You hit it on the head and in the guts. The old guard don’t get it . They need to find their new final block of cheese to get their teeth into. Grow up. Get on with it, as Princess Anne is fond of saying .
Interesting column and good ideas, Duncan. However, when you say "If Kiwis want locally made media, then they have to act now before someone like Murdoch does" I wonder if you know The Australian was ready to launch a dedicated NZ website at the beginning of 2023 but abandoned the project at the very last minute — even after articles had been commissioned for the launch.
It had tested the NZ market for more than six months by seeing how many readers that regular NZ-focused articles drew and I was told all the figures were good. It remains a mystery why the managers pulled the plug.
I'm not sure. The NZ editor (who I had written seven or eight articles for over six months in 2022) didn't explain the change of heart to me. I know they had given her a budget to hire some permanent staff writers but it was skimpy and she found couldn't lure anyone she wanted away from their current jobs — although you'd think that might be easier now given the contraction in NZ media.
The NZ articles published within The Australian did really well for them (after all, there are 600k+ expat NZers in Oz who may be interested in news from here) but maybe they figured it was better not to carve off a separate paywalled section with all its financial risks.
I know it's a Murdoch paper but its coverage of The Voice was exemplary — giving time to both sides of the debate — which is in stark contrast to coverage here of the Treaty principles debate.
Interesting, thanks Graham. I'm not a reader of the Australian, but it's good to hear that they covered both sides of the Voice debate. It appeared to me that many who wrote about ACT's Treaty policy hadn't even read their policy. GD
Really worthwhile series of suggestions, Thanks for this. The response so far from MSM has been far from imaginative. While I am sympathetic to those who are to lose their jobs we do need to shift focus and make better use of the models that we already have (eg podcasts/audio), open up to ways of connecting with young people (eg sensationalist headlines - eg opinion polls! - is not the way to do it) and avoid the 'gotcha' journalism that has perminated our media.
Thanks for the comments, Mark. Gotcha journalism really can be annoying. It's more about boosting the profile of the journalist – by ruining someone's career – than doing anything like informing the public.
You hit it on the head and in the guts. The old guard don’t get it . They need to find their new final block of cheese to get their teeth into. Grow up. Get on with it, as Princess Anne is fond of saying .
All good suggestions.
Interesting column and good ideas, Duncan. However, when you say "If Kiwis want locally made media, then they have to act now before someone like Murdoch does" I wonder if you know The Australian was ready to launch a dedicated NZ website at the beginning of 2023 but abandoned the project at the very last minute — even after articles had been commissioned for the launch.
It had tested the NZ market for more than six months by seeing how many readers that regular NZ-focused articles drew and I was told all the figures were good. It remains a mystery why the managers pulled the plug.
Thank you, Graham. And I had not heard that before. Do you think they'll be back?
I'm not sure. The NZ editor (who I had written seven or eight articles for over six months in 2022) didn't explain the change of heart to me. I know they had given her a budget to hire some permanent staff writers but it was skimpy and she found couldn't lure anyone she wanted away from their current jobs — although you'd think that might be easier now given the contraction in NZ media.
The NZ articles published within The Australian did really well for them (after all, there are 600k+ expat NZers in Oz who may be interested in news from here) but maybe they figured it was better not to carve off a separate paywalled section with all its financial risks.
I know it's a Murdoch paper but its coverage of The Voice was exemplary — giving time to both sides of the debate — which is in stark contrast to coverage here of the Treaty principles debate.
Interesting, thanks Graham. I'm not a reader of the Australian, but it's good to hear that they covered both sides of the Voice debate. It appeared to me that many who wrote about ACT's Treaty policy hadn't even read their policy. GD
Really worthwhile series of suggestions, Thanks for this. The response so far from MSM has been far from imaginative. While I am sympathetic to those who are to lose their jobs we do need to shift focus and make better use of the models that we already have (eg podcasts/audio), open up to ways of connecting with young people (eg sensationalist headlines - eg opinion polls! - is not the way to do it) and avoid the 'gotcha' journalism that has perminated our media.
Thanks for the comments, Mark. Gotcha journalism really can be annoying. It's more about boosting the profile of the journalist – by ruining someone's career – than doing anything like informing the public.
bb