March 16, 2025 • 18 mins
A battle is underway for the future of one of New Zealand’s biggest media companies.
Auckland-based Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon has in the last fortnight emerged as one of the biggest shareholders in NZME – the owner of the NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB and many music radio stations.
And next month, he hopes to vote out the company’s current board members and install himself and three others at the company’s shareholder meeting.
It’s the latest bit of turmoil to hit the media sector in this country, with nearly every major company seeing upheaval to some degree over the last 12 months.
Today on The Front Page, we’re joined by Media Insider Shayne Currie to discuss what Grenon wants from NZME, and if the sector is any closer to stability.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Ethan Sills
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
YIELDA.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. A battle
is underway for the future of one of New Zealand's
biggest media companies. Auckland based Canadian billionaire Jim Grennan has
in the last fortnight emerged as one of the biggest
(00:28):
shareholders in enzed Me, the owner of the enzed Herald,
newstalk ZEDB and many music radio stations, and next month
he hopes to vote out the company's current board members
and install himself and three others at the company's shareholder meeting.
It's the latest bit of turmoil to hit the media
sector in this country, with nearly every major media company
(00:50):
seeing upheaval to some degree over.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The last twelve months.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Today on the Front Page, we're joined by media insider
Shane Curry to discuss what Grennan wants endzed Me and
if the sector is any closer to stability.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
So, Shane, let's start with the big one. Who exactly
is Jim Grennan and how did he make his wealth
and why is he now living in New Zealand. I've
got so many questions.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, Jim Grennan a little bit of a mystery man
in some ways. And in fact I've asked several times
for an interview with mister Grennan and he has said
he will talk at some stage. But he what we
know of him, He is a Canadian billionaire, made his
money through private equity and investing in other businesses. Moved
here in twenty twelve and as a Kiwi as a
(01:39):
Kiwi resident, lives in Takapuna, and has very much come
to the four obviously in recent weeks in terms of
his shareholding and ended me and his intentions to become
an endy Me board member.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So Grennan founded his own media brands since moving here,
New Zealand News and Essentials and The Centrist. What do
we know about his motivation to start those brands?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
So he has put out several statements in the last
few weeks just in terms of media inquiries, talked a
little bit about this centriest and The Centrist itself is
basically an aggregation site if you like, and he has
said that he introduced that by means of bringing more
to the everyday discussion. I guess in the news media
kind of environment, he felt that there were stories that
(02:25):
weren't getting or seeing the light of day. They do
employ some journalists to write stories specifically for the website,
but other stories they point to, For instance, they will
point to stories on the Herald or to other news websites,
and so it's a little bit of an aggregation site
as well as having its own unique content. But he
felt a bit like the platform, I guess in terms
(02:45):
of the audio sense that there was a conversation missing
on some topics and some political stances. I guess as well.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
So Grennan has sent you a statement that editorial content
is a side issue, but the quality of journalism impacts
of the business, that he wants to improve the quality
of journalism, including through training to advanced staff skills, and
that he wants a new editorial board with representation from
(03:11):
both sides of the spectrum. What do you make of
all that?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Yeah, I think if we just take a step back
a little bit, Chelsea is obviously you know, he is
aiming to have a seat on the board of ensied
me along with three other nominees, and we have another shareholder,
Osbian Partners, who have put forward their own two nominations.
Now at the moment, what we don't know is the
details of a letter that mister Greennan has written to
ensed Me outlining some of what he sees as operational
(03:37):
and governance concerns. And so I've been requesting that letter
from both enzied Me and mister Grennan's group. So far
it hasn't been released. I do expect it will be
released at some stage ahead of the annual shareholders meeting,
and in that will get a sense of really the
editorial I guess, I guess endeavor that mister Grennan is
talking about here. But on the face of it, you know,
(03:58):
he's made some comments that should give cheer to the
Enzbing newsroom in the sense of, you know, wanting to
uphold and uplift the quality of journalism, maintaining standards and
building standards. But I guess the devil is in the
detail in terms of just what that specifically means. And
of course, when he talks about an emphasis on factual accuracy,
(04:18):
the newsroom will say, yes, that there's a big focus
for us at all times less selling of the writer's opinion.
He's also said that, and that's a discussion that comes
up quite a bit in terms of differentiating opinion from
actual news stories. And you know enz ME is said
in the past, you know, it's making efforts to make
that emphasis on factual stories versus opinion a lot more differentiated.
(04:40):
I guess, make it much more clearer to readers just
when they're reading commentary and opinion versus a straight news story.
And so I think, you know, he's totally in line
with what the company has been trying to do and
then appealing to a wider political spectrum. I guess that
again comes back to some of the points he was
making around setting up the centrist you know, that free
(05:00):
flow of information and ideas that there is a broad
church of content, which you know, mass media organizations will
argue that they are already in that ballpark.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, as you can imagine, this is a significant interest
to our members. So are many of the journalists at
NZDME and as the union who represents them. We're working
through this issue with them, and I think it's fair
to say that the primary primary concern here is to
ensure that journalists are able to continue doing their job
(05:36):
with genuine editorial independence, without fear or favor. And the
concern here is that we clearly have an individual who
is highly motivated to take control of a major media
entity in New Zealand who is doing so quite clearly
with the intent of promulgating a particular political perspective, and
(05:56):
there are real concerns about what that might means. The
editorial independence of journalists are at injymen.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
So, Australian based Spheria Asset Management that owns nineteen percent
of enz ME has come out last week and said
it backs Grinnan's plans.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So does that.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Mean that this board takeover is basically a given?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Do you think the current ENZME board can scrap backer? When?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Ya?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So? What?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
We won't know the final breakdown of the vote obviously
until April twenty nine, and when the shareholders do all
get together, and before that meeting happens, they will have
available to them the biographies of all the six new
nominees for the board, as well as you know existing
board members. They'll know how they operate and so forth.
There will be documentation that ended ME distributes and I
(06:43):
expect that that will include correspondence from mister Grennan to
the company in terms of outlining his proposals and ideas
for the business. So potentially that letter, potentially that letter exactly,
and so I think the idea will be that Enzimy
shareholders will have as much information as possible ahead of
the vote. So what we do know about the numbers
right now is that enz Me's bigger shareholder, Spheria Asset Management,
(07:05):
which has nineteen percent of the company, that is backing
mister Grennan's bid to become a board member and the
three other nominee. So that's a significant number to get
to the fifty percent majority. This is a very fast
moving story, and I expect that mister Greennin, myself and
his supporters will be expecting to be over that fifty
percent majority. If not already then certainly by the time
(07:26):
April twenty nine rolls around. From my discussions, you know,
talking to lots of different parties, they do seem confident.
Having said that, I also know that enz Me will
be talking to all of its shareholders in one way
or another in terms of presenting just how the company
is fearing its progress over the last twelve months. Especially
we've just heard the financial results and what's planned. I mean,
(07:48):
at the annual results announcement just a couple of weeks ago,
the company put forward three significant proposals in front of shareholders,
including the appointment of a new board member, and VA
can see on the board for that. So as I say,
there's going to be a lot more to come in
the next forty odd days.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I've been at anzedmy for nearly a decade now, and
I can't say that I've had too much to personally
do with the board or our shareholders. The same way,
I don't think doctors in an emergency department are rubbing
shoulders with the Health then Z board for example. But you, however, Shane,
have been on this company's executive team. What does a
media board do and how much say do they actually
(08:27):
traditionally have over editorial coverage.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Well, I can safely say that when I was the
editor in chief and on the executive and that was
more than two years ago now, But at no stage
did the board or the executive give direction in terms
of you must cover the story kind of thing. We're
a board an executive, you know they will make sure
the settings are right in terms of resourcing and support.
(08:52):
I worked very closely, for instance, on our extensive code
of conduct and ethics, presented that to the board for approvals.
Really the settings and the environment that the board and
the executive are responsible for to allow that editorial independence
to be maintained. And of course, what we've heard in
the last week or so is some concerns from the
Journalists Union. They just want reassurances that any new board members,
(09:15):
including mister Greennan, will uphold that editorial independence. And so
far the noises from mister Grennan have actually been very
positive about editorial output and inputs. So the union is seeking,
i think a one to one meeting with mister Greennan,
just to be reassured itself on those points.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Bezis said that he's in favor of personal liberties. Well,
of course, so am I, and that's why I'm in
favor of free expression. You know, it's right there in
the First Amendment. And news organizations have always honored free
expression by having a variety of points of view on
their opinion pages. But Beasos now is just shutting that down,
and he's saying that only his point of view is
(09:56):
going to be represented on those pages. And that really
is a betrayal the heritage of the Washington Post, and
I think a betrayal of the very idea of free expression.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
So Amazon boss Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post back
in twenty thirteen, but in the last decade he hasn't
caused much controversy there as he has in the last
six months. First he stopped the paper from endorsing a
presidential candidate in last year's election, and well recently he's
been dictating what he wants to see in the opinion
(10:32):
part of the paper. That's led to staff resignations and
a drop in digital subscriptions. So do you think that
the same reaction could happen here?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I think a totally different market in America. So if
you look at the American market, you know, obviously tens
of millions of people in The Washington Post is very
much a global brand, almost and certainly a national brand.
The New Zealand market is much smaller than news catching
the area, if you like, is much smaller, and so
all of the mainstream media organizations in New Zaan will
strive to be a broad church of ideas, of opinions
(11:03):
and commentary, and of course covering lots of the same
topics at times. Now, that's not to say that those
ideas can be broadened, or that news media organizations can
pick up different topics to chase individually from each other,
and of course they do do that. The American journalism
system and media systems a little bit different as well,
in terms of the opinion pages are generally run by
(11:24):
executive editors who report up through a different line from
the newsroom itself, and so that kind of church and
state a little bit, the two different divisions, whereas hair
opinion and news is basically led by the editor in
chief as a whole. And so it's a bit of
a different model. And I can see what Bezos is doing,
and it has been, in my view, a change, a
(11:45):
pivot obviously from him. He's previously said that he didn't
want to interfere at all with any of the Washington
Post content. I think you need to look at the
political landscape obviously in America at the moment, and Bezos
was literally sitting behind Donald Trumpet on Inauguration Day along
with some of the other tech giant CEOs and owners.
And to know that, you know, there's a very careful
kind of game being played there at the moment. All
(12:08):
I see really happening in the New Zealand market, yep,
they'll be focused on mister Greennan if he becomes a
board member and any other new board members. But of course,
you know, it's a mass market newspaper, the New Zealand Herald.
It's a mass market media organization ended me. It's always
had private owners, and I expect that all the shearholders,
certainly all the directors, will certainly be trying to make
(12:30):
in of Me as successful as possible into the future.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So let's move on to the rest of the industry.
And things have not been sunny the last year. The
entire news Hub brand was shut down in July, Iconic
TV and Z shows were canceled after decades on air,
Shortland Street was cut down to just three episodes a week,
and now the Heir has had a major restructure of
its staff. Now do you think we are near the
end of these cuts or could there be.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
More to camp I thought we were at the end
of dramatic change a while ago. I must say last
year really was one for the books. This year has
started no differently so far. I didn't expect to be
covering my own companies in so much detail as I
have been. And certainly the other big company that's hit
the headlines already this year is Sky Television. So Sky
(13:26):
and enz in me early on in twenty twenty five
to two big publicly listed media companies in New Zealand
are the ones that I guess have been in the spotlight.
But I do expect that, you know, change is constant
now and I think we all expect that in the
media industry. And no, I think if you look at
some of the outlooks on the forecast that the CEOs
have been putting out, they are expect They are a
(13:48):
little more confident about the middle of the end of
the year in terms of advertising revenue and seeing I
hate the word, but seeing the green shoots, if you like,
in the economy that will hopefully shore up some of
that revenue. And so, you know, I'm more optimistic about
this year than I was about last year, that's for sure.
But certainly, you know, I think at all times we
(14:09):
just need to be listening to our audiences, observing just
how they're reading and taking in our content, listening to
our content in the case of the podcasts and so forth, Chelsea,
and knowing that we're still appealing to a wide readership
or wide audience. You know, there's more than two million
people a day that come into the Herald and so
you know that these are significant numbers and it's just
about getting that business model right.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Well, there's been a lot of expectations on the government
to intervene, particularly around the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill,
and it seems that it's been in limbo for a
while now. Is that still on the agenda.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Yeah, there's three different pieces of legislation if you like,
or three pieces that the government is focusing on, and
one of the key ones is the Fair Digital News
Bargaining Bill. Now that has actually been put on the
back burner a fair bit because we were initially going
to be observing how this new legislation in Australia would
work out. But the Aussies themselves have taken fright. There's
a federal election obviously not too far away across the Tasman,
(15:03):
but also taken fright at any sort of repercussions if
they do sort of pin down facebooks in the Googles
of the world in terms of repercussions from the Trump administration,
and so New Zealand and Paul Goldsmith now really have
to decide if we do try and pay their own
way again in terms of the fair Digital News Bargaining bill.
I do believe it's still alive as an issue, and
(15:27):
I'm sure the media industry will be pushing for it
in some form to be enacted at least by the
end of the year. But I do think at the
moment with that on hold and another two pieces of legislation,
one of them is before Select Committee at the moment,
that's the Sunday Advertising legislation, and then there's another which
sort of encompass a whole lot of other issues such
(15:48):
as a levy or at least a levy yes on
revenue from the streamers for New Zealand content in New Zealand,
amongst some other moves. All of this it's a little
bit messy at the moment, but they should start coming through,
as I say, hopefully midyear, end of the year.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So Shane, you know I love asking you to look
into your crystal ball for future predictions. Do you have any?
Do you think things are going to get better? Are
there some challenges we haven't discussed yet? What's your top back?
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Well, I actually had twenty five predictions for twenty five
and one of my first media columns of the year,
and I think you know some of them have come
to fruition already just in terms of the first three months,
and look, it's a changing game all the time. But
what I do know is that there is you know,
while there are issues around trust and news and absolutely
media companies need to be addressing that and listening to
(16:37):
their audiences, there is still an insatiable appetite for knowledge
in this world for news. As I talked about the
numbers of people coming to The Herald, it's the same
for ZB, It's the same for a lot of our
other major media organizations. People are still coming to us
for information, wanting to know what's going on in the world.
So as a baseline, you know, that has to be
(16:58):
encouraging for us. So I'm always with a sense of
optimism looking ahead. It's about getting these business models right
and being given that runway and the resource to be
able to make sure that we are able to keep
our newsroom levels at the levels they are, if not boosted. Now,
we've been going through a fair bit of hurt ourselves
in the last few weeks, there's no doubt about that,
(17:18):
but I'm optimistic that that will flatten out and hopefully
rebuild very soon.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Thanks for joining us. Shane.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Thanks Chelsea.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzadherld dot co dot mz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sells and Richard Martin, who is also
our sound engineer.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio
or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow
for another look behind the headlines.
YIELDA.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. A battle
is underway for the future of one of New Zealand's
biggest media companies. Auckland based Canadian billionaire Jim Grennan has
in the last fortnight emerged as one of the biggest
(00:28):
shareholders in enzed Me, the owner of the enzed Herald,
newstalk ZEDB and many music radio stations, and next month
he hopes to vote out the company's current board members
and install himself and three others at the company's shareholder meeting.
It's the latest bit of turmoil to hit the media
sector in this country, with nearly every major media company
(00:50):
seeing upheaval to some degree over.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
The last twelve months.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Today on the Front Page, we're joined by media insider
Shane Curry to discuss what Grennan wants endzed Me and
if the sector is any closer to stability.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
So, Shane, let's start with the big one. Who exactly
is Jim Grennan and how did he make his wealth
and why is he now living in New Zealand. I've
got so many questions.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, Jim Grennan a little bit of a mystery man
in some ways. And in fact I've asked several times
for an interview with mister Grennan and he has said
he will talk at some stage. But he what we
know of him, He is a Canadian billionaire, made his
money through private equity and investing in other businesses. Moved
here in twenty twelve and as a Kiwi as a
(01:39):
Kiwi resident, lives in Takapuna, and has very much come
to the four obviously in recent weeks in terms of
his shareholding and ended me and his intentions to become
an endy Me board member.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So Grennan founded his own media brands since moving here,
New Zealand News and Essentials and The Centrist. What do
we know about his motivation to start those brands?
Speaker 4 (02:03):
So he has put out several statements in the last
few weeks just in terms of media inquiries, talked a
little bit about this centriest and The Centrist itself is
basically an aggregation site if you like, and he has
said that he introduced that by means of bringing more
to the everyday discussion. I guess in the news media
kind of environment, he felt that there were stories that
(02:25):
weren't getting or seeing the light of day. They do
employ some journalists to write stories specifically for the website,
but other stories they point to, For instance, they will
point to stories on the Herald or to other news websites,
and so it's a little bit of an aggregation site
as well as having its own unique content. But he
felt a bit like the platform, I guess in terms
(02:45):
of the audio sense that there was a conversation missing
on some topics and some political stances. I guess as well.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
So Grennan has sent you a statement that editorial content
is a side issue, but the quality of journalism impacts
of the business, that he wants to improve the quality
of journalism, including through training to advanced staff skills, and
that he wants a new editorial board with representation from
(03:11):
both sides of the spectrum. What do you make of
all that?
Speaker 4 (03:14):
Yeah, I think if we just take a step back
a little bit, Chelsea is obviously you know, he is
aiming to have a seat on the board of ensied
me along with three other nominees, and we have another shareholder,
Osbian Partners, who have put forward their own two nominations.
Now at the moment, what we don't know is the
details of a letter that mister Greennan has written to
ensed Me outlining some of what he sees as operational
(03:37):
and governance concerns. And so I've been requesting that letter
from both enzied Me and mister Grennan's group. So far
it hasn't been released. I do expect it will be
released at some stage ahead of the annual shareholders meeting,
and in that will get a sense of really the
editorial I guess, I guess endeavor that mister Grennan is
talking about here. But on the face of it, you know,
(03:58):
he's made some comments that should give cheer to the
Enzbing newsroom in the sense of, you know, wanting to
uphold and uplift the quality of journalism, maintaining standards and
building standards. But I guess the devil is in the
detail in terms of just what that specifically means. And
of course, when he talks about an emphasis on factual accuracy,
(04:18):
the newsroom will say, yes, that there's a big focus
for us at all times less selling of the writer's opinion.
He's also said that, and that's a discussion that comes
up quite a bit in terms of differentiating opinion from
actual news stories. And you know enz ME is said
in the past, you know, it's making efforts to make
that emphasis on factual stories versus opinion a lot more differentiated.
(04:40):
I guess, make it much more clearer to readers just
when they're reading commentary and opinion versus a straight news story.
And so I think, you know, he's totally in line
with what the company has been trying to do and
then appealing to a wider political spectrum. I guess that
again comes back to some of the points he was
making around setting up the centrist you know, that free
(05:00):
flow of information and ideas that there is a broad
church of content, which you know, mass media organizations will
argue that they are already in that ballpark.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, as you can imagine, this is a significant interest
to our members. So are many of the journalists at
NZDME and as the union who represents them. We're working
through this issue with them, and I think it's fair
to say that the primary primary concern here is to
ensure that journalists are able to continue doing their job
(05:36):
with genuine editorial independence, without fear or favor. And the
concern here is that we clearly have an individual who
is highly motivated to take control of a major media
entity in New Zealand who is doing so quite clearly
with the intent of promulgating a particular political perspective, and
(05:56):
there are real concerns about what that might means. The
editorial independence of journalists are at injymen.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
So, Australian based Spheria Asset Management that owns nineteen percent
of enz ME has come out last week and said
it backs Grinnan's plans.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So does that.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Mean that this board takeover is basically a given?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Do you think the current ENZME board can scrap backer? When?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Ya?
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So? What?
Speaker 4 (06:21):
We won't know the final breakdown of the vote obviously
until April twenty nine, and when the shareholders do all
get together, and before that meeting happens, they will have
available to them the biographies of all the six new
nominees for the board, as well as you know existing
board members. They'll know how they operate and so forth.
There will be documentation that ended ME distributes and I
(06:43):
expect that that will include correspondence from mister Grennan to
the company in terms of outlining his proposals and ideas
for the business. So potentially that letter, potentially that letter exactly,
and so I think the idea will be that Enzimy
shareholders will have as much information as possible ahead of
the vote. So what we do know about the numbers
right now is that enz Me's bigger shareholder, Spheria Asset Management,
(07:05):
which has nineteen percent of the company, that is backing
mister Grennan's bid to become a board member and the
three other nominee. So that's a significant number to get
to the fifty percent majority. This is a very fast
moving story, and I expect that mister Greennin, myself and
his supporters will be expecting to be over that fifty
percent majority. If not already then certainly by the time
(07:26):
April twenty nine rolls around. From my discussions, you know,
talking to lots of different parties, they do seem confident.
Having said that, I also know that enz Me will
be talking to all of its shareholders in one way
or another in terms of presenting just how the company
is fearing its progress over the last twelve months. Especially
we've just heard the financial results and what's planned. I mean,
(07:48):
at the annual results announcement just a couple of weeks ago,
the company put forward three significant proposals in front of shareholders,
including the appointment of a new board member, and VA
can see on the board for that. So as I say,
there's going to be a lot more to come in
the next forty odd days.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I've been at anzedmy for nearly a decade now, and
I can't say that I've had too much to personally
do with the board or our shareholders. The same way,
I don't think doctors in an emergency department are rubbing
shoulders with the Health then Z board for example. But you, however, Shane,
have been on this company's executive team. What does a
media board do and how much say do they actually
(08:27):
traditionally have over editorial coverage.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Well, I can safely say that when I was the
editor in chief and on the executive and that was
more than two years ago now, But at no stage
did the board or the executive give direction in terms
of you must cover the story kind of thing. We're
a board an executive, you know they will make sure
the settings are right in terms of resourcing and support.
(08:52):
I worked very closely, for instance, on our extensive code
of conduct and ethics, presented that to the board for approvals.
Really the settings and the environment that the board and
the executive are responsible for to allow that editorial independence
to be maintained. And of course, what we've heard in
the last week or so is some concerns from the
Journalists Union. They just want reassurances that any new board members,
(09:15):
including mister Greennan, will uphold that editorial independence. And so
far the noises from mister Grennan have actually been very
positive about editorial output and inputs. So the union is seeking,
i think a one to one meeting with mister Greennan,
just to be reassured itself on those points.
Speaker 5 (09:35):
Bezis said that he's in favor of personal liberties. Well,
of course, so am I, and that's why I'm in
favor of free expression. You know, it's right there in
the First Amendment. And news organizations have always honored free
expression by having a variety of points of view on
their opinion pages. But Beasos now is just shutting that down,
and he's saying that only his point of view is
(09:56):
going to be represented on those pages. And that really
is a betrayal the heritage of the Washington Post, and
I think a betrayal of the very idea of free expression.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
So Amazon boss Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post back
in twenty thirteen, but in the last decade he hasn't
caused much controversy there as he has in the last
six months. First he stopped the paper from endorsing a
presidential candidate in last year's election, and well recently he's
been dictating what he wants to see in the opinion
(10:32):
part of the paper. That's led to staff resignations and
a drop in digital subscriptions. So do you think that
the same reaction could happen here?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I think a totally different market in America. So if
you look at the American market, you know, obviously tens
of millions of people in The Washington Post is very
much a global brand, almost and certainly a national brand.
The New Zealand market is much smaller than news catching
the area, if you like, is much smaller, and so
all of the mainstream media organizations in New Zaan will
strive to be a broad church of ideas, of opinions
(11:03):
and commentary, and of course covering lots of the same
topics at times. Now, that's not to say that those
ideas can be broadened, or that news media organizations can
pick up different topics to chase individually from each other,
and of course they do do that. The American journalism
system and media systems a little bit different as well,
in terms of the opinion pages are generally run by
(11:24):
executive editors who report up through a different line from
the newsroom itself, and so that kind of church and
state a little bit, the two different divisions, whereas hair
opinion and news is basically led by the editor in
chief as a whole. And so it's a bit of
a different model. And I can see what Bezos is doing,
and it has been, in my view, a change, a
(11:45):
pivot obviously from him. He's previously said that he didn't
want to interfere at all with any of the Washington
Post content. I think you need to look at the
political landscape obviously in America at the moment, and Bezos
was literally sitting behind Donald Trumpet on Inauguration Day along
with some of the other tech giant CEOs and owners.
And to know that, you know, there's a very careful
kind of game being played there at the moment. All
(12:08):
I see really happening in the New Zealand market, yep,
they'll be focused on mister Greennan if he becomes a
board member and any other new board members. But of course,
you know, it's a mass market newspaper, the New Zealand Herald.
It's a mass market media organization ended me. It's always
had private owners, and I expect that all the shearholders,
certainly all the directors, will certainly be trying to make
(12:30):
in of Me as successful as possible into the future.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
So let's move on to the rest of the industry.
And things have not been sunny the last year. The
entire news Hub brand was shut down in July, Iconic
TV and Z shows were canceled after decades on air,
Shortland Street was cut down to just three episodes a week,
and now the Heir has had a major restructure of
its staff. Now do you think we are near the
end of these cuts or could there be.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
More to camp I thought we were at the end
of dramatic change a while ago. I must say last
year really was one for the books. This year has
started no differently so far. I didn't expect to be
covering my own companies in so much detail as I
have been. And certainly the other big company that's hit
the headlines already this year is Sky Television. So Sky
(13:26):
and enz in me early on in twenty twenty five
to two big publicly listed media companies in New Zealand
are the ones that I guess have been in the spotlight.
But I do expect that, you know, change is constant
now and I think we all expect that in the
media industry. And no, I think if you look at
some of the outlooks on the forecast that the CEOs
have been putting out, they are expect They are a
(13:48):
little more confident about the middle of the end of
the year in terms of advertising revenue and seeing I
hate the word, but seeing the green shoots, if you like,
in the economy that will hopefully shore up some of
that revenue. And so, you know, I'm more optimistic about
this year than I was about last year, that's for sure.
But certainly, you know, I think at all times we
(14:09):
just need to be listening to our audiences, observing just
how they're reading and taking in our content, listening to
our content in the case of the podcasts and so forth, Chelsea,
and knowing that we're still appealing to a wide readership
or wide audience. You know, there's more than two million
people a day that come into the Herald and so
you know that these are significant numbers and it's just
about getting that business model right.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Well, there's been a lot of expectations on the government
to intervene, particularly around the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill,
and it seems that it's been in limbo for a
while now. Is that still on the agenda.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Yeah, there's three different pieces of legislation if you like,
or three pieces that the government is focusing on, and
one of the key ones is the Fair Digital News
Bargaining Bill. Now that has actually been put on the
back burner a fair bit because we were initially going
to be observing how this new legislation in Australia would
work out. But the Aussies themselves have taken fright. There's
a federal election obviously not too far away across the Tasman,
(15:03):
but also taken fright at any sort of repercussions if
they do sort of pin down facebooks in the Googles
of the world in terms of repercussions from the Trump administration,
and so New Zealand and Paul Goldsmith now really have
to decide if we do try and pay their own
way again in terms of the fair Digital News Bargaining bill.
I do believe it's still alive as an issue, and
(15:27):
I'm sure the media industry will be pushing for it
in some form to be enacted at least by the
end of the year. But I do think at the
moment with that on hold and another two pieces of legislation,
one of them is before Select Committee at the moment,
that's the Sunday Advertising legislation, and then there's another which
sort of encompass a whole lot of other issues such
(15:48):
as a levy or at least a levy yes on
revenue from the streamers for New Zealand content in New Zealand,
amongst some other moves. All of this it's a little
bit messy at the moment, but they should start coming through,
as I say, hopefully midyear, end of the year.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So Shane, you know I love asking you to look
into your crystal ball for future predictions. Do you have any?
Do you think things are going to get better? Are
there some challenges we haven't discussed yet? What's your top back?
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Well, I actually had twenty five predictions for twenty five
and one of my first media columns of the year,
and I think you know some of them have come
to fruition already just in terms of the first three months,
and look, it's a changing game all the time. But
what I do know is that there is you know,
while there are issues around trust and news and absolutely
media companies need to be addressing that and listening to
(16:37):
their audiences, there is still an insatiable appetite for knowledge
in this world for news. As I talked about the
numbers of people coming to The Herald, it's the same
for ZB, It's the same for a lot of our
other major media organizations. People are still coming to us
for information, wanting to know what's going on in the world.
So as a baseline, you know, that has to be
(16:58):
encouraging for us. So I'm always with a sense of
optimism looking ahead. It's about getting these business models right
and being given that runway and the resource to be
able to make sure that we are able to keep
our newsroom levels at the levels they are, if not boosted. Now,
we've been going through a fair bit of hurt ourselves
in the last few weeks, there's no doubt about that,
(17:18):
but I'm optimistic that that will flatten out and hopefully
rebuild very soon.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Thanks for joining us. Shane.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Thanks Chelsea.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzadherld dot co dot mz. The Front Page is
produced by Ethan Sells and Richard Martin, who is also
our sound engineer.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio
or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow
for another look behind the headlines.
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