Big shoes to fill at RNZ

Last week’s big news in ‘‘media land’’ was John Campbell turning his back on radio and heading back to the glamour of television. One good thing is he’s staying in the world of journalism, where many of us – like me – have jumped the fence looking for better paid jobs, better hours and no sub-editors screaming about shoddy copy and sloppy fact-checking. We’re all aware of the demise of journalism but you may not be so aware of the massive rise in public relations (PR).

This means it’s more important than ever for someone to stay in the country’s newsrooms, probing behind the ‘‘key messaging’’ and asking the tough questions. I applaud those who’ve stuck around in the media to do so.

It would be fascinating to know how many journalists there are in New Zealand per capita compared with communications folk. I know the figures would not tip in journalism’s favour.

The Stop Press website has run the numbers, suggesting that, by 2013, public relations professionals outnumbered print, television and radio journalists three to one.

Whether he’s your cup of tea or not, Campbell could well have been captured by a big corporate and an even bigger salary; so radio, television, print, who cares as long as someone is trying to cover the real stories. That’s what we news junkies are still keen to hear.

And, while TV has always has the big ratings and the glamour factor, Campbell can claim credit in helping to put radio news back on the radar for many, along with his Morning Report colleagues Guyon Espiner and Susie Ferguson.

For my money, radio is the last bastion of hard core, issues-based news reporting, and I love it.

Apparently I’m not the only one. According to the annual GfK survey of radio listeners, in the 12 months to April

2017, Checkpoint’s ratings rocketed up

11 per cent – from 240,000 to almost

266,000 listeners; figures that stayed relatively steady this year.

The same survey showed Radio New Zealand’s other flagship news programme, Morning Report, also had a standout result last year, with audience figures lifting by over 11 per cent from

380,000 to 430,000-odd. However, they’d slipped back nearly 5 per cent in this year’s survey.

I still start every day listening to

Morning Report. It’s great to hear Espiner and Ferguson giving politicians and business leaders a grilling.

It’s great to hear how politicians and chief executives perform under a bit of pressure, in interviews in which wellinformed journalists and their teams have done solid research, looked at previous statements and don’t let interviewees wriggle off the hook with platitudes and corporate speak.

It doesn’t take long – particularly for politicians who appear regularly on the show – to start showing their true colours and their strengths and weaknesses.

I suspect Campbell is well ‘‘over’’ the daily grind of trying to fill a very big programme with news and – given his new brief – he’s clearly hankering after the days of being out on a reporter’s beat.

So, the opportunity is there for Radio New Zealand to make a great hire and fill the slot with someone with a great nose for news and a strong stomach for hardcore questioning.

The rumour mill is already grinding; suggestions so far have been to ‘‘Bring back Mary [Wilson]’’, the former

Checkpoint host. Another idea is that we might see Espiner or Ferguson moved to the evening slot. And, while I’d back either of them to do a great job, I’d miss them from Morning Report.

One thing’s for sure, the debate about who will replace Campbell will be a great PR opportunity for RNZ – it could think about seeding a few red herrings to get people talking.