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The Auckland City Council is revamping the way it deals with the media mining it for information.
Communications and marketing group manager Mark Fenwick yesterday announced a new team to answer all media queries.
"We encourage you to call this new team with queries and requests, rather than the previous system of calling your usual contact person in the organisation," he said.
Acting chief executive John Duthie said the new set-up was not an attempt to stop journalists speaking to council contacts. It was his understanding the new team would provide journalists with a one-stop shop for information and assistance.
A marketing strategy, obtained by the Herald, suggests the council's media management is a failure and should be handed to a "specialist PR team".
It suggests most of the communication and marketing team's 50 or so staff should concentrate on council-controlled channels such as the weekly newsheet, City Scene, the website and images such as the new council logo.
Media commentator Jim Tully said there had been a growing tendency in the past 10 years for public service organisations, particularly in the local government and health sectors, to increasingly manage their communication strategies. Mr Tully said there was a long tradition of journalists being able to speak with public sector managers and they should not have to go through filters.
"Anything like this is not for altruistic reasons. It is for self interest. It is certainly not in the interests of the public or the media," he said.
Edward Rooney, chief reporter for the community newspaper the Aucklander, said reporters had encountered difficulties getting past communications and marketing staff to talk directly with council staff.
He said one young reporter was told "that is not how it works" for going to a council officer after waiting for a response from a member of the communications and marketing team.
Liz Waters, who owns the Gulf News, said she knew of two occasions in the past few months where reporters were told to go through communications and marketing.
The stories were about a property owner burying a sceptic tank in the Onetangi sand dunes and bush clearing on businessman Graeme Hart's Church Bay property.
"Communications and marketing is spin and news isn't spin. News is what they don't want you to know," she said.
In a letter to the Herald in July, former city promotion committee chairman John Strevens said he set up City Scene as a better way to inform residents about council activities. He was disappointed to see it decline into an apologist for council actions.
"The spin doctors have taken control," Mr Strevens said.
