Broadcaster Sean Plunket is host and 25% owner of The Platform. Photo / Dean Purcell
‘Quite touch and go’; ‘lumpy, bumpy’: As funding arrangements change for The Platform, its multi-millionaire shareholder and outspoken host speak of the challenges of owning and operating a media platform.
A multi-millionaire backer of Sean Plunket’s The Platform says his family trust isn’t providing further funding for the media venture - and reveals he has bought three-quarters of the business himself.
Wayne Wright jnr told Media Insider that the Wright Family Trust had ceased “start-up” funding to The Platform in March.
Writer David Farrier reported the move on his Webworm platform today, although both Wright and Plunket said listeners had already been informed in March.
Wright and Plunket said The Platform, which started in September 2021, now operated on advertising and subscription revenue, donations and merchandise sales, although both spoke of the challenges in the current media landscape.
“I would have to say that as a business, it’s walking a very fine line,” Wright told Media Insider today.
“It’s a tough industry and you know that better than anyone. We struggle month to month, but we have survived on our own, if you will, since March.”
Asked how the business was performing, Plunket said: “Lumpy, bumpy ... but you guys have had the same thing. You know, the technology changes quickly. Stuff you thought worked didn’t work, so we’re just constantly bloody cutting our cloth.
“I think we’ve got the same challenges as anyone else. Our intent is to keep going and if we can’t keep going, we can’t keep going, but that’s business.”
Wright declined to say how much the Wright Family Trust had poured into the venture in its formative years, saying it was confidential and commercially sensitive.
It had always been the plan that start-up funding would end at some stage, he said, once the venture had established a listenership and advertising base. The move had been planned since about August last year.
At the same time as start-up funding arrangements came to an end in March, Wright said he had personally purchased the family trust’s shares in The Platform.
He now owns 75% of the company through related parties, with Plunket holding the other 25%.
“There are no other backers, there’s no other investment money, it’s all through advertising, subscriptions, merchandise,” Wright said of the revenue mix.
He said he had not put in any of his own money since March.
“As we go month to month, some months we make a little bit and some months we lose a little bit, but it remains quite touch and go.
“I can’t help but feel sometimes that folks are not aware that the Wright family ... funding has come to an end. Maybe there’s even a bit of listener complacency, thinking that, ‘the Wright family is still sitting in the background, they’ll keep The Platform going. I don’t need to subscribe’. But that’s simply not true.”
While the start-up funding was in the millions, Plunket said it would be “significantly less” than others would have put in “to create the audience we have in three years and the engagement we have in three years”.
Wright said Plunket had done a good job in making the business more efficient and developing the technology.
Plunket says that he hopes to be able to have The Platform offering a live video stream on its app within the next week, in a bid to attract more subscribers.
Plunket finds himself the subject of a backlash in some quarters following a social media post on X two days ago in which he wrote, “I’m really concerned about the mass outbreak of anorexia in Gaza.”
Farrier wrote today: “His post has been viewed over 67,000 times – it’s popular. And it is an objectively heinous thing to write as infants, children and adults starve to death.”
In response to complaints about the post, and as reported by Farrier, Wright told complainants in an email: “I don’t always agree with Sean, and sometimes his attempts at humour or creating controversy may be seen as bad taste, but I do respect his and your right to free speech.
“Although I ceased funding of The Platform back in March, once the organisation had completed its startup phase, I continued to support the stated aim of enabling all New Zealanders to have a voice without the fear of being cancelled. This includes Sean.
“I don’t control Sean or anyone else. It is obvious by the number of similar emails I am receiving on this topic that there is a coordinated response to Sean’s comments so I recommend some of you call his show to discuss your views.”
Wright told Media Insider: “Look, I don’t agree with everything that Sean says. I think that what he was writing there was an attempt to be ironic, but frankly, it may have fallen flat. But that’s really for Sean to address.”
“Oh I don’t know – what do you think?” Plunket said, when asked about Wright’s point of him trying to be ironic.
Plunket said criticism of the post was coming from usual suspects. He said The Platform believed in free speech and would not bow to “cancel culture”.
Wright said he had spoken to Plunket about the post.
“We did talk briefly this morning, more in the context of our business and how that or any other of his editorial positions affects business. I have never weighed in on his editorial position on any topic, and I wouldn’t. That’s his domain, absolutely.
“The only thing that I look at is how does this interaction affect the welfare of our business.“
Wright said from his short time in media, he had learned there was always a new topic du jour and people would undoubtedly soon move on to a new controversy.
Asked if he thought the post might hurt business, he said: “No, I don’t think so. I think that Sean has said controversial things in the past, and some subscribers threatened to leave and other ones sign up. I’m not aware of any advertisers that have left us over the years as a result of an editorial position that he’s taken.
“So, just based on history, I don’t see that it will affect business.”
Wright said the principles of why he backed The Platform in the first place remained: “The need for free speech, the need for media independence, the restoration of a voice for everyday New Zealanders. In my opinion, those tenets absolutely remain.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
Watch Media Insider – The Podcast on YouTube, or listen to it on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.