Editorial: Bill Ralston may not be far behind

When TVNZ chief executive Ian Fraser farewelled the channel's foremost personality, Paul Holmes, a year ago this Friday, he said Holmes' best work was behind him and it was time for the veteran broadcaster to move on. Holmes' fortunes since suggest he was not, after all, bigger than the channel that made him a star, but nor have TVNZ's fortunes under Mr Fraser vindicated his determination to reduce its reliance on overpaid personalities. The company's deteriorating position suggests rather that television is a delicate chemistry of performers and their platform, and that new executives change the chemistry at their peril.

Mr Fraser's resignation at the weekend was, by his own account, voluntary. "I should make it clear this is not about the [TVNZ] board losing confidence in its chief executive," he said. "It is about the fact that I have lost confidence in my board." He believed the Government-appointed board was taking too close an interest in the salary negotiations of top presenters. On the face of it, this explanation is strange because the board is under a Government directive to take an interest in salaries exceeding $300,000. The Labour Party came to power on a promise to tackle salaries it considered excessive for the public sector and the eye-watering sums offered to top news presenters were its prime exhibits.

Mr Fraser accepted appointment under the new regime and appointed in turn a new head of news and current affairs, Bill Ralston, another former television personality who shared Mr Fraser's dislike of personality-driven news programmes. Soon current affairs host Mike Hosking was down the road, the 16-year news presenting duet of Richard Long and Judy Bailey was broken with Long's departure, Holmes quit and shortly Bailey will leave the channel she has fronted for so long.

It has been a high-risk strategy and so far it has not worked. One News has been losing viewers to TV3, which has moved its own well-established personality, John Campbell, into the evening slot long dominated by Holmes. Understandably, the TVNZ board is now taking a keen interest in higher-salaried news and current affairs positions and wants the chief executive to be involved in any discussions, negotiations and appointments in that area. Mr Fraser, however, insisted on leaving those negotiations to Mr Ralston. But after a meeting with the board last week, Mr Fraser has resigned rather than be an instrument of the board's interference, as he sees it, in operational decisions on news and current affairs.

The chairman, Craig Boyce, denies the board is stepping into operational areas where it is prohibited under the protocols of the TVNZ charter. "We have no involvement in day-to-day [news] operations apart from those with salaries over $300,000, which we have to take an interest in," said Mr Boyce. But it is hard to see that it invokes its legitimate interest in higher salaries now for any other purpose than to say the purge of personality has gone too far.

The Government seems as relaxed as the board about Mr Fraser's resignation. The Prime Minister yesterday expressed confidence in the board. Mr Fraser was hired to meet a public broadcasting charter and maintain a commercial operation with a twin-channel service whose dominance at the time he took over seemed unassailable. But he has struggled to provide more non-commercial content while allowing the more serious channel to banish its familiar faces. With its prime ratings sliding, his resignation was to be expected. If the trend continues his head of news and current affairs cannot be far behind.