Paddy Gower reveals what we’ll read about in his new book – and the top journalist who acted as ghost writer; Does Minister’s visit to Shortland St spell some good news?; One of our leading marketing and communications agencies turns 10 - how the media and corporate landscape has changed
Media Insider: Paddy Gower’s next big project; Leading Kiwi agency turns 10 - the changing PR and marketing landscape
Paddy Gower and the cover image from his new book; Shortland St's Michael Galvin with Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith; Anthem co-founders Carolyn Kerr and Jane Sweeney and the aged-care PR campaign they helped lead.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
His new book, This is the F#$%ing News, plays on the meme he made famous, a title censored just enough that it can appear, without any issues, on bookshelves from September 24.
He has released a sneak peek of the cover, and an outline of what we can expect of a life inside and outside the news over a quarter of a century.
“It’s 25 years of the f***ing news,” he told Media Insider.
“It tracks my career from a night duty reporter at the NZ Herald through to where I am today.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
“It’s got some really funny yarns from behind the scenes of newsrooms dating back to the days of Granny Herald, my first employer, going through life in the press gallery – 10 years in the press gallery, or Paremoremo, as I describe it in the book with fellow inmates like Duncan Garner – and then inside the final days of Newshub and those meetings.”
The book also charts Gower’s sometimes rocky path through his mental health challenges and addiction - this includes being subjected to bullying over his looks through his teenage and university years; his battle with booze; and some issues, at times, with anger and bouts of anxiety and depression.
He’d been discussing a book, informally for a couple of years, with Allen & Unwin publisher Michelle Hurley.
When Gower sat down for a lunchtime interview with the Herald last year, we discussed the prospect of a book, and he suggested the title, This is the F***ing News.
Hurley was on to him again as soon as she read that. He had a title, she told him; there was no excuse now.
The book has been ghostwritten by his good mate and former NZ Herald colleague Eugene Bingham – “one of New Zealand’s great journos”.
“At that point, I did have a TV show coming up, and documentaries and all sorts of things. And I just thought it would be impossible to squeeze in and write in a book because I had no time. So I ended up talking to Eugene, who was leaving Stuff and at that time was keen on a project.
“He came on board, which helped with the time. It’s since transpired, obviously, I could have written five volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica!”
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
He’s referring, of course, to the closure of Newshub that’s now left him somewhat of an uncertain future.
The book promises to be a rollicking read. He and Bingham returned to the press gallery and spent time in Taranaki, Gower’s turangawaewae, to research the project.
“It’s been a real labour of love – for Eugene as well. I know that he has worked really, really hard on it.”
The book is receiving its final proofreading this week.
“I’ve learned from the book that I’ve come a long way as a person,” says Gower.
“Journalism and my life have been quite intertwined. I’ve managed to get through a lot of struggles. I’ve learned that I’ve come a long way as a person through my mahi and my work.
“It’s not just a story about the f***ing news. It’s a story about an ordinary Kiwi guy getting through mental health issues and addiction issues, to get to a reasonably good spot in life.
“I wanted to be able to show where I’ve gone - the depths I’ve gone to, and the heights I’ve got to.
“There’s a lot to learn about mental health. There’s a lot to learn about being a Kiwi male. There’s a lot to learn about alcohol, and there’s a lot to learn about being a workaholic and ways to get through that.”
The book will also include a chapter on the final days of Newshub, unpicking Warner Bros Discovery’s move to close the network and other production capabilities – resulting in the loss of almost 300 jobs.
Gower has yet to announce where he’ll end up next.
There is speculation his shows - both his one-off documentaries and a version of Paddy Gower Has Issues – will survive, with NZ on Air funding. But we won’t know that until next month at the earliest, around the same time as Newshub closes for good.
Gower is understood to have been talking to a range of media companies, though nothing is confirmed. He loved hosting an RNZ show on the Monday of the King’s Birthday holiday weekend.
He’ll be in hot demand, and no doubt biding his time while he awaits the call on possible funding of his TV work. He says he can’t comment specifically on that; he is respecting the process.
“Some people have said maybe I should call my next doco Patrick Gower On... the dole, or my new TV show, Paddy Gower Has Issues... with keeping a job.
“In all seriousness ... there’s no imminent announcements about me going to work anywhere. But people will see in the book that I’m determined to get back to journalism.”
Where that meme came from
“This is the f***ing news!”
The meme stems from a skit that Gower performed for an Auckland Law School Revue. Inside a university library, Gower is filming a ‘live news cross’, when a student yells from behind, ‘This is a f***ing library’. His response: ‘This is the f***ing news!’
It’s been watched millions of times on social media, around the world.
“You know, I’ll never escape that, bro,” Gower said over our lunch last year.
“I would hear it – I reckon, no word of a lie – every day. I’ve decided to just embrace it.
“You’ll walk past someone, and you’ll get 50 metres down the road and they would have seen you 50m back, and then there’ll always be one in the group who, you know, you’ll hear it off in the distance.”
Goldy checks in to Shorty
Is this a sign of some good news to come for Shortland Street?
While the future of the 32-year-old Kiwi drama remains uncertain - it’s facing heavy scrutiny as part of a wide range of cost cuts at TVNZ – Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith found the time to check in to New Zealand’s most famous hospital last week.
Goldsmith, who is also Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister, was on a tour of Auckland studios, visiting the Shortland Street cast and crew and receiving a sneak peek of the new series of The Traitors NZ at South Pacific Pictures.
He also took in the Auckland Film Studios and post-production company Department of Post.
While a range of options are understood to be under consideration for Shortland Street – including fewer episodes each week and other cutbacks – production company South Pacific Pictures believes the show can be given a huge boost, by allowing it to be eligible for the Government’s existing, 40 per cent domestic Screen Production Rebate (SPR), administered by the New Zealand Film Commission.
“Currently to be eligible for the domestic SPR, the budget for a drama series has to be in excess of $500k per hour,” South Pacific Pictures managing director Andrew Szusterman said in April.
“The international SPR which the likes of Netflix series [and] New Zealand-shot Sweet Tooth has accessed doesn’t have that requirement. It’s an anomaly that we’d like to see changed.”
The international version of the SPR considered total investment and the domestic SPR looked at per-hour spend, he said.
“It just doesn’t sit right,” said Szusterman.
“Shortland Street, by nature of being a serialised drama, and the efficiencies that are brought about by being a fast turnaround television production, doesn’t get close to that minimum $500k per hour threshold.
“We are advocating eligibility level changes for the domestic SPR. Television productions having a significant investment of over $15 million should become eligible.”
Sounding an Anthem
A massive blue trumpet sits pride of place in Anthem’s offices in downtown Auckland – a bold artwork originally commissioned for a visit to New Zealand by Ariana Huffington and the launch of the communications and marketing agency in 2014.
In a boardroom, alongside the artwork, are Anthem executive chair Jane Sweeney and chief executive Carolyn Kerr.
They are more accustomed to blowing their clients’ trumpets but today, the spotlight is firmly on the agency’s two co-founders.
The pair – two of the leading lights of New Zealand’s strategic PR, marketing and media landscape, alongside the likes of other self-built high-flyers such as Deborah Pead and Trish Sherson – have been celebrating their agency’s 10th birthday with justifiable pride.
Over the course of a decade, they have witnessed massive media industry change, adapting their own agency’s work to help serve some of New Zealand’s leading corporations and industries – striving, especially, to help them build sustainable businesses.
They had both been at Porter Novelli before launching their new business.
Back then, says Sweeney, PR agencies had become a little “fusty” – operating by traditional means, such as media relations, with a limited toolkit.
“We had a hunch that PR storytelling could be done a whole lot better – when I say PR, I mean complex stories that unfold over time.
“We felt that we could reinvent the PR agency and we really feel we have done that. We call ourselves an integrated communications and marketing agency now because it’s way beyond PR. But, definitely, our storytelling is still PR-led.”
Amongst a portfolio of work, they highlight their endeavours with the aged care industry as a particular point of pride – with a campaign that helped achieve pay parity for aged-care nurses and helping the industry achieve a series of provisions from the new coalition Government, including retention of the superannuation age at 65, a review of the Retirement Villages Act, an investigation into residential care funding, a select committee inquiry into aged care provision and upgrading the super gold card.
They worked closely with aged-care industry chief executives and other leaders to achieve the best outcomes.
A billboard campaign, in conjunction with advertising agency Chemistry, featured a mocked-up image of then PM Dame Jacinda Ardern as she might look at 82, alongside a similarly aged Grant Robertson.
It was a bold, some-would-say-risky approach – it generated plenty of media headlines, and, ultimately, change.
“Funnily enough, we have it from a reliable source that’s what was the trigger for the pay parity,” says Sweeney.
From inspired beginnings, Anthem now has around 65 clients each year, operating with more than 80 staff – a mix of permanent and part-time workers, and others they bring in as specialists for specific contracts.
That plays to the company’s focus on an agile and flexible approach to its work, both internally and externally.
They like to call up what they call an A-team on each assignment.
“You never ever have a team which is just permanent staff members,” says Sweeney. “It just doesn’t occur because that’s not an A-team. It’s a great team but it’s not an A-team for every need the client has.”
Early on, they’d sometimes be at a client’s agency day, and there would be 11 other agencies at the table. “What we’ve seen in our time is this massive consolidation and we often find ourselves either as the lead agency or around the table with one other.”
They describe themselves as a values-led agency, comfortable with a more strategic than tactical approach, and pass all work and partnerships – including partners, other agencies, and clients – through a filter.
“Do they fit with our values? Do we actually really care about what they do? Can we do it better? Can we really be the difference in their world?” says Sweeney.
“Sometimes the ones we have declined to work with have largely been the bureaucratic structures, the structure of the entity does not allow us to operate like that.
“It’s a bit too rigid. So we find ourselves comfortable with what Carolyn calls the mighty Kiwi battler as well as multinationals.
“It’s companies that have got a strategic intent and where we can get access to the C-suite and the board, and we understand the business outcome.”
They focus on Environmental, Social and Governance principles (ESG) with clients.
Kerr highlights another client, Austrian-based Doppelmayr, which has been pushing the case for aerial cable cars in several New Zealand cities.
“Today, climate change is one of the paramount concerns for business leaders as there is increasing pressure on companies to genuinely commit to transparency and reporting on progress to lead the action our people, the country and planet need,” says Kerr.
“In return, businesses that make demonstrable environmental, social and governance commitments not only earn the trust and loyalty of consumers but also attract new customers and investors who are seeking to align their purchases and investments with responsible practices.”
On the day that Media Insider visits, a Monday, Sweeney and Kerr are the only two in the office.
They pioneered a flexible working environment well before the Covid pandemic that forced that option upon other New Zealand businesses.
Kerr says she and Sweeney are both intuitive people.
“If you lead your decision-making with both head and heart, you can’t go wrong.”
She says they have a range of unique policies for staff, including working from overseas to allow people to help extend a foreign holiday to “paw-ternity” leave - up to two weeks a year to stay at home with a sick or new pet.
As for the Anthem name, it comes back, Sweeney says, to a rallying call for community.
“When you’re singing an anthem, you’re with your community of interest and you’re literally singing with one voice.”
The word anthem also comes from the Greek word antíphōna - call and response.
“We also got a bit turned off by the bollocks and bling names, you know, ‘something and something’. We didn’t want to be Sweeney Kerr. We want it to live beyond us.”
Spain moves to OMG
Talking of PR power players, another of the industry’s most respected names is moving to Omnicom Media Group (OMG).
Angela Spain has been appointed general manager, PR of OMG Content, New Zealand.
OMG Content New Zealand/APAC chief executive Gina McKinnon said: “Angela is a well-respected and experienced leader in the industry. She is known for her laser focus on client outcomes and working collaboratively with media partners to drive innovation and creativity for her clients. With content becoming even more important due to New Zealand’s changing media landscape, we’re excited to bring Angela on board.”
Spain, who most recently has been managing director of Archer, a PR and communications consultancy she founded in 2020, said: “Everyone is under increasing pressure to maximise marketing budgets, especially in an uncertain or tight economy, and rightly so. Having ambition and a clear purpose for your brand or business will help you stand out. Long-term, consistent brand storytelling about this purpose is the most impactful and effective way to do this.”
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 shareholding in NZME.
