What triggered US fund to invest in NZME?

More broadly, he says NZME fits the criteria his firm has been using since 2002 to identify money-makers.

"We are long term holders of what we consider to be high-quality businesses," Lewis says.

"We have a process that we call the 'Osmium 8', which looks for a low business valuation, ability to grow earnings over time, a strong track record of capital allocation, reasonable barriers to entry, a superior user experience, attractive underlying economics, a good balance sheet, and strong board that is fair with shareholders."

NZME is Osmium's first investment in New Zealand, and its first in a media company - although Lewis has been monitoring the sector for years.

Jarden research analyst Arie Dekker, has an "outperform" rating on NZME, and raised his 12-month price-target to 47 cents following the half-year report.

Lewis prefers not to reveal any target, but says at 44c his firm considers NZME to be "substantially undervalued."

Osmium has at times rattled cages. In 2004, the Wall Street Journal chronicled a clash between Lewis's fund and Troy Group over a bid to take the company private.

And last month, Osmium joined a number of other investors in penning an open letter calling for "drastic change at the top" at Leaf Group - a US company that includes a number of home, wellness and lifestyle brands - alleging $1m in stock and cash bonuses awarded to its CEO were "egregious" at a time when the company's shares were down and rank-and-file staff taking pay cuts.

NZME has recently felt the influence of investors. On June 11, chairman Peter Cullinane resigned suddenly ahead of the annual shareholders meeting. He told the Herald he felt it "appropriate to step down" because he'd lost the support of Australian fund-manager shareholders.

But Lewis describes Osmium as "an engaged rather than activist" investor. It only got on the front foot when something was severely out of balance at a company. The managing partner said he had no issues he needed to engage over with NZME or its board. He had spoken with chief executive Michael Boggs, but purely in a fact-finding mode.

The potential return of the dividend was not an immediate hook. Lewis said when a company was trading at a low multiple to ebitda, Osmium preferred free cash to be used for a share buy-back.

Jarden's Dekker sees potential for the dividend resumption to be brought forward FY2022 to FY2021, given progress parring down debt.

Despite the headwinds facing the media industry, "NZME has been producing strong free cash flow in recent years with net debt nearly halved over the last two years to $55 million at June 30," he says.

"We see NZME able to sustain a 3 cents per share dividend while continuing to invest around $12 million capex annually in the business and still pay off debt."