Garnering a slice of the live news
Veteran host’s podcast to be relaunched
Duncan Garner celebrated his 50th birthday this month — a far happier occasion than what was unfolding for his career almost a year ago. Next week marks the one-year anniversary of the closure of Today FM — a move so sudden and shocking that it caught 9am-12pm host Garner and the station’s broadcasters and journalists on the hop. Today FM’s demise ignited a tumultuous 12 months for the New Zealand broadcasting and journalism landscape — there has been no slowdown.
As breakfast host Tova O’Brien returned to the studio that morning to relay to Garner the news of the station’s pending closure, the pair led several minutes of unforgettable live radio.
“It sounds like it’s over,” O’Brien said. “We haven’t been given a chance. We’ve been on air for just a year. We were told we had the support of everyone, from the chief executive through to the board, and they have f ***ed us. And we’re all going to lose our jobs. And the station is coming off air.”
Garner said: “This is betrayal.” But while Garner lost his role on Today FM, his public anger soon dissipated as he entered negotiations and was offered a new role within MediaWorks — host of a daily podcast Duncan Garner: Editor in Chief.
In many ways, it was an understandable move by MediaWorks. It had a lot of big, bankable names that it lost with the end of Today FM, but Garner was arguably the biggest of all.
Now, Garner’s role looks set for a reboot again, with MediaWorks planning to relaunch his weekday podcast. A job advertisement seeks a new executive producer to lead “live studio production and produce highquality video and audio podcasts”.
On that basis, the smart money is on a new, daily video show, livestreamed each morning with a live news element. A show that can then be released as a podcast, and sliced and diced for social channels, as they do with Garner’s show now.
The job description talks of relaunching Garner’s podcast and creating and developing a live news bulletin. “Utilising the skills and journalism of the MediaWorks newsroom, this podcast will be a digital version of the hourly news bulletins that currently run across our radio brands.”
The successful applicant, says the ad, would ideally have experience in “live in-studio video and/or audio content creation” and be able to direct and produce in fast-paced, live-to-air environments.
With his television background, it makes sense to make the most of Garner. While Newstalk ZB and RNZ might not regard the new venture as a massive threat to their ratings, there is likely to be enough of a market for Garner to fashion out more of a morning audience, similar to the way The Platform’s Sean Plunket operates.
While it’s nice to see a news product evolving in these fraught times, it won’t be easy to measure the success of Garner’s show any more.
MediaWorks has just pulled out of the monthly Triton Podcast Ranker, which revealed the monthly listening numbers for New Zealand podcasts. Stuff and RNZ have also declined to be part of the ranker.
“This is hugely disappointing news for our industry,” says NZME chief commercial officer James Butcher of MediaWorks’ withdrawal. NZME podcasts have traditionally dominated the ranker.
A MediaWorks spokeswoman said: “The NZ Podcast Ranker failed to attract enough publishers to be a true representation of the NZ market. MediaWorks remains committed to growing the local podcast market and is supportive of the new digital audio reporting guidelines being established in conjunction with the RBA.”
Stripe boss sets up UK firms
The owner of a troubled Auckland production company has set up two new film companies in Britain, company records show.
SNB Film Ltd was incorporated on February 22 and Loveday Films on December 18 — both list Alexander James Breingan as an active director, according to the UK records.
Alex Breingan is also the managing director of Auckland-based Stripe Studios Ltd — it and 10 associated Stripe entities have been placed in receivership, with several production industry players saying they are owed money. Breingan did not respond to messages this week.
In a statement last week, BDO partner Rees Logan said: “Following a request made by the Companies Director, Rees Logan and Andrew McKay of BDO Auckland were initially appointed receivers over certain Stripe Media Group companies including two holding companies and six special purpose vehicles.
“Subsequent to the initial eight receivership appointments, the receivers have now been appointed over a further three special purpose vehicles.
“Each of the special purpose vehicles relates to shows that are in various stages of production. The receivers are undertaking an urgent assessment of the status and financial position of each of the entities before determining their next steps in relation to each of the productions.”
Promotional material for the three new shows — Hoff the Beaten Track, Izzy and Beaver’s Australian Adventure and Iliza Shlesinger: This Tastes Funny — has been removed from Stripe’s website, amid a raft of financial and legal issues.
All three series have been shot, but face an uncertain future. Media Insider can also reveal that Stripe Studios and associated companies earlier received more than $4 million in taxpayer money for five of its topbilling shows. Stripe Studios received $4.27m for the five shows in 2022, through the New Zealand Film Commission-administered screen production rebate (SPR).
The shows that received the SPR were The Circus ($985,795) in March 2022; Great Southern Truckers
($856,425) in April; Uncharted New Zealand ($688,973) in May; Circus 2
($1,210,483) in August; and Reunited
($529,289) in November.
The SPR was established in 2014 based on two principles: To build the domestic film industry and support the development of Kiwi creatives and to support the creation of New Zealand content and stories.
MediaWorks hacker gives up
An individual or group claiming to have hacked the details of almost 2.5 million MediaWorks customers says they’ve abandoned attempts to sell the data on the dark web — they claim they’ll now release it all for free.
They wanted $30,000 for the data but it seems no one was willing to pay. “We believe we just haven’t encountered hackers who understand how to utilise this data,” said the hacker/s in an online noticeboard message.
They say they are releasing the data for free — “allowing anyone to use it for whatever purposes they desire”.
“Enjoy the leaked data, hackers!” In an email update to affected customers from MediaWorks chief executive Wendy Palmer on Thursday, the company said from its initial investigations, “we understand the attacker was able to access the data of approximately 403,000 individuals by exploiting a previously unidentified system vulnerability”.
“MediaWorks, with the support of external experts, is currently reviewing all other IT systems and cyber security protections to identify and mitigate any other possible security vulnerabilities.”
MediaWorks said it had reported the incident to the Privacy Commissioner, police, and Cert NZ.
In line with government advice, it had not engaged with the “attacker”, but it had taken the affected database offline and moved all current competition entries to a new database.
“The types of information held in this database and accessed by the attacker include name, date of birth, gender, postal address and/or post code, email address, phone number, and in some cases images or videos that may have been submitted as part of [a competition] entry,” MediaWorks told affected customers. “Importantly, the affected database did not contain passwords, identity documents, financial information, bank accounts or credit card details.”