Browsing: Paul Thompson

News
Drop it like it’s hot: Paul Thompson on why RNZ is selling its Auckland building
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In a very challenging environment, media companies have had to get increasingly creative to increase their revenue or decrease their costs. Fairfax has started selling fibre. Sky is looking to shack up with Vodafone. And in a recent staff email, the RNZ executive team announced that it was looking for potential buyers to take over ownership of its central Auckland building. We talk to CEO Paul Thompson about why it’s selling the asset.

News
Paul Thompson on how RNZ grew its weekly audience by 60,000 listeners
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Nielsen’s All National Radio survey showed that the weekly cumulative radio audience for RNZ National and Concert was 564,000 people aged 15 and over, a decent year-on-year lift when compared to the 503, 000 listeners recorded in the previous survey. We talk to Paul Thompson some of the moves that led to this uptick in weekly listener numbers.

News
Future Tense: Radio New Zealand’s Paul Thompson on going commercial, the rise of podcasting and the importance of state-funded journalism
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In a new series, StopPress talks to a range of newsmakers currently trying to shine lights into dark places while also keeping their own lights on and looks at whether commercial realities are leading to editorial compromise. First up, Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson chats about why it’s unlikely—and important for journalism—for the state-funded broadcaster to go fully commercial.

News
Radio New Zealand and NZME embark on public/private partnership with iHeartRadio deal—UPDATED
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The Campbell Live saga has shown that commerce and current affairs often make uneasy bedfellows. But across on a different medium, the publicly funded Radio New Zealand and the commercially minded NZME are jumping into bed, with iHeartRadio now streaming Radio New Zealand National, Radio New Zealand Concert and Radio New Zealand International. And both sides think it’s a win-win.

Movings & Shakings
Movings/Shakings: 29 August
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Boucher takes the editorial wheel at Fairfax, APN’s Johns on the hunt for partnerships, veteran Mike Yardley jets into the editor’s chair at For the love of travel website, Kristina Rapley is the Creme of the crop, Hotwire gets its first board members, market research outfits join forces, and Simon Sievert is DraftFCB’s new digital architect.

News
Fairfax looks on the bright side, prepares for the future with continuation of intern scheme
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There’s been plenty of press lately about media companies being forced to adjust the way they did business in fast-changing circumstances, chief among them Fairfax, which announced the cutting of 1,900 jobs in Australia and host of other big changes (check out this anonymous opinion piece by a Fairfax journalist in Australia that painted a rather vivid picture of the current situation at the company). But according to Fairfax Media’s group executive editor in New Zealand Paul Thompson—and as evidenced in Oriella’s global study—journalism remains a career of huge variety, opportunity and importance and the company says its continuation of the intern scheme in 2012 is “a sign of its belief in itself, its journalism and the future”. And, given that future will likely be digital, this year applicants will have to upload a video clip of no more than 90 seconds about themselves to YouTube as part of the process to show they’re up to the task.

News
Fairfax rings changes within Kiwi divisions
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The latest annual report from Fairfax painted a fairly grim picture for the Australian-owned media company, with a loss of A$401 million on the back of a A$651 million writedown in the value of its mastheads and a 40 percent reduction in the value of its share price this year. In an effort to raise capital, local teacher’s pet TradeMe is set to be partially floated and changes are also being made within both the New Zealand newspaper and magazine divisions.