Some of the Senz originals, before the station's launch in July 2021 (from left): Mark Stafford, Rikki Swannell, Israel Dagg, Brendon McCullum, Kirstie Stanway, Ian Smith and Stephen Donald. Photo / Senz
One of our newest and most star-studded media businesses is set to lose as much as $3.3 million this financial year; Sports star’s valet dispute at media awards; Leaked recording of Stuff staff meeting reveals job fears; Big changes at publishing firms; Listener to launch paywall on Herald website.
It launched with some of the biggest names in sport and broadcasting, including Brendon McCullum, Israel Dagg, Ian Smith, Kirstie Stanway and Stephen Donald. And it promised to deliver 24/7 sport content as fans had never heard or seen before across almost 30 radio stations and through its digital channels.
“To be given this opportunity at my age and this point of my career, getting to build something from the ground up, is phenomenal,” said Smith, shortly before the launch of Senz.
Two years in, Senz has laid bare the financial challenges it is facing – with a likely loss of between $2.7 million and $3.3 million this year, and an overall big drop in profit for its Australian parent.
In these challenging times – just about every media business is making changes to combat economic headwinds and to ride a new wave of digital disruption – Senz’s performance raises questions as to whether the Australians are willing to wear those losses in New Zealand.
As we saw with MediaWorks, private equity owners swept in from across the Tasman in March and were quick to order the closure of Today FM, based on a projected financial year loss of around $1 million.
It seems Senz’s owner, ASX-listed Sports Entertainment Group (SEG), is made of sterner stuff – it insists it is in New Zealand for the longhaul.
Almost all of Senz’s big names are still there – Tony Kemp has now joined Dagg on the breakfast show after McCullum upped stumps to deliver ‘Bazball’ as coach of the England test cricket team.
Senz itself might need some of that spark.
SEG said in August last year – as it delivered its June 2022 financial year results and an Ebitda of A$10.3m ($11.2m) – that it expected to continue double-digit revenue and underlying Ebitda growth for the 2023 financial year, “subject to no material changes in the broader economic conditions in both Australia and New Zealand”.
How the landscape has changed in 10 months.
SEG updated the market last week, revealing it now expected its overall Ebitda to be in the range of A$4.5m ($4.9m) to A$5m ($5.5m) – effectively halved.
While underlying Ebitda in its Australian operations was positive, there was negative Ebitda in New Zealand of between A$2.5m ($2.7m) and A$3m ($3.3m), said the guidance.
The significant investment in establishing new assets in Sydney, Queensland “and particularly New Zealand” was a key driver in the decreased Ebitda. It said the operating cost base in New Zealand was now “largely normalised”.
Senz was upbeat about its digital audience numbers last month. Its radio stations have a cumulative audience of 34,900; they are 22nd in the market nationally.
As a comparison, the number one station, Newstalk ZB, draws a cumulative audience of just under 700,000.
In a statement to Media Insider, Senz CEO Sam Bingley said: “2023 has been a significant year for SENZ, and we have absolute confidence in our ongoing strategy. We are committed to New Zealand and have executed several exciting developments throughout the year as part of our long-term build.”
He said they would continue to invest in marketing their talent.
Senz will be also seeking to reap rewards from a range of audio rights – it has the rights for the Rugby World Cup (along with NZME’s Newstalk ZB, Gold Sport and ACC), and a range of other sporting events including the Fifa Women’s World Cup and Warriors’ NRL matches.
“Overall, we are working towards a long-term approach as we continue to build our brand throughout New Zealand,” said Bingley.
Most of New Zealand’s big media companies are gearing up for the ongoing challenge of growing digital audiences and commercial market share.
NZME, Stuff, MediaWorks, TVNZ and Warner Bros Discovery all have major leadership roles up for grabs, or structural changes under way. Today’s column delves into some of those.
A new TVNZ board takes the reins from tomorrow - today is the final day for chairman Andy Coupe and chief executive Simon Power. Businessman Alastair Carruthers takes over as chair and he and a new-look board will be responsible for the appointment of a new CEO.
One media insider told me yesterday: “It’s like being on the scariest Six Flags rollercoaster ride. The highs can be really high; the lows are very low. You just have to hang on.”
One of New Zealand’s greatest athletes has been caught up in a media awards night dispute when she discovered damage to her vehicle after valet parking at the event.
Former world champion and double Commonwealth Games gold medallist discus thrower Beatrice Faumuina wants to ensure other consumers are aware of the terms and conditions of valet parking so they don’t run into trouble.
Her Mercedes A35 has damage to its right rear wheel, which she believes occurred when she left her car for valet parking at the Cordis hotel, the venue for the annual Voyager Media Awards on Saturday, May 27.
The Cordis hotel disputes this, believing the damage to have been already present.
Faumuina was part of the team up for the award for best original podcast, Straight Up with Niva and Beatrice, her interview series alongside Newstalk ZB newsreader Niva Retimanu.
Faumuina said before leaving her car with the valet service, she and a hotel worker noted existing damage to the front left tyre and wheel and wrote this down on the docket. The hotel says it also noted damage to the back right wheel.
The hotel said it retained this half of the docket, while Faumuina had the bottom half, which outlines the terms and conditions.
But Faumuina says she only noticed the right rear damage when she came to collect her car.
“I saw the scratchings and the indentation on my tyre in thought, ‘hold on, that’s new’.
“I’m really particular pertaining to my vehicle, I take hours to clean it. And I only cleaned it the day before. I hadn’t gone anywhere on that Saturday until I took it to the awards. I know it wasn’t there before I left.”
She is particularly keen to make sure other consumers are aware of the terms and conditions of valet parking – essentially that any damage caused is not the responsibility of the hotel, and it should not be held liable.
“I thought, goodness, how many other people who possibly park their car have then gone home and said ‘hold on, I don’t recall when this damage happened’.”
Faumuina has yet to have the damage assessed and so does not know the cost. From personal experience, it won’t be cheap.
It’s a relatively polite dispute - Media Insider has seen emails between the parties, and everyone is treating each other with respect.
In one email, a Cordis supervisor says the hotel agreed on the night, once Faumuina had returned to the car, that the damage “was fresh but we did not confirm or agreed if it was done by us. We have reviewed with our security department through our security cameras but still cannot confirm this.”
A Cordis spokeswoman told Media Insider they take every incident seriously.
“Ms Faumuina was given the bottom part of the ticket to read the terms and conditions of our valet carparking service, which states that the company shall not be liable for any form of damage, negligence or loss to any vehicle.”
The hotel says it has now bought two Go Pro cameras to scan cars for existing damage “to avoid any future incidents or disputes”.
“Our staff will also be reiterating to guests the need to read the carpark terms and conditions.”
And while Faumuina and Retimanu didn’t win their category at the awards night, there might yet be a happy ending to the valet saga.
After Media Insider got in touch with the Cordis, it said it would “once again reach out to Ms Faumuina to find a suitable resolution to this unfortunate matter”.
Last night, it sent Faumuina an email to cover the excess value of her insurance or value of repairs up to $1000 as a gesture of goodwill and without prejudice/admission of liability.
Just call us Fair Go!
A leaked recording from a recent Stuff staff meeting reveals unhappiness among some journalists reading about their company in rival media before they hear about it themselves.
Stuff has a new-look executive team and some of these leaders were upbeat about the future during the meeting last week: “We are building something special here guys, we are rebuilding journalism in many cases”, incoming Stuff Publishing managing director Jo Norris told the meeting.
But some journalists seemed less joyous and one said it was “really unfair” to downplay their sentiment. “I think people are worried for their jobs.”
The meeting came amid news of up to 16 job losses in the Stuff production team, and a range of other changes and departures at the top of the editorial hierarchy.
“I wanted to bring up the fact we seem to be getting more information from other media reports about what’s going on than we’re actually getting, with all due respect, from these meetings,” the senior journalist told leaders, including Norris and incoming Stuff Digital managing director Nadia Tolich.
Norris responded: “It is difficult and there is some confidential information about individuals that some people have chosen to leak to other organisations. We as good employers and good colleagues cannot talk about individuals”.
“It’s not fair to those individuals and particularly not before decisions have been made.
“Every time I get a call from a rival media, it breaks my heart because someone within this organisation has breached another person’s trust for that information to get out.
“I’m open to suggestions as to how we can give you the information that you need without breaching confidence.”
The senior journalist responds: “I totally respect that and certainly with the confidentiality but ... please don’t downplay our worries about the company.
“I know that we’re told it’s all exciting and what have you. But when we’re reading in other reports about redundancies, about big changes, you know, come on.
“We’re journalists as well. We have questions and we’d like them to be answered too.”
Norris says the purpose of the staff forums is to have “these honest conversations”.
Tolich adds: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to downplay it at all. To Jo’s point, you know, we can’t talk about some things, of course.”
A range of Stuff leaders are understood to have been involved in employment proposals during the past two weeks, including the Post editor Caitlin Cherry, Sundays editor Tracy Watkins, Stuff head of news Mark Stevens; newsrooms editor in chief Bernadette Courtney; news verticals editor in chief Geoff Collett and Stuff deputy editor Janine Fenwick.
“Stuff is transforming,” said spokeswoman Candice Robertson, in a response to questions.
“This involves modernising our newsroom and leadership structures, roles and responsibilities, as well as adding new roles that look to the future.
“Incoming CEO Laura Maxwell and the managing directors who have been promoted to lead the new businesses are building the future operating model. Any internal discussions are confidential.
“We are excited about the future of Stuff, our people and bringing our new products and content to New Zealanders.”
NZME, like Stuff, is also facing changes in its top-tier leadership. The owner of the NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB, a suite of entertainment radio stations and property website OneRoof, enters the second half of its financial year with substantial executive changes.
Myself, chief operating officer Matt Wilson, and chief commercial officer Paul Hancox have all come off the exec – Hancox’s departure to MediaWorks was announced yesterday. OneRoof head Paul Maher resigned earlier this year and was replaced by Greg Hornblow. Legal counsel and HR head Allison Whitney leaves in September to do some personal travel with family.
As well as Hornblow, the executive is now made up of CEO Michael Boggs, chief financial officer David Mackrell, chief publishing and digital officer Carolyn Luey, chief radio officer Jason Winstanley and chief marketing officer Katie Mills.
This week, NZ Herald editor Murray Kirkness was appointed chief content officer - publishing, reporting to Luey. I’ve moved into the editor-at-large role and Wilson remains the chief operating officer, also reporting to Luey.
The departure of Hancox to a Christchurch-based role, chief growth officer, for MediaWorks will be a big talking point in the advertising industry.
I’ve been close to “Huggy” for many years – he is a well-connected industry executive who knows the art of the deal.
With change comes opportunity, and NZME is set to welcome new faces to its executive as it embarks on a new three-year strategy.
I put questions about the changes to Boggs through NZME spokeswoman Kelly Gunn.
“NZME is nearing the end of delivering on our three-year strategy that commenced in 2021. We’re currently in an exciting planning phase, setting new strategic targets for the next three years and focusing on growing our market-leading business even further,” he said.
“With some changes in our executive team, this brings the opportunity for us to have new, fresh perspectives and ideas. I’m really looking forward to being able to share our new strategic themes and targets with our investors, shareholders and customers later in the year.”
Boggs said Hancox had made the call to base himself in Christchurch “to have more time with family – he has been signalling this for some time”.
“We have extremely talented, strong and capable leadership within our commercial team and I’ll be working closely with them to continue the great work that is happening across the business.”
He said clients were looking for added value “through the wide range of solutions we have for them”.
In a big, bold media move next week, one of New Zealand’s most iconic magazines, the Listener, launches digital subscriptions.
The Listener‘s paywalled content will be hosted within a special section and on the homepage of nzherald.co.nz - marking a new era of collaboration in New Zealand media.
NZME and Are Media leaders have been working on the partnership for many months, and the Listener content is expected to “go live” on Tuesday.
Are Media general manager Stuart Dick said his staff would edit, produce and curate Listener journalism on nzherald.co.nz. The print magazine’s weekly journalism will make up about one-third of the content; the other two-thirds will be bespoke digital journalism and columns.
“We’re acknowledging there will be a slightly different audience profile coming through on the digital platform. And so, we want to tailor the content to that audience but also give them the very best of the magazine as well,” Dick said.
New content will include special columns from the likes of Paul Little, Peter Griffin and a Sideswipe-like column from Ana Samways.
At this stage, puzzles and TV listings won’t be there but there will be a weekly quiz. All content will be paywalled.
Dick expects between 30-35 articles a week, targeted at the right time, including “big reads” on weekend mornings.
Are Media and NZME will share subscription and advertising revenue, although Dick would not reveal the percentage split, nor any targets.
“We’ve had a great relationship with NZME over the years, syndicating content. This was a natural progression. We wanted to work with NZME for the best-in-class technology that brings scale.
“We’ll bring our award-winning journalism and the combination of those two things, I think, is pretty compelling for the audience, as a revenue share model. We’ll share in the success of the platform.”
The Listener will also have its own URL (listener.co.nz) with a specialist digital editor and a content producer. Herald editors will have the ability to place Listener content within the Herald journalism mix.
“I’m super excited,” says Dick. “It’s incredible to get to this point after a couple of years of planning and preparing and making sure we’ve got the model right. Everyone’s really confident, with a great team working on it from both sides. I think it’s set up for some real success.”
There will be a $1 weekly introductory offer. After that, general pricing will be $2.50 per week for Listener subscribers and $3.50 per week for other members of the public. There would be compelling offers including Herald Premium and Listener bundles.
NZME chief content officer - publishing Murray Kirkness welcomed the addition of Listener journalism to the Herald site, alongside the likes of BusinessDesk and Viva Premium. “We’re increasingly looking for ways to grow our digital offering to ensure content is easily accessible and that it continues to align with the interests of our readers,” Kirkness said.
Up to 25,000 New Zealanders with a certain brand and make of television will soon find they won’t be able to watch live television on TVNZ+.
Viewers with Samsung 2015/2016 TVs won’t be able to access live TV or live sport through TVNZ+.
TVNZ, from Saturday, takes over from Spark the rights to a range of major sports and events, including cricket.
With it comes a crackdown to ensure there’s no illegal copying.
“Essentially, we’ve added new copyright protections which prevent our streams from being illegally copied,” says a TVNZ spokeswoman.
“Our rights holders require certain measures to prevent the piracy of their content and this is particularly important when it comes to sports. Unfortunately, the change we’ve made to TVNZ+ is not compatible with Samsung 2015/2016 connected TVs.
“While live streaming will not be accessible on these devices, TVNZ+ video-on-demand content including movies, TV shows and sport highlights will all work as normal.”
The spokeswoman said about 25,000 TVNZ+ users were watching TVNZ+ each month on a Samsung 2015/16 TV.
“For viewers who are already watching on a range of devices in the home, they can continue to access live streaming that way.
“We’ll be supporting viewers who use their Samsung 2015/16 exclusively to figure out an option that works for them if they’re keen to watch live streaming on the app. That may be adding a Chromecast to their set-up rather than investing in a new TV set, for example.”
One of New Zealand advertising’s most familiar and respected executives, Steve Kane, has been appointed group managing director of Ogilvy NZ, including Designworks.
Ogilvy Network ANZ CEO Sally Kissane said: “It’s been a delight getting to know Steve and his wonderful career journey. His extraordinarily varied career in brand, PR, production and communications is the perfect mix for our ambitions for Ogilvy in NZ.”
Kane started his career almost 30 years ago in television production and PR in Auckland. After five years in corporate public relations in London he returned home and to Publicis Drum PR for several years, before moving to DDB’s Mango PR as a group account director leading the Air New Zealand account.
He’s also been DDB’s experiential creative director and led award-winning activations in creative departments at networked agencies across Auckland. In 2014 he joined Y&R NZ as managing director. He has most recently spent five years as managing director of Auckland indie agency, True.
Kane said it was an honour to join Ogilvy. “I’m also dead excited about getting immersed in a business with the reputation and pedigree of Designworks. I’ve long admired their holistic approach to design and the work they do for Aotearoa’s most iconic brands.”
Ogilvy Network NZ CEO Kelly-Ann Maxwell has resigned after five years with WPP, including the past two with Ogilvy, to spend time with her family and pursue new opportunities, said a press release announcing the moves.
This week, we text the always-provocative Leo Molloy, who is hosting a charity debate this Tuesday night (6.30pm for 7.30pm) at his HQ Viaduct bar in Auckland, with the moot: Mainstream Media are Drongos.
He, along with Wayne Brown, Guy Williams and Shane Jones will argue against the moot. Sean Plunket, Jacques Maitland, Graham Henry and Judith Collins are in the affirmative.
$20 door charge which includes a drink on arrival; all funds raised will go to the Auckland mayoral relief fund.
Back by popular demand, the Media Cabbage of the Week Award, in honour of the horrific cabbage served up at last month’s Voyager Media Awards.
The launch of a new All Blacks jersey is always a highly anticipated affair.
Sadly, NZME’s head of sport Winston Aldworth tells me Wednesday’s release of the adidas kit for this year’s Rugby World Cup campaign hit a snag when PR operators representing the German sportswear giant did not provide colour photos of the jersey – the only shots available in advance were artistic black and white portraits of players in the new kit.
Arty photos are no use at all for media organisations wanting to provide their audiences with a clear perspective of the jersey. Publishers, including the Herald, were forced to rely on imagery from retailers to illustrate their stories.
The Herald picture desk says it received colour photos 24 hours after the event. The shots are from the event itself, and still don’t provide a clear perspective on the jerseys and their much-discussed fern prints.
It didn’t help that the fern-encrusted jersey was lampooned by commentators and social media users. In a commendable piece of collaborative journalism between NZME’s sports team and the fashion writers at Viva, the shirt was rated the worst the All Blacks have ever taken to a World Cup.
I have every confidence, though, that the team will perform brilliantly.
* 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.
'I can imagine people being outraged that TVNZ signed a deal with me.'