Donna and Dallas Gurney have left high-powered media roles.
The not-so-wonderful world of Disney NZ; Media power couple quit industry: ‘We bought a general store’; Justin Marshall out of box for pre-Cup tests; Fieldays fracas - media firms in gossip-column feud; A new model for regional journalism
All is sadly not well in the Magic Kingdom. Disney is laying off most of its New Zealand staff – while trying to keep the affected workers as quiet as a mouse on it all.
It’s an unhappy time for up to 10 staff, just as the global giant promotes the likes of its te reo Māori-translated movies and holds media previews for high-octane motion pictures such as the new Indiana Jones movie.
Disney – which announced plans earlier this year to cut about 7000 jobs globally – is ducking for cover around specific comment on the New Zealand lay-offs; it is understood workers have been advised to keep details confidential as they work through their redundancy and notice periods.
Marketing, commercial and PR staff are understood to be impacted – some of them in senior roles.
“I don’t have anything to say to you about this matter,” said one of the staff members. Another said they could not comment, referring questions to the company’s Australian corporate office.
Media Insider requested details on the number of, and rationale for, New Zealand job losses and an Australia-based spokesman came back with the following email: “Thank you for contacting The Walt Disney Company with your request for comment. Not for attribution to me as an individual please - the company’s response is below: ‘Disney declined to comment’.”
Later in the week, following further questions about concerns about Disney’s commitment to New Zealand, the spokesman said: “Disney continues to have a local footprint and the team will keep working closely with our many industry and commercial partners to bring our films and content to New Zealand audiences.”
On questions about the redundancy process, he said: “We are meeting all our employment obligations.”
Earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company was on track to “meet or exceed” a global savings target of $US5.5 billion ($NZ8.8b).
Iger returned to lead Disney six months ago, following the sacking of Bob Chapek.
Iger said the cost savings – through job cuts and other budget clawbacks – were a “significant transformation to realign Disney for sustained growth and success”.
The first round of layoffs started in March, with high-profile executives axed. According to Disney’s own news website, “a second wave included the dissolution of Disney TV Studios marketing, Freeform & ABC executive layoffs, and an overall 15% reduction within the entertainment division.”
Meanwhile, Disney continues to champion its te reo Māori work. On May 31 it announced auditions for its Encanto reo Māori movie. On June 7 it announced its cast for the Coco reo Māori movie, which opens in participating New Zealand cinemas on July 13. Reo Māori versions of The Lion King, Frozen and Moana stream on Disney+.
One of New Zealand media’s power couples are upping sticks and saying goodbye to Auckland and the broadcasting industry for an astounding lifestyle change in Northland.
Former MediaWorks director of news and talk Dallas Gurney and his wife, Warner Bros. Discovery senior director of ad sales Donna Gurney, will move to the small seaside settlement of Whananāki in September.
They’ve bought the local general store and cafe – the community’s hub.
Whananāki is, says Gurney, his turangawaewae. His great-grandparents settled there earlier after immigrating from Ireland; his grandfather, 94, still lives there.
“The roots are deep. It’s a chance to do something for the community as opposed to a corporate. We’re quitting the corporate rat race,” said Gurney, who was on his way to Onehunga to pick up a pizza oven for the new business when Media Insider caught up with him.
“I had always wanted to own the shop, since I was a kid. It used to be an Aladdin’s Cave. It’s the shop you used to dream about with lollies and stock up to the roof. That’s what we want to recreate.”
In shades of the real-life US story – and subsequent book and movie – We Bought a Zoo, the couple are doing a big renovation job on the property – wanting to ensure they look after the community through the year and the big influx of summer tourists.
The couple are going all-in, selling their Auckland property. Gurney told his LinkedIn followers that following a heart attack in January and then “career attack” in March – when MediaWorks shut Today FM – “it seemed the right time to re-evaluate things”.
They won’t fully escape their former lives – aside from friends, family and colleagues who are already promising to pop in/stay for an ice cream or beer, Whananāki is also the Northland home of Winston Peters while the likes of TVNZ’s Melodie Robinson also have properties there.
The Newsroom website has fallen victim to a cybersecurity issue this morning, with a fake news story published prominently on its homepage under the byline of one of New Zealand’s most respected and prominent journalists, Tim Murphy.
The article, headlined Aviator Game: A Thrilling Adventure in the Gambling World, appeared on the publisher’s homepage at about 4am. It was still present at 5am, but had been removed by the time the Herald checked again at 8am.
The website is investigating how its content-management system and website published the article and is seeking an explanation from its technology provider to ensure there won’t be a repeat. Read the full story here.
Not only has Justin Marshall missed out on Sky’s Rugby World Cup commentary team - much to the bemusement of many Herald and Media Insider readers - he won’t be in the commentary box for the pre-Cup tests this year.
A Sky spokeswoman said Marshall would be working for Sky at the All Blacks’ Rugby Championship tests, which kick off next month.
However, she added: “The RWC commentary team are calling these matches”.
The broadcaster is sending four commentators/hosts to France for the tournament in September and October - Grant Nisbett, Mils Muliaina, Jeff Wilson and Kirstie Stanway.
Ahead of that, the All Blacks play Argentina, Australia and South Africa in the Rugby Championship in July. Then in August there’s a Bledisloe Cup test against Australia in Dunedin and another test against South Africa at Twickenham.
“I don’t have all the details on Justin’s role, but we’ll be using his expertise on camera. Justin continues to be a valued member of Sky’s Rugby broadcast team,” said the spokeswoman.
Marshall - who is understood to have been unhappy about missing out on the World Cup team - has not returned messages.
A war of words has erupted between New Zealand’s two biggest rural publications – starting with snide remarks in a gossip column and erupting into a fracas at Fieldays. A government agency has also stepped in to try to put matters right.
Rural News runs a weekly, anonymous gossip column, The Hound, which has been taking regular potshots at Farmers Weekly over its acceptance of about $130,000 from the Public Interest Journalism Fund.
The fund, administered by New Zealand on Air, has been the focus of media critics claiming, erroneously, that the Government uses the fund to dictate editorial control.
Media organisations have been battling this perception for several years after the fund was introduced to help media companies survive the economic impact of the pandemic.
Farmers Weekly has found it galling that another mainstream media organisation, through its gossip column, has joined in spreading the misinformation.
“I will back my team and the credibility and integrity of my team until the cows come home,” says Farmers Weekly owner Dean Williamson. “Journalists are good bastards. They are purpose-driven people and it’s an absolute privilege to work with them. It’s hard to find a corrupt journalist.”
The Hound has barked about the fund, and ‘Farmers Weakly (sic)’ on several occasions. Williamson has had enough of what he views as a “cheap point-scoring exercise”. He says the gossip column has caused him to spend a lot of time correcting fake information with advertisers and readers.
At Fieldays it all came to a head.
The first sign of trouble was during an evening event when Williamson refused to shake the hand of a Rural News reporter. Normally, he says, he’d encourage his team to engage with rivals – he views them as “competitors, not enemies”. But he didn’t want a bar of Rural News.
Things ramped up the next day when Williamson was walking through the Fieldays media centre – he says the Rural News team was meeting and directed a couple of “snipes” at him, along the lines of whether he’d shake their hands today.
Williamson took it as an invitation to join the Rural News meeting, and question why they had been targeting his own team in the gossip column.
He says he wasn’t getting any response, and so at one point advised them if they wanted to cover the Public Interest Journalism Fund, “fill your boots – but leave my f***** journalists out of it”.
As members of the Rural News team walked off, Williamson said, he yelled after them words to the effect they were as “cowardly as your column”.
One independent observer said the flare-up stopped people in their tracks in the media centre. “It’s unusual to have such a confrontation – these are small parts of the [overall media] industry. It was a tense moment.”
Williamson can’t believe another media organisation would try to undermine journalists with false information.
Rural News director Brian Hight said: “Why do you want to get into this for?” before referring Media Insider to general manager Adam Fricker.
Fricker described Williamson’s comments at Fieldays as “an overreaction”.
“He was ranting and raving, as [the Rural News team] disappeared into the distance.”
Earlier, Fricker said he had been present for another interaction with Williamson. “We just repeated our position on the fund; that we thought it was poorly constructed; that it had eroded trust in journalism … we also said farmers seem to be of the same opinion.”
NZ on Air has also stepped in, taking aim at The Hound. “We appreciate this is an anonymous opinion piece, however it strays from opinion – presenting fiction as facts,” wrote NZ on Air head of journalism Raewyn Rasch. “We would hope that you would take seriously your responsibility not to disseminate misinformation and correct the misinformation published in this article.”
Asked whether The Hound – a “multi-headed beast” – would now be muzzled, Fricker said: “It all depends on Dean really, because we felt that he’s trying to leverage this for commercial gain. He’s under a bit of pressure given the reaction that we got from him Fieldays – it was quite extreme.
“He is trying to turn the advertisers away from us on the basis of this somehow. It doesn’t seem to be working. I think it’s having the opposite effect.
“There has always been robust competition between the two parties. There will always be. This is the first time it’s gone this way in terms of the strength of his reaction, which just makes me think he’s under some pressure.
“I think was a bit of a storm in a teacup initially, it probably would have just disappeared weeks ago, but there was a reaction from Dean’s side and that ramped the whole thing up a little bit, poured fuel on the fire. We started getting calls of support from farmers. I think the better reaction would have been to just ignore it in the first place.”
Legendary rugby scribe Phil Gifford has watched the Crusaders from day dot.
Three agencies are understood to be on the shortened shortlist for the prized ASB advertising account – FCB, Dynamo and incumbent Dentsu.
ASB won’t confirm who’s made the cut: “The agencies taking part in this RFP process do so on the basis that it’s confidential. We’re not in a position to share details of the process at this stage,” says a bank spokeswoman.
Dynamo remains an interesting one and a point of contention for some in ad agency land.
It is owned by Omnicom, which already has three agencies looking after banks - namely PHD (ANZ); OMD (KiwiBank and SBS); and Hearts and Science (BNZ).
“This would mean that if ASB Bank was to select Omnicom you would have most of the advertising spend for the banking industry being controlled by one agency group,” said one ‘concerned insider’ in an email to Media Insider this week.
“They would claim they are all separate agencies, but everyone knows that they have a group-wide trading infrastructure.”
The email correspondence also pointed out that Omnicom is a global agency.
Omnicom Group Australia and New Zealand CEO Peter Horgan told Media Insider last month that they were pitching Dynamo “and for ASB, see benefits of scale, deep digital, data and analytics capability, also transparency that is a core tenet of the group’s philosophy”.
“We are quite strong in category knowledge, but given overall market share, that figures across a lot of categories. Which is why we have built such strong individual brands, with robust conflict management protocols.”
In a follow-up email to Media Insider yesterday, following further questions, Horgan said: “I can’t provide commentary on any pitch process, which by definition is confidential, and I’ll leave it to you to determine the motivations of your industry insider.
“We have robust conflict management protocols in place, and we work closely with clients and prospective clients to meet and manage their expectations too.”
For evidence that certain public agencies love to believe they’re not answerable to their owners – us, the public – Media Insider presents exhibit one, Niwa.
The climate agency’s corporate office has steadfastly refused to comment on earlier Herald inquiries about its work and relationship with MetService. There are major concerns about the way the two agencies interact, especially during major weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle.
This week, Niwa was not only late in responding to an Official Information Act request from the Herald – “due to staff availability” – but it is also refusing to release its internal communications and advice around the Herald media inquiries, on the grounds of “free and frank expression of opinions”.
Hmmm – we wonder what on earth they’ve been saying about the pesky media.
The Herald will be appealing this decision to the Ombudsman.
This week, Logan Savory produced his 100th newsletter for his digital start-up news platform The Southland Tribune.
Since late January, the former Southland Times and Otago Daily Times reporter has been working solo, producing community journalism on the Substack newsletter platform.
Over the past two decades, hundreds of journalists have been culled from New Zealand regional newsrooms. While NZME and Stuff still have far stronger presence in the regions compared with state-owned RNZ and TVNZ, a dearth of local journalists has undoubtedly led to reduced coverage of local issues – and undermined democracy.
Savory started at the Southland Times as one of three sports reporters in 2004; there was also a racing reporter. Now there are only three reporters in the entire newsroom, he says.
“That’s not a slight; that’s the reality of the industry. So I’ve been trying to work out if there is another way of serving the local community with local news with lower overheads. That’s what I’m trying to test at the moment.”
The Tribune launched in late January and since then Savory has been prolific in his coverage of Southland – particularly council stories, sport, and in-depth profiles/interviews. Polls and quizzes complement his journalism.
“It’s been enjoyable,” says Savory, a born and bred Southlander who rolls out his rrrrs with as much frequency as his newsletters.
His Substack page reveals he has more than 2000 paid and registered subscribers – although he’s reluctant to divulge the exact number of those who do pay. Subscribers can choose the level of donation.
It’s fair to say the business model and his own workload are still evolving; Savory has been clear from the start that he wants to test the market to see if the model is sustainable.
He’s spent the first five months ensuring he builds as big an audience as possible – much of his content has been free. In the past month, however, he’s been tightening the pay gate, in order to encourage more paid subscribers. And over the coming weeks, he’ll be looking at new ways he can market the Tribune.
Big stories have included exclusive stories on Sir Tim Shadbolt moving into respite care and another about him wanting a statue; in-depth profiles on One NZ boss (and proud Southland boy) Jason Paris and The Country’s Jamie Mackay; and a profile on a former Southland rugby player who missed out on higher honours because of alcohol abuse, and who is now helping players with their wellbeing and health.
Savory wants to spend less time churning stories and more time on focusing on bigger, more in-depth storytelling, identifying the topics and people who will attract and retain subscribers.
“I set some pretty realistic targets in terms of subscribers, and I’m meeting those. That’s encouraging but I’m also realistic that it needs to keep growing.
“The first four months I really didn’t put anything behind the paywall – it was just to get this out there.
“I’ve just started to put some more stuff behind paywall. The key will be in the next few months to see what that looks like and whether people are willing to pay for that local news.”
He operates the newsletter “on the smell of an oily rag” from his Invercargill home; he’s had some contributors help him with freelance op ed pieces in recent times.
“There has been a good uptake from people who enjoy sport – Southland is pretty parochial. And it’s important if you’re going to try to establish yourself as a local outlet that you cover council – there’s a fair bit going on.
“We thought things might have quietened down when Sir Tim didn’t get re-elected but we have an outspoken mayor in Nobby Clark; there’s been no shortage of news.
“It’s been enjoyable. I’m not naïve to the challenge that I have working in a small market in an industry that’s pretty tough. I am pleased I have started it; I’m excited to see whether we can make it work. I’m happy that I’ve given it a go, five months in anyway.”
* Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small NZME shareholding.
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