Bright ideas in a dark week for NZ media
A deep well of broadcasting talent is now waiting to be mined
The announcements out of TVNZ and Newshub this week have been devastating. Both networks have a deep well of journalistic and broadcasting talent and I have no doubt NZME, Stuff, RNZ, Sky TV and other media companies will be snapping up as many great people as they can afford in the current climate, and as budgets and vacancies allow. Aside from that, and as the dust settles, there are some strong strategic opportunities. Here are six reckons:
1. My own company, NZME — owner of nzherald.co.nz and Newstalk ZB — should now be looking closely at what it can provide itself from a digital video news perspective in the early evenings, to try to snare as much new audience and advertising revenue as it can following Newshub’s closure. In my opinion, there is a huge opportunity to promote the likes of Heather du Plessis-Allan for a 6pm7pm video news hour, tied in with her ZB show.
2. Stuff is a leading contender to provide a pared-back 6pm-7pm news service to Warner Bros Discovery for its Three channel. If it can make it work, Stuff would need to bring in a decent amount of broadcasting and production expertise to meet viewer and advertising expectations. Then it’s a matter of making it work from a cost/margin perspective. For a smooth transition, either Samantha Hayes or Mike McRoberts should host the bulletin (but not both at the same time). As part of the deal, Stuff should insist on taking over the Newshub website to help boost its free v paywall digital news strategy.
3. Sky TV should snap up one of Three’s biggest talents, Ryan Bridge, and launch the Bridge interview show that never got out of the blocks at Newshub. It would be a drawcard for advertisers and viewers on Sky’s free Open channel. I reckon Bridge won’t be short of job offers — NZME should also grab him for the 5am-6am Early Edition slot on Newstalk ZB.
4. Michael Morrah is one of the country’s best investigative reporters — a media company should attract him into a digital video news environment, with a focus on exclusive journalism. There are many other talented Newshub and TVNZ journalists, producers and broadcasters who could adapt their skills, including Amanda Gillies and Angus Gillies.
5. Paddy Gower deserves as much NZ on Air money as he can secure — both for his own show and his one-off special documentaries.
6. The Trust in News survey out of AUT this week is a big wake-up call for media. It’s time for all mainstream media companies to come together to highlight the importance of journalism in a high-functioning democracy. We’re communicators — we need to do a far better job as an industry to market our work, the influence it has on improving society and why claims of being “bought off ” by Governments are nonsense.
Melissa Lee’s baffling performance
Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee has had a shocker of a week — well, a month really.
The industry deserves far better than meaningless buzzwords and hollow promises.
Lee is either being poorly advised — both Mike Hosking and Heather du Plessis-Allan ran rings around her this week — or she is simply struggling to get her head around myriad critical issues facing the media industry.
While she’s only had the reins for six months — and the problems for media extend well before that — Lee has the power to introduce meaningful, effective change.
She is undoubtedly a good and smart operator but her political performance has been poor and her word-soup media comments have been simply baffling.
She has been guilty of several missteps.
Her performance is causing angst around the Cabinet table and the wider industry. Some are now wondering what might come first — the much-promised Cabinet paper which will apparently offer solutions for the industry, or the removal of the Media and Communications portfolio from her responsibilities.
Jailed radio star’s new podcast Former radio host and jailed money launderer Nate Nauer is returning to the airwaves, with a new podcast featuring him and his good mate, Mai FM breakfast host Nickson Clark.
The Herald’s Joseph Los’e revealed in September last year that Nauer — sentenced in May after pleading guilty to six money laundering charges — had been granted home detention after serving five months of a twoyear, nine-month sentence in jail.
Nauer was imprisoned after the courts heard he laundered $420,000 for the Comancheros gang, mainly via paying cash for luxury vehicles.
The cash was the proceeds of the sale of Class A drugs.
He’s now served his time and is on the verge of a media comeback.
Nauer was back in the Mai FM studio this week, promoting his new Spotify podcast Nickson and Nate, the first episode of which is due to be released tomorrow. The subscriptionbased podcast is set to lift the lid on some of Nauer’s darkest periods — including wild times as the former Mai breakfast host.
In comments this week, he indicated he’d sometimes start a shift on the radio having come straight from a strip club.
“. . . I was at my absolute worst,”
I’d walk in and Tegan would be like ‘Where’d you come from?’. I’d just have no answer. I’m hungover, I’m doing the show.
Nate Nauer
he told Clark and Mai breakfast cohosts Tegan Yorwarth and Fame Teu.
“I would be stumbling in here with my sunnies on. I’d just come from a place where women like to dance and sometimes it gets really hot and sometimes [they] take their clothes off.
“I’d walk in and Tegan would be like ‘Where’d you come from?’. I’d just have no answer. I’m hungover, I’m doing the show.”
Nauer described Nickson Clark as his “brother”. “And you use that word in good times and bad times. You gotta be able to fight with your brother.
“I remember when I got his phone number approved so I could call him from jail. He picks up and he’s like: ‘Yeah, what do you want?’ But I would talk to him every night.”
I asked MediaWorks, owner of Mai and employer of Clark, about whether it was supporting the podcast financially.
A spokeswoman said the podcast was “completely independent” of the media company.
She confirmed the podcast would be recorded at MediaWorks. “Our MediaWorks studios are available to hire and as such we have multiple independent podcasts that are recorded on our premises. I can confirm this podcast is one of them.”
It will be interesting to see whether MediaWorks uses the podcast to test public sentiment for Nauer, and whether that could eventually lead to a new radio gig.
Another friend, BBM charity boss Dave Letele, told the Herald last year he was confident that once Nauer had completed his sentence, he would make a good contribution to society.
“Nate knows what he did was wrong and stupid and has certainly learned his lesson from his time in prison,” Letele said. “Everyone deserves a second chance if they make a mistake.”