When NZME, the company which publishes The Herald, shared its annual results with shareholders a few weeks ago, the presentation included what one media commentator called “a bizarre slide”.
Under the heading ‘Setting a new tone for New Zealand’, the slide announced what appeared to be a new direction for the paper. ‘NZ Herald to take a leadership position in helping New Zealand thrive.’ The paper would ‘support the reboot of New Zealand’s economic recovery by sharing stories of success’, and ‘improve the tone of conversation to build positive momentum for all New Zealanders.’
This might sound like the sort of boilerplate stuff you’d expect in a meeting designed to make a company look good. They seemed, though, removed from the paper’s core job. Don’t we want The Herald to stand up to powerful interests to keep us informed? And wouldn’t this mean sharing stories of failure, not success? I want to know if high-profile firms are skimping on their tax bills, how much CEOs are paid, or if the government is cutting support to food charities. ‘Stories of success’ doesn’t sound like news, it sounds like spin, like the opposite of news.
Compare The Herald’s “bizarre slide” with the mission statement from US newsroom ProPublica.
“[We will] expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.”
BBC World promises to ‘Make Sense of it All’. The Washington Post declares ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’, which is true, although ringing a little hollow these days.
The Washington Post is famously owned by one of the richest men in the world. Last week Jeff Bezos openly demonstrated the tension between turbo-charged capitalism and ‘holding power to account’ with an outrageous memo muzzling his opinion writers.
“I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” he chirruped. “Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Staff and former writers did not take this well, to their credit. “Bezos argues for personal liberties,” fumed former editor Martin Baron. “But his news organisation now will forbid views other than his own in its opinion section.” The paper’s opinion editor quit immediately, and a columnist resigned after her piece critical of Bezos was spiked.
Bezos’ massive donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, and his memo – this is cringemaking stuff for a newspaper owner whose most important job is to reassure readers he isn’t tampering with his journalist’s work. Subscribers revolted en masse, cancelling 75,000 digital subscriptions in two days.
Online warriors tell me the Washington Post is nothing but a billionaire’s megaphone. But opinion columns (sing it from the roof tops) are not the same as hard news. Washington Post reporters are still doing their jobs: holding Trump and Musk’s toes to the fire, despite threats from inside and outside their own office, and the chaos of the Trump White House. Perhaps that will change – but it hasn’t yet.
White House reporter Dan Diamond posted bleakly on Bluesky: “My colleagues and I have been working to break news and write stories holding powerful people accountable. No one has ever told me what to write. If that changes, I’d leave.”
To know what is happening in the US we need journalists, along with the sub-editors who verify their work. Their reports and investigations do battle with a media landscape saturated with conspiracy theories and the AI drivel which feeds off them.
Meanwhile, in Auckland, a Canadian billionaire is trying to take over the board of NZME, which publishes not only The Herald, but also BusinessDesk, regional newspapers like The Northern Advocate and Whanganui Chronicle, and Newstalk ZB radio network.
The tycoon is Jim Grenon, who claims he has the backing of 37 percent of NZME shareholders.
“If he and his allies can get shareholders on side,” warns Spinoff media commentator Duncan Greive, “new directors will be installed. If that happens, they will have effective control of New Zealand’s most important newspaper, its largest radio audience and one of its two major business news sites. Essentially, the most important news infrastructure in New Zealand.”
And Grenon, says Greive, “has seemingly strong views on trans rights, vaccines and te Tiriti.” A website he helped to found, The Centrist, takes a skeptical approach to climate change.
A senior NZME staff member told Grieve, “we’re terrified”.
RNZ Mediawatch journalist Hayden Donnell attended a gloomy farewell for 30 redundant NZME staff last week. Many well-known names took voluntary redundancy, but I found the departure of Jamie Morton, a gifted science and environmental reporter, to be the most worrying. A physicist responded to Morton’s news by posting “shit” on Bluesky. I feel the same way. What will happen to The Herald’s climate change coverage now?
Donnell found a nervous group at The Herald’s leaving do. “One journalist leaned on the bar and delivered a bleak quip. ‘This was meant to be a wake for the people leaving, but it’s turned into a wake for the people who are staying,’ he said.”
• Jenny Nicholls
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