Top lawyer called in as Today FM closure set to get a whole lot messier for MediaWorks; confidential documents reveal more job losses; The Platform’s rich-list owner speaks out; Voyager Media Awards finalists announced; Stuff scrambles to announce its own news; a potential new owner for iconic magazine title; and
Today FM closure gets uglier – top lawyer called in; The Platform’s rich-list owner Wayne Wright Jr; Voyager Media Awards finalists; Stuff’s Post plan - Media Insider with Shayne Currie
Opinion by Shayne Currie
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand's most experienced senior journalists and media leaders.
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On Tuesday, however, those newsroom teams were taken through a separate proposal in a process that gives them a longer consultation and feedback period – a week – but with no less devastating impact.
That change proposal, marked confidential and not for distribution, reveals four reasonably high-profile newsreaders would lose their jobs – Carly Flynn, Trudi Nelson, Angie Skerrett and Bridget Hastie. Nine journalists – Caitlin Ellis, Craig Norenbergs, Delphine Herbert, Emma Stanford, Hannah Filmer, Kate Gregan, Monique Steele and Nigel Yalden – have also been told their roles are being disestablished.
While the company is creating a range of new roles for which the journalists can reapply, the overall net effect is the loss of around eight jobs, in addition to about 30 lost roles directly associated with Today FM.
None of the newsreaders would be eligible for the new roles, according to the document.
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The document says with a predicted recession, the immediate outlook “does not look promising” and the company’s operating model and expenses need to change: “64 per cent of our costs are labour related and we have had to make the difficult decision to review our operating model and reduce our entire workforce to ensure that we remain efficient, effective and resilient,” says the document.
Multiple sources have confirmed lawyer Charlotte Parkhill has been hired by former staff to coordinate group legal action against MediaWorks. Parkhill said she could not comment, nor confirm she was even involved. In any such cases, lawyers would need the approval of their client to comment, she said.
It is understood a range of staff – Media Insider has been told at least 20 – are involved in the planned action, covering all disciplines, including hosts, newsreaders and journalists. Their legal action is expected to cover a range of claims: the way staff were advised and told of the initial meeting; the consultation and feedback period (or lack thereof) after being told their jobs were proposed to be disestablished; the hurt and humiliation as it all unfolded live on air; and a likely dispute over the payout of fixed-term contracts.
Under New Zealand law, they have 90 days to file a grievance.
MediaWorks would not answer an extensive list of questions. It did, however, reiterate that the announced departure this week of another top executive, chief people officer Paula Williams, was unrelated to the closure of Today FM.
“Paula had been discussing her planned move since mid-March and formally resigned on 27 March,” said a spokeswoman.
The Platform’s rich-list owner takes a swipe at Reality Check Radio
Some of those left devastated by the Today FM closure are set to be snapped up by Sean Plunket’s online audio station, The Platform.
Miles Davis this week filled in for Michael Laws, following the death of the former politician’s father, and it is understood Leah Panapa is being lined up to join the station, with a view to extending its broadcasting hours beyond 4pm on weekdays, and to add more diversity to the daily line-up of Plunket, Laws and Martin Devlin.
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The rich-list owner/backer of The Platform, Wayne Wright jr, told Media Insider this week that he was pleased with the way the brand was performing and he was not seeking further investors.
He confirmed that while he had been approached by potential partners, there were two clear rules which normally saw that interest ease off. One was the clear principle, he said, that Plunket was CEO and editor-in-chief and owners would have no influence on editorial content; and the second was that the Wright family was in it for the long-haul with no exit strategy. “That really narrows down investment candidates.”
He said the Wrights wanted to build a family legacy business for the importance of free speech and robust debate in New Zealand.
He said listenership was growing, according to metrics provided to him by Plunket. This included app downloads and social media engagement including video views on the likes of YouTube. “I’m personally not on social media, so there’s a bit of ignorance. We seem to be crushing it.”
The Platform lost two of its staff – Paul Brennan and Rodney Hide – to Reality Check Radio, the new brand set up by anti-establishment and anti-media group Voices for Freedom. That business has been supported by its own expensive marketing campaign, including billboards featuring Brennan, Hide, former TVNZ star Peter Williams, and Chantelle Baker.
“I think they are occupying a different space,” says Wright. “It seems to me there’s a number of broadcasters sitting on a continuum from far left to far right. In my view, Reality Check Radio has a limited audience. They talk about issues with a narrow bandwidth – vaccines, mandates and conspiracy topics.”
The Platform, he insisted, was covering more of the news of the day with more diversity and open debate. “In my view, Covid has passed us by, particularly with mandates … that’s so yesterday.”
I caught up with Wright - a big fan of Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking and Heather du Plessis Allan - on the phone as he was shopping at Mitre 10; several weeks ago, over lunch with The Spinoff’s Duncan’s Greive, he gave an extensive interview on how his investment in The Platform came to be. The rich-lister and his family, estimated by NBR to be worth about $360 million, have invested a likely seven-figure sum into The Platform. Plunket came to him seeking partial investment, expecting he’d be among a list of 10 or so other backers.
“We huddled together for a couple of minutes, and we came back and said, ‘Sean, we’ll do the lot’,” Wright told Greive. “His jaw just dropped.”
Voyager Media Awards finalists announced
The Voyager Media Award finalists have been released this morning, with some intriguing head-to-head battles in top categories.
The NZ Herald, Stuff and Radio NZ are the three finalists for the two biggest digital awards – Website of the Year and App of the Year. The Herald has won both awards for each of the past three years.
The NZ Herald and Weekend Herald are up for best daily newspaper and best weekend newspaper respectively, competing against The Dominion Post and Otago Daily Times in the daily category; and the Weekend Press and Sunday Star-Times in the weekly category.
The reporter of the year category will be hotly contested, with the Herald’s David Fisher up against Stuff’s Eugene Bingham, RNZ’s Anusha Bradley and North & South/New Zealand Geographic’s Pete McKenzie. McKenzie is also a finalist in Junior Reporter of the Year, up against the Herald’s Katie Harris and Ethan Griffiths and The Hui’s D’Angelo Martin.
The Photographer of the Year award is a straight shootout between four talented lensmen - Mark Mitchell and Mike Scott of the Herald and Chris Skelton and Alden Williams of Stuff.
One of the most fascinating awards is Editorial Leader of the Year, with five highly respected women nominated – NZME’s Alanah Eriksen (editor of the Herald on Sunday) and Amanda Linnell (Viva managing editor), Stuff’s Janine Fenwick and Andrea Vance; and RNZ’s Rhonwyn Newson.
The awards are being held at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland in late May; the full list of finalists can be found here.
From the Twitter machine
A new home for North & South?
German couple Konstantin Richter and Verena Friederike Hasel have been seeking buyers for North & South magazine, the iconic title they bought after the closure of Bauer Media when Covid hit in 2020. It appears interest is strong from at least one bidder.
School Rd Publishing owner Greg Partington confirmed to Media Insider that “acquiring North & South is on our agenda but we haven’t come to a decision at this stage”.
“I’m mindful that this magazine has an important and valued heritage created in large part by some of New Zealand’s leading magazine editors. Taking on North & South is a big responsibility requiring a great deal of consideration.”
School Rd Publishing launched four lifestyle magazines with great gusto in 2020 - Woman, Thrive, Haven and Scout. However, these have all ceased publishing hard-copy editions, with just Woman remaining as a multi-platform digital title.
Richter said: “We’ve talked to a number of parties and yes, we’re talking to School Road about a possible sale but we haven’t reached an agreement.”
North & South’s most recent editor, Kirsty Cameron, has moved to Are Media to take the editorship of the Listener, following the resignation of Karyn Scherer.
Stuff’s Post announcement follows leaks
I spent nine happy years at The Evening Post in Wellington in my early career as a reporter – starting out in a smoke-filled newsroom that had only just done away with typewriters. In those days, there was no internet or worldwide web – and social media represented a post-deadline drink at Lovelocks sports bar or the Legends pub on the ground floor of the nearby St George Hotel. Facebook was still a decent 15 years away.
As an evening paper, The Post was a rarity, outselling its morning competitor, The Dominion, with a relentless focus on Wellington issues and news. Sometimes it was accused of being too ‘parish pump’ but it certainly knew its audience. There was nothing like being in The Post’s newsroom on deadline – we’d have just the morning to fill huge newspapers with the latest news and events.
Both The Post and Dominion were owned by the same company – INL in those days – and each had a newsroom chocka full of some of the most talented names in journalism. The competition was fierce, until the inevitable merger of the brands and newsrooms to form The Dominion Post (now owned by Stuff) in 2002.
Now, almost 21 years after its last edition rolled off the presses, The Post brand is in for a revival.
Stuff yesterday sent out invitations to a soiree at the Beehive banquet hall on April 27.
Within an hour, sources confirmed to Media Insider that the company was planning to unveil The Post name and for it to come into effect two days later, on April 29. Further investigations showed Stuff last month submitted an application to the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office to register The Post as a trademark.
We took all of that to Stuff just before 6pm last night. Dominion Post editor Caitlin Cherry wouldn’t comment – “I can’t talk to you!” – while emailed questions to CEO Sinead Boucher were later met with a (very funny and enjoyable) one-line response, and emoji: “Hi Shayne, lol, you’re our best publicist. 😂”
This morning The Dominion Post has carried what appears like a very hastily compiled front page advertisement and accompanying news story announcing the new name.
Sources have previously told Media Insider the name change forms part of the company’s new digital subscription strategy, with plans to put up to nine of its regional website URLs (10 if you count the Sunday Star-Times) and content behind a paywall, while keeping the Stuff homepage free.
Succession’s new streaming home
It’s been described as one of the most masterful hours of television ever produced. The latest Succession episode – featuring a wedding and another event (by now if you don’t know, you’re probably not a fan) – has been acclaimed by critics across the world.
Right now and for the rest of its season, HBO’s hit show can be watched on Sky’s Neon channel – whether it and other HBO shows stay on Neon in the future is uncertain.
HBO is owned by Warner Bros/Discovery, who yesterday announced it will be launching its new streaming service, Max, in the US next month. Max will be available in the Asia-Pacific region some time next year.
That will lead to an even more fragmented streaming market – think Prime, Disney+, Apple+, Netflix, Sky channels, TVNZ+ and more – and the likelihood that more customers will target their stretched spending dollars between different services as hit shows land in full.
“We are aware that Warner Bros. Discovery is looking at the AsiaPac market for Max, but can’t comment on their specific plans,” says Sky’s Chris Major.
“As a long-standing partner of ours, we look forward to navigating the future with Warner Bros. Discovery if and when Max enters the market, in line with our goal of ensuring Kiwis continue to get access to the content they love in ways that work for them.
“We don’t share details of our contract terms, but we’re happy with the HBO, HBO Max, Discovery and Warner Bros. TV content on both Neon and Sky (which we currently have both exclusively and co-exclusively in this market), and will continue to work with our partners on our overall entertainment portfolio to meet the needs of our customers. And, of course, the beauty of our new Sky Box is the ability for our customers to easily access apps alongside Sky and free-to-air content.”
Meanwhile, this whole strategy of releasing shows on a weekly basis makes sense from a business viewpoint, but it is reminiscent of the 70s and 80s when families gathered around the television once a week to watch shows such as The Waltons and the Six-Million-Dollar Man.
On-demand only goes so far.
One Good Text with Simon Bridges
Heart of the City’s Viv Beck audibly gasped at the Project Auckland luncheon this week when Auckland Business Chamber CEO Simon Bridges suggested the famous Santa Parade might have to leave the central city and be staged in Ponsonby and Newmarket because of all the Queen St insfrastructure and road changes. We followed up with Bridges for this week’s ‘One Good Text’.
Don’t miss a bonus Media Insider interview this weekend with the rich-list businessman taking on the government in a brash advertising campaign. Available online at nzherald.co.nz on Saturday and in the Weekend Herald.
* 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.
