TVNZ chief executive Simon Power finished in the role yesterday.
Outgoing TVNZ chief executive Simon Power opens up on the canned merger with RNZ, why he quit after a little over a year into the job, what’s next and why a renowned political and news junkie has been watching Love Island.
Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson describes him as “one of the best Tories”. John Key considered him a future Prime Minister. He’s a trained lawyer who’s held powerful roles in politics, banking and media.
But as Simon Power steps down as TVNZ chief executive his immediate priority is a family holiday, four historic US Presidents and some more time on the surfboard.
Power, his wife Lisa and their two boys will travel to the United States next week for a family holiday – California, Washington DC and New York are all on the itinerary.
He will then stay in America to carry out research for a PhD – focusing on four US Presidents and their paths as Governors or through the Senate. “I’ll be in a room with boxes for a couple of weeks. Everyone thinks it’s slightly odd … but I’m really looking forward to it!”
Beyond that, he has few plans, apart from ensuring he spends some decent time on his surfboard at Whangamatā, as New Zealand eases out of winter.
Power officially finished at TVNZ yesterday, after just 16 months as CEO. There was many a raised eyebrow when he announced his resignation, it came after the TVNZ-RNZ merger was scuppered and the Government had been signalling it wanted TVNZ to turn its attention to a more “public media” broadcasting focus.
Willie Jackson earlier told the Herald: “People will speculate, ‘Oh, Jackson got rid of Simon Power’.”
“Nothing could be further from the truth. I got a surprise when he was chucking it in,” said the minister. “I only wish him the best, he’s a good man. And I know that people have quite a lot of time for him.”
Power backs up the minister’s position as we sit down for lunch at Cafe Hanoi at Britomart in central Auckland.
“I’ve known the minister since he was an Alliance member of Parliament in 1999. We were on the transport and industrial relations select committee together. I’ve never had any difficulties,” he says of Jackson.
“We both understand that this is a robust environment, that it’s not personal. You’ve got to get the right policy outcomes.
“My dealings with him over the years have been flawless. He’s been easy to deal with, straightforward. I’m not sure where this narrative arose.”
So why is he quitting? Essentially, he says, there were four key areas of focus that were complete, including the merger work, the return of live sport to free-to-air TVNZ and board sign-off on an all-of-business transformation, including major technology changes.
Over lunch, he outlines more about his decision, his time at TVNZ – and just what has unfolded behind the scenes at the state broadcaster over the past 16 months.
Simon Power is one of the most charming and inquisitive business executives in New Zealand.
He is effusive about the high-quality journalism being produced by TVNZ, and the Herald.
Sources say he took the same approach within TVNZ.
“I am a news junkie,” he smiles.
He says he was in the TVNZ newsroom, observing, a lot. “They’ve been very patient with me. If you can’t find me, that’s probably where I am.
“I’m intrigued by how labour intensive it is and it’s vocational; it’s very interesting. That dedication and that commitment to the cause is something quite special.
“These organisations have great purpose but there’s something quite deep about those who are working in news and current affairs fields that makes them turn up each day in a way that is full of intent.”
He spent some time with a young journalist working at the airport one morning. He was carrying “the sticks” – the camera tripod – as the reporter prepared for a live cross for the 12pm bulletin.
“Having been on the end of the microphone for 12 years, just the work that goes on has been a real learning for me.”
As a former politician, he is in the unique position of having been subject to searching interviews from the likes of Guyon Espiner on Q+A on a Sunday morning. He knew he had to be on his game.
“I would come up and stay the night before in a hotel here in Auckland and I would study all night for a seven-minute, eight-minute slot.
“And I tell you, if you got the first two questions wrong or you didn’t know your numbers …” his voice trails off.
“Just the seriousness, the thoughtfulness that you have to dedicate to those opportunities. It’s the same when John [Armstrong] or Audrey [Young] would come and have a chat to you. You’ve got to be on your game.”
(He reveals the most fearless inquisitor he’s ever faced is Colin James – “he brought this historic context … he wasn’t just testing your knowledge of the subject matter, it was testing your understanding of the institutions.”)
Power describes the TVNZ culture as “fast”.
“I haven’t probably worked at this speed since I was in Wellington. The quantum of the issues that are moving are many and varied at any one time, as you know better than most.”
He said he often thought of businesses and professional work models – the inputs, what happens in the middle and then the output.
“When I first arrived somebody said to me, ‘oh, within six months, you’ll think of this much more as a family than a model’ and they were wrong. It took about three months.
“This is a really interesting culture – no hierarchy, everybody’s in it, everybody has a view, everybody is expressing those views.
“It’s incredibly intellectually stimulating, and events are moving you all the time, which is fascinating.”
Power started in the role on March 1 last year and on March 10 the public media initiative – the proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ – had been announced.
He knew what he was in for, he says. The board had been clear from the start that the CEO role, as it existed, might be in place for only the next 12-18 months.
Cafe Hanoi is a favourite for Power.
Our starters include green tiger prawns and kingfish sashimi. For mains, Power goes straight for the shaking beef; and is gleeful when I request the pork belly. “Great choice!”
He sits on a glass of Hawke’s Bay syrah over the next hour and a half; I enjoy a Central Otago pinot noir. Tonight, he and his executive will be off to dinner to mark his departure. He’s pacing himself and still has some work tasks this afternoon.
There have been no more meatier issues that Power has had to deal with over the past 16 months than the proposed merger between TVNZ and RNZ. The marriage was officially called off in February, one of the policies that the then-new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins hurled on the bonfire.
The merger did not have an easy path from the start. It was the subject of a brutal select committee consultation process as media (including TVNZ) raised myriad issues including concerns over editorial independence.
Jackson grew increasingly frustrated, saying TVNZ needed to come to the table. That frustration came to the fore during a disastrous Q+A interview with Jack Tame.
I ask his views on that interview and Power’s response is PR perfect. “Jack is a terrific interviewer and he is a stunningly bright journalist. He works and works and works to get ready for those. He’s a very impressive journalist.”
Power says he was supportive of the merger. “I thought it was a good idea.”
When the call was made not to proceed, “we didn’t dwell on it”.
He says he was proud of the way TVNZ navigated its way through the process. “We were ready to go,” he insists.
And on the minister’s criticisms, he says: “That’s all part of the yin and yang of how these things work. I was just encouraging the team to keep its eye on the prize. I understand that we have to take those signals seriously but at the same time, we’ve got existing legislation that we have to comply with.
“You’ve got to be mindful of any feedback you’re getting from your shareholder, of course.”
He said TVNZ was dealing with structural tension as it considered the merger. “We were there [at the table], but we were vigorously debating some of the detail.
“Our business is complex. And so that complexity had to be worked through, because of the commercial side of the operation – as you know, it’s almost entirely funded from advertising in the market.
“[We have] obligations under the Companies Act and under the TVNZ Act – you have to act commercially. I think some of those conversations probably just reflected that kind of structural tension.”
He says he “didn’t get to the point” of deciding whether he wanted to lead a merged organisation. “I’m not trying to be evasive. But when I looked at the legislation, I was reasonably vocal about what I thought were the shortcomings.”
Power, 53, spent 12 years in Parliament, entering with a slim 289-vote majority as Rangitikei MP in the 1999 election.
By the 2008 election, his majority was more than 12,000.
He was considered one of Prime Minister John Key’s closest lieutenants, serving in Cabinet from 2008-2011 as Minister of Justice, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, and Minister of Commerce.
His resignation from politics was a shock: Key described him as a “huge talent” and a “great loss”.
“We just didn’t see it coming”, Key told the Herald at the time. “I think he’s done an outstanding job as a minister ... He’s very bright and extremely hardworking and pays attention to detail. I think he would have made a fine Prime Minister.”
At the time, Power was clear he wanted new challenges in the private sector. He joined Westpac as head of private banking in 2012, rising to acting chief executive by 2021.
There were four pillars that attracted Power to the TVNZ role – being part of NZ Inc; the commercial strategy; working in a business that intersected commerce and public reform; and news and current affairs.
TVNZ’s size, he says, belies its institutional importance. It’s not a big company – fewer than 1000 staff – “but its impact is vast”, says Power.
“That carries with it quite a sense of responsibility [that weighs on your shoulders] at times, quite heavily.”
Power says he’d do it all again “in a flash”. “I’ve absolutely loved it.”
So why is he leaving?
He says a lot of the strategic work had met a “natural inflection point”.
The merger had come off, a whole-of-business transformation strategy had been approved by the board, and free-to-air sport had been largely locked down.
It had nothing to do with politics, he says.
He says securing free-to-air sport – TVNZ has picked up many of the rights from Spark, including cricket – was a “real highlight” and working on the business transformation also took a lot of time and strategic nous.
That transformation strategy is now with the Treasury and Government and sits ready for the new board to adopt – TVNZ chairman Andy Coupe also officially finished yesterday. Businessman Alastair Carruthers is the new chairman.
“We’ve got to transform how we think about digital and our customer and our technological foundations,” says Power.
He gives kudos to “those who went before me” for the development of the company’s on-demand platform TVNZ+, which he describes as “world-class”.
“It just needs further UX [user-experience work]; it needs to be built in a way that enables all sorts of optionality for the future, whatever the case might be.”
That includes provisioning for subscriber video on demand (SVOD) – the Netflix model – “in a way that makes sense”.
It’s clear the business wants to retain focus on an advertising model, to ensure as much content as possible is free for users. “That won’t change as the fundamental principle,” says Power.
“We are very conscious of the responsibilities that we have to the public media agenda, very conscious of that, actually.”
Everyone, he says, has a view on the definition of public media.
He outlines his own view and believes TVNZ is already meeting those principles: “News and current affairs, reflecting society, making sure we’re getting after those harder-to-reach audiences.”
Public media has to be funded, he says. “It’s complicated. As you flex, your viewers are forming views, you’re informed the whole time. This is a live market.”
Are there any programming decisions you regret, I ask – before quickly adding, “I can think of one.”
“I think you probably can,” he says, smiling-not-quite-grimacing.
FBoy Island could not have come at a worse time for Power and TVNZ – right as debate raged over the merger, and the quality of programming.
As Herald journalist Damien Venuto noted, “the premise of the show is for three women to determine whether the 20 men joining them on an island are FBoys (simply there to compete for the cash) or nice guys (looking for love). The term FBoy is slang for “f*** boy”, a term for men who never intend a sexual encounter to involve a relationship or act as if entitled to sexual encounters.
It was also revealed one of the contestants had a serious criminal history and he had to be edited out of the show. A petition called for the show to be removed.
“I think we got there in the end,” says Power. “You do your best to appeal to different audiences; I accept the title was provocative.”
Everyone has a view on TVNZ – whether it’s programming, presenters, or content. Power says he hadn’t struck it since politics, where he’d be regularly advised of those views while out socialising.
“As the content people from time to time will say to me, ‘Simon, you’re not the target audience’.
“If it was up to me, I’d probably have more documentaries on Lyndon Johnson and, and reruns of M*A*S*H, you know, so I get it, I get it. You and I aren’t the target.
“But we need scale to fund niche opportunities.”
Despite his comments, Power himself is not immune to watching shows that might be a little, er, outside his range.
Love Island – a worldwide hit and not to be mistaken for FBoy Island – is the classic example.
“I’ve watched the first couple of episodes, maybe the first three episodes. I like to know what people are talking about when they see it. I get it [but] I’m a Country Calendar fanatic. I’m not the target audience. It’s getting real [big numbers]. It’s going well.”
He says he is incredibly proud of TVNZ, particularly on a Sunday.
“I have certain patterns. Lisa and I walk the dog, have a coffee, read the papers, watch Q+A on demand, watch Country Calendar and Sunday.”
Lately, he’s also been watching The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes. He describes it as kind, compassionate and thoughtful. “I have a genetic bias toward news and current affairs but this is stunning and thought-provoking.
“I’m just incredibly proud of the organisation on a Sunday, all the time. But on a Sunday, when I switch off, I just think this is a great job and this is a great organisation.”
Power joined TVNZ around the same time as Kamahl Santamaria, the Breakfast host who resigned following a complaint about his behaviour towards a woman and earlier alleged inappropriate behaviour at Al Jazeera.
A review found TVNZ’s hiring processes were not up to scratch; the head of news Paul Yurisich, who hired Santamaria, also eventually resigned.
“We’ve implemented all the recommendations,” says Power, referring to the review and findings following the saga.
We discuss RNZ, and the recent discovery of the work of a digital journalist who was allegedly adding pro-Kremlin content to foreign news stories. That journalist, too, has resigned.
It’s critical we all learn; he agrees no one in media executive circles is looking at the RNZ case with anything other than a desire to ensure their own house is in order.
“I think we’ve all just got to be muscular in how we think about whether our systems and processes are up to scratch all the time. You’ve got to avoid the situation of having to be reactive.”
So, as Power switches off from TVNZ, his attention moves to the US, starting with the family holiday with wife Lisa and their two boys, one at university; the other in high school, next week.
“I’m going to have a break. I haven’t had more than a few weeks between gigs over my working lifetime.
“I’m going to spend a little bit of time with the family in the States, then they’re going to come back and I’m going to stay and spend some quality time in presidential libraries.”
Victoria University has approved his plans for his PhD on US presidential leadership.
At its core, he’ll be considering, against some theoretical models, a governorship or Senate role as the path to the presidency. He’ll be looking at four case studies against the theoretical model as part of it – Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.
“But it’s got some political psychology in there and another field of political science called American political development, which is sort of a sub-field about how those candidacies might affect the institution of the presidency itself.”
He says that will give him time to think about what’s next.
“Going in and out of the public and private sector at a kind of operational or management level, there’s been plenty of people that have done it at a governance level, but actually moving between the two – which in other countries is quite common – is not that common here.
“So I’ve found that really interesting just how one informs the other.”
He has an interesting view on the Auckland v Wellington, private v public sector approach.
“Although we speak the same language, the dialects are different.
“In Wellington, I always think it’s where the comma is and it’s all about the power of the pause.
“So you wait for the pause and that’s the moment that the point is being inferred, whereas with Auckland, it’s constant conversation.
“Working in an environment where you had some experience of public policy and then being part of a commercial organisation, which is subject to the public policy changes, that’s quite interesting on both sides.”
He doesn’t know which side he’ll fall on in the future. “That intersection is really interesting – we’ll see.”
I ask him if he’s missed politics, and he gives a long, Wellington pause.
“There are elements of it …
“I still follow it very closely … obviously I don’t have any views, or preferences I should say,” he laughs.
Understanding the privilege of a political role and how you conduct yourself is important, he says.
“Will my boys be proud of what I do today? No matter how difficult the decisions are, no matter how complex or confronting the issues might be, how would I explain my reaction to this problem or this issue in five years’ time, if I was asked by one of my children, ‘why did you do that?’
“Did you take a shortcut or did you confront, hit on an issue that needed to be resolved?”
On the quality of political discourse, he says “give me 10 days”. (We were meeting 10 days before his departure).
“The only thing I’d say is I admire anybody who’s prepared to put their name up, put themselves out in the public arena, and run for office.”
Power is looking forward to some time away from the office. “I don’t have a boat and I don’t play golf, so this study I’m doing provides me a huge amount of joy.
“I have bought a very big surfboard, and we’ve got a little rundown place at Whangamatā – I’m determined to get better use of this surfboard.”
Power is optimistic about the future of TVNZ and media more generally. He knows the media needs to continue focusing on rebuilding trust after three polarising years.
Media also has a critical role to play in explaining the political discourse.
“I’m quite optimistic about media’s grasp of the issues and how to solve them.
“I feel very optimistic about TVNZ’s future … and its willingness to see beyond the short term to ensure that it remains a key sovereign institution.
“And I mean that with a little ‘s’ before I get myself into all sorts of trouble; a state broadcaster who has a role in that discourse and a place alongside an airline and a central bank and all these things that matter to a liberal democracy.”
There are some blanks to fill in as the deadline looms.