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.
Browsing: Paul Thompson
While RNZ exists on the periphery of the commercial world, the organisation’s chief executive sees it as increasingly important to work with the nation’s major media companies.
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.
Yesterday afternoon, RNZ head of Radio John Howson informed the department he leads that the state broadcaster has proposed disestablishing seven roles, including the one he holds.
Radio New Zealand has followed in the footsteps of the BBC, ABC and NPR by adopting the acronym RNZ. And while this is a relatively small change, the state broadcaster’s chief executive Paul Thompson says it’s reflective of the organisation’s reach beyond traditional channels into new digital mediums.
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.
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.
“I’m Guyon Espiner”.
“I’m Susie Ferguson”.
“And this is Morning Report – brought to you by Spicy Bob’s cheesy chicken tenders!”
Fear not. This is not something we’re likely to hear over the airwaves anytime soon.
Radio New Zealand will not sacrifice its brand by putting ads on the air, chief executive Paul Thompson tells StopPress.
Changes at MediaWorks, PHD Group, Radio New Zealand, NZME, dobetter.co.nz and NZTech.
Radio New Zealand is pretty popular with the oldies and, according to Nielsen, it was the top rating station in the country last year. But its role is to appeal to all New Zealanders, so it’s aiming to do just that with the launch of its new youth-focused multimedia brand, The Wireless.
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.
Former Fairfax Media New Zealand executive editor Paul Thompson has been head-hunted by Radio New Zealand, now leading the public broadcaster as its chief executive and editor-in-chief.
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.
Don’t miss out… time is running out to register for the Marketing Today Conference 2011. The Big Day Out for the marketing industry is only 12 days away and the line up is top notch.
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.