An open letter to Television New Zealand

Fullers Group chief executive Doug Hudson (left) and Q-West managing director Myles Fothergill by the 34-metre ferry recently built by Q-West and headed for Auckland's Hauraki Gulf. PHOTO/ STUART MUNRO

I am among a number who have left Auckland (for me, after 16 years) to live in Wanganui, and there are many like me who have set up a successful business and have enjoyed success here.

I am writing to you out of concern that our city has been misrepresented at worst - or under-represented at best - by your network.

In recent times Wanganui has been the city equivalent of a media "whipping boy", despite the fact it is probably one of the most beautiful areas of Godzone, blessed with natural resources and a community rich in culture and passion - the likes of which many New Zealanders would envy and about which international visitors rave.

Oh, and the lifestyle - I can tell you that the years most of you are losing trapped in your cars commuting we are actually getting back spending time with our families. And it's great.

But it feels like whenever the media visit us, for whatever reason, we seem to get represented in a negative way. Your "Zombie Town" story on the Sunday programme of September 21 was the latest.

As a city and a community, we have challenges - no doubt. However, these exist elsewhere, and the "Zombie Town" thing, you know and I know it's nothing more than a catchy metaphor. It's timely as zombies are pretty much in vogue now on TV and, as my 8-year-old tells me, on iPad games.

But the thing is, we as a community have been wrongly defined for a number of years and we had hoped that this time, a different approach would be taken.

In some cases we have received negative publicity because we tried to do things differently. Take the gang patch legislation - an attempt to make our town safer created an incorrect perception we were over-run with gangs. Not true, every city has gang cultures.

And so it is with the challenges facing the regional economy, we share them but we are not the epicentre of doom and gloom that you portrayed. We shouldn't - and won't - be defined that way. I don't think anyone disagrees there are challenges in the regions but, for many, your piece lacked balance.

At a time when the regions need effective marketing, you had the opportunity to play a positive role. You might argue that the stellar defence and promotion of Wanganui by the O'Leary family was just that, but you showed plenty more examples of decay against one voice for the positive. Heck, that rusted ship's hull in the river was there from before I was born.

Had you visited Q-West boat builders you'd have seen them building a shiny new boat which, ironically, is on its way to Auckland to help with your aforementioned commuting.

Then there's Mr Laws, a famous former resident and media personality. He said he tried to change but "significant factors" resisted change. He's right in that there can be pockets of people who think that nothing should change; neither should anyone be excluded from strategic change initiatives. And yes, stationing government departments in the regions makes sense, albeit logistically challenging.

But, knowing the issues as well as he professes together with his recognition that we are in need of a material change in our approach, we were all surprised that he positioned our town on national television as "Ponganui" at a time when we were faced with an infrastructural challenge. That's hardly going to attract public servants and negative impressions linger like a bad smell - the actual smell has long gone by the way.

It's also a bit ironic for him to label Wanganui as being potentially unsuitable as a place for his children to grow up - didn't he once champion us as "Family Friendly"? What's changed?

FYI our family came here for the fantastic schooling and the environment for our kids to grow and thrive in - that is but one of the many material reasons why we will stay here. You will find many others who agree with us.

We all need to be headed in the same direction, and that is something we are better at but still need to work on.

If there is a positive to take out of all this, it's the resounding groundswell of determination to build the city's reputation and economic progress.

For Sunday night's programme, more balance was needed, perhaps by talking to our current mayor or to the number of people who actually live here and attended the meeting with economist Shamubeel Eaqub.

I'm reminded of an episode of The Simpsons where Homer turns to the media for help, and the truth (together with his words) gets edited and twisted until he is positioned as the town pariah. Is it possible you did the same?

The foreboding music as you did the "flyover" of the city, the clever editing of questions raised at the meeting Eaqub spoke at, concentrating on a couple of catchphrases rather than his whole message ... disappointing to say the least.

You said when you "scratch the surface" there are problems in Wanganui and small town New Zealand - I say when you scratch the surface you find innovation, success, drive and determination to be better. One of us has the wrong end of the stick.

We'd love for you to come back and see the Wanganui you appear to have missed.

Russell Bell's Zenith Strategic Solutions is a specialist Wanganui business advice and consultancy practice - 021 2442421.