Many times I’ve been on the receiving end of her free and frank advice. I remember giving one-time and short-lived National leader Todd Muller a hard time during a live interview on television and let’s just say the feedback blasted down the phone from Granny Pam of Ōtaki Beach was not for repeating in the pages of this fine newspaper.
I’ve always loved my grandma for her honesty. And she has a point. When your job is to challenge people who make big decisions and spend all our money, the result can rub people the wrong way.
Everybody has different thoughts, beliefs and ideas about the world. One person’s reasonable is another’s outrageous.
The internet has provided choice for audiences to switch to something more to their liking.
Unbound by the confines of a couple of newspapers and three TV channels, if you don’t like so-and-so (Granny, I’m looking at you), then you can simply click here and watch another so-and-so who’s more to your taste.
This means fragmented audiences. New media alternatives such as Sean Plunket’s The Platform and The Spinoff (along with plenty of others) have grown solid audiences in recent years. This has got to be a good thing because people are engaging in media.
Trust in media tanked after Covid and hasn’t bounced back. In the eyes of many viewers the media narrative through the pandemic aligned too closely with that of the Government. Not only did that Government lose the room, but so did the media.
Couple that with the runaway freight train that is social media and you’ve got yourself a pretty difficult landscape and operating environment.
Some mediums have survived better than others. Radio and audio has continued to do well, as evidenced by this week’s radio survey results.
Digital news does really well. NZME made a call relatively early on to paywall content and now boasts 180,000 digital subscribers and almost 2 million NZ Herald readers, while its loyal print audience remains the largest in the country by a significant margin.
The strength of the company’s audio reach through Newstalk ZB and its 162-year-old masthead is part of the reason I came here. That and well, you know, I lost my job and they offered me a new one.
Tomorrow is the start of something new for me and the Herald newsroom.
From 7am, you’ll be able to tune in to a live streaming news show broadcast from inside NZME’s Auckland newsroom.
There are obvious advantages to doing so; the Herald and Newstalk have incredibly talented and smart journalists and broadcasters on hand to feed a hungry two-hour programme.
News will be read on the half-hour by my favourite person in the building, Niva Retimanu, who’ll beam in from a radio studio rather than our purpose-built streaming video set.
Tomorrow’s guests include Finance Minister Nicola Willis, incoming Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour, Auckland FC coach Steve Corica and business leader Dame Julie Christie. Cabinet darling Erica Stanford and Opposition cowboy Willie Jackson debate politics and policy every Friday. Wednesdays are for Chris Hipkins.
Mark Richardson is back on screen, albeit in a new role talking finance instead of ranting and raving. He’s started a new career, is doing really well and I can’t wait to see him regularly again after a few years between beers.
The show will be available where you are; live streaming on the Herald’s homepage every morning and on YouTube via the Herald channel.
This is important for those who want a big-screen, living-room experience.
YouTube is by far the biggest of the global video-sharing platforms and now reaches 64% of Kiwis every day.
You’ve got to go where the people are.
Importantly for our broadcast sponsors, the all-important 40-59-year-old demographic are consuming YouTube content in big numbers, reaching 63% of that age group.
I realise trust in media has been low and people are hungry for challenging but fair content. I certainly won’t be perfect and to everybody’s liking but since when has that ever stopped a self-indulgent tosser?
In this landscape, it’s not often media executives are willing to invest in something new so I’m grateful for the opportunity and looking forward to getting stuck in.
There’ll be news. There’ll be interviews. There’ll be debates. But one thing I treasure in life is not taking myself too seriously. You’ve got to do the business when the business needs to be done, but outside of that there ought to be room for a few laughs and a bit of fun. That’s how I like to start my day and I hope you do too.
See you tomorrow.
Now, off to teach granny how to use YouTube.
You’ll continue hearing Ryan on his NewstalkZB Early Edition programme from 5-6am weekdays. Then tune in from 7am to Herald Now with Ryan Bridge at nzherald.co.nz or via our YouTube channel.
