper and espousing the unchallenged views of the Right (with a very large Capital R). They will be goaded into red-faced rage when they see the title of his recently completed PhD thesis: “Groundwork and Principles of Applied Conservatism”.

I suspect that controversy has a large part to play in Sinead Boucher’s decision to appoint him editor-in-chief of Wellington’s daily newspaper, but it will not be through any desire to provide him with a powerful soapbox for political allegiances. Continue reading “Matthew Hooton’s controversial appointment: A smart move?” →

Let’s hope the gods smile on Stuff’s printing plans

The management at Stuff must have great trust in the weather and mechanical gods. The publisher faces multiple risks if its printing relocation from Wellington to Christchurch displeases the deities.

A willingness to risk displeasing the gods shows the problem Stuff has in addressing a predicament facing many newspaper publishers. Their large and expensive printing plants were built for an age that has passed.

Some media suggest Stuff has had its hand forced by the sale of the property housing its Petone printing plant to what might be described as a hostile party. The property had been retained by Nine Entertainment when it sold Stuff to Sinead Boucher for a token dollar. Last year the Australian media firm displayed its total disregard for its former New Zealand subsidiary when it sold the property. New owner Troy Bowker had made no secret of his dislike for Stuff (which Nine would have discovered when it did due diligence) and he lost no time in serving notice on the publisher to quit the premises by April next year.

Since the purchase, Boucher and Bowker have engaged in what could variously be described as a game of poker or a Mexican stand-off. If the new owner thought he would panic Stuff into paying over the odds to buy the property in order to keep printing, he was wrong. Last week, Boucher announced that the printing plant would be shut and all of the company’s printing requirements for the lower North island would be met by its modern plant near Christchurch Airport. She said the press consolidation had long been part of Stuff’s strategic plan. Her announcement made no mention, however, of any transport arrangements for getting the Stuff titles and third-party contract printing products to the North Island. Continue reading “Let’s hope the gods smile on Stuff’s printing plans” →

Some welcome good news on newspaper front…not for all

It is too early to put money on it, but there are signs New Zealand metropolitan newspaper readership may be stabilising.

The latest Nielsen survey shows most metropolitan newspapers have held their own year-on-year and some have actually improved their numbers. The outlier is the largest of our newspapers, The New Zealand Herald, which has dropped 10,000 readers to now stand at 503,000.

The most impressive performer is The Post. The capital’s daily has increased readership by almost as much as the Herald dropped – up over nine per cent from 93,000 to 112,000. Its Stuff stablemate, the Waikato Times has been even more impressive in percentage terms. Its readership grew by more than 12 per cent to stand at 55,000. The Press in Christchurch (90,000) and the Otago Daily Times (87,000) were relatively stable year-on-year, although both experienced small declines from the previous quarter.

The weekly coverage by all metro dailies is up 36,000 to 1.55 million.

In the Sunday market, the Herald on Sunday dropped 3000 year-on-year to stand at 308,000 readers. However, Stuff will be pleased with the Sunday Star Times which upped its numbers from 178,000 to 191,000 (a 7.3 per cent rise). Overall, therefore, the Sunday readership is also improving.

Remember, these are readers of the respective newspapers and does not include the digital audience that I will come to shortly. The Nielsen figures measure the number of people who read [Newspaper] in the issue period. They show there is yet life in print editions, although we must not get carried away by the smell of newsprint and printing ink. Continue reading “Some welcome good news on newspaper front…not for all” →