Paul Holmes: TVNZ has panicked

Opinion

Broadcaster Paul Holmes went in to bat for TVNZ newsreader Judy Bailey on his breakfast radio show yesterday. Here is an abridged version of his remarks on Newstalk ZB:

Let me explain what I think has happened in the matter of Judy Bailey's salary and her negotiations.

Essentially an inept management has panicked at TVNZ and the patsy politically appointed board has had to go along with it. Panicked.

The first reason for the panic is that they left the negotiations with Judy too late. They left negotiations closer to my heart too late as well.

I know that her contract was up for this year at the end of this year. In late October/early November, Judy came to me in the corridor one day and said to me "Holmesy, how's your negotiation going?" and I said, "Very slow, Jude." She told me that hers were going very slow as well and had not progressed.

So the situation you have there you see is that Bill Ralston had still not tied their major 6 o'clock personality, major 6 o'clock news reader at the end of October for what she would be doing in January. Now that is amazing.

... If my contract was up at the end of this year we would have talked about, renegotiated late last year and, of course, it suited Judy as it suited me to delay those negotiations because ultimately that was going to put more pressure on TVNZ. Stands to reason, stands to reason the longer they left it to negotiate the more her power increased .

Now what it all first and foremost shows is the bankruptcy - this is Judy Bailey's $800,000 - and fraudulence of that "personality doesn't matter" argument at TVNZ.

TVNZ say that because they don't have any personality left. The entire industry is laughing at them. Personality is everything in broadcasting and by personality I mean the human qualities you convey - do people want to watch you? Do they want to listen to you? Are they comfortable?

Personality. It's a people business. Judy Bailey works in a hostile environment there. It is a deeply unpleasant culture.

She is isolated. She is a different generation from the rest of the newsroom.

She's been there for yonks and she's not respected for it and she knows she's been on borrowed time for years.

Now you imagine this, imagine this, she hears from other people, of course, and she reads the newspapers every week and the head of news is off telling everyone how much he wants John Campbell.

You know she is a person, a mother with respect in her household, a star, and she reads that stuff every time she opens the paper, there it is.

But she gets on with it and she does the job and she knows, of course, what Ralston's off telling his mates on a Friday and what the marketing dept are telling everyone that will listen.

Imagine working in that environment knowing that Ralston's out there trying to get the great John Campbell every five minutes.

Imagine the effect that it has and what it starts to do to your attitude towards the company you work for.

The culture of disloyalty in management is unbelievable there.

And see that's the question that people ought to be asking now and the newspapers ought to be asking. Why are very well paid people so prepared to walk away.

See they were laying this 12-month contract stuff on Judy too, I understand.

Judy is therefore negotiating in a climate of distrust. She knows what the 12-month thing means and she might simply I think on this occasion had been prepared to give it away.

Holmes was supposed to take it and stay there too because he had nowhere to go and in the end he would take it.

It didn't work, of course, because the negotiations got too late. Holmes walked - not only walked - but went to another channel who really seemed to value him.

Holmes departure then allowed TV3 to firm up Campbell for a few more years by offering him a seven o'clock show and you can be sure that TV3 said to Campbell, "Okay but no more talking to Ralston and we sign you up for 2-3 more years".

So suddenly TV3 have got Campbell in there at seven o'clock suddenly instead of just Holmes staying there and dying of boredom, he went to Prime to take them head-on. So TVNZ management were then facing the possibility that Judy might walk away and that's what this is about I bet you. Not that Judy might have gone to another channel as the TVNZ chairman seems to be saying.

TV3 wouldn't have offered Judy a job and Prime certainly would not. Rather Judy might simply have had enough of the place and decided to walk away. If she had done that, even though they don't really like her, her departure would have left TVNZ with a completely new lineup at peak time.

Then suddenly, gosh, Holmes has gone crazy, so all that heritage in their early evening has gone, and both those key personalities would be gone and its all on for everybody next year. Which at seven o'clock it is going to be anyway.