RNZ in Absolutely Great Form [broadsheet carks it, who? where?]

SAMPLE

### RNZ National about 1 hour ago
Toby & Toby on …. The newspaper apocalypse and Sonny Bill Williams’ incredible new look
OPINION: Toby Manhire & Toby Morris

Pardon?
“Newspaper apocalypse” is hyperbolic tabloidese, granted, but there’s a grain of truth there. In the UK, the final Independent newspaper was printed a few days ago, and the title now exists online only, with a much smaller, and less well paid, reporting staff. Hundreds of newspapers around the world have similarly folded, and many more are staring down the barrel, all since the Great Change.

The Great Change? Is this the bit about Sonny Bill Williams’ incredible new look?
No. That was shameless and misleading clickbait. Sorry.
Read more

█ A CIRCUMSPECT(ish) weekly column published every Wednesday, by graphic artist Toby Morris and journalist Toby Manhire. CLEVER RNZ, WOOP !!!

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Related Post and Comments:
20.3.16 RNZ: ‘Is the ODT going OTT?’ #paywall

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

RNZ: ‘Is the ODT going OTT?’ #paywall

Mediawatch: ‘The ODT not exactly over-selling the “exciting relaunch” of its website in last Tuesday’s paper.’ –ODT 15.3.16 (bottom, page 3)

### radionz.co.nz Sun, 20 Mar 2016 at 2:40 pm
RNZ National – Mediawatch
Will NZ’s biggest paywall plan yet pay off?
By Colin Peacock
New Zealand’s biggest locally-owned news publisher is set to make readers pay for its online news. Mediawatch asks the editor of the Otago Daily Times if it will pay off, and what the paying punters will get in return.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 (11′34″)

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[excerpts from Mediawatch article]

The two big news publishers in this country – Fairfax Media and NZME – still give away their best stuff for free online.

….this week the biggest publisher outside of the two main companies announced time will soon be up for its free-loading readers. Dunedin-based Allied Press told The NBR (ironically in an article behind the NBR’s paywall) Otago Daily Times had been “giving away our content free for long enough.” Fighting talk. The publication’s paywall plan is a bold move by a paper which does not often chop or change. Its design is conservative and it carries some distinctly old-fashioned local content. […] From next month, a digital ODT subscription will cost $27 a month – the same as a print subscription. Subscribers of the paper will get online access for nothing. […] But readers leaving comments on the ODT site weren’t supportive. One said he thought it was a joke: “I’m guessing the paywall starts on the 1st of April?”
….Writing for The Spinoff website, [former NZ Herald editor-in-chief] Tim Murphy said because subscribers to the paper also had digital access, a big chunk of the total audience might stick loyally with the website too. But Mr Murphy added: “It will need to have content that you can’t get anywhere else, in a voice and character and feel that you want to support because it is ‘your ODT’.”
Full Article

!!! ……yesterday

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█ http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch
Mediawatch looks critically at the New Zealand media – television, radio, newspapers and magazines as well as the ‘new’ electronic media. It also examines the performance of the agencies, corporations and institutions that regulate them. It looks into the impact the media has on the nation, highlighting good practice as well as bad along the way – and it also enquires into overseas trends and technological developments which New Zealanders need to know about. It aims to enlighten everyone with an interest in the media about how it all works, how quickly things are changing – and how certain significant stories and issues are being covered. It’s also intended to be essential listening for those who work in the industry itself – as well as those who simply enjoy well-produced and lively radio.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: fresh.co.nz + alliedpress.co.nz – tweaked by whatifdunedin

Fairfax Media: Police release Citifleet investigation report

Updated post
Wed, 12 Aug 2015 at 4:50 p.m.

██ CITIFLEET POLICE REPORT (PDF, 4.41 MB) —via Fairfax Media

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The detective, who has since left the police force, also noted the council did not supply Bachop’s credit card or fuel card statements as requested.

### Stuff.co.nz Last updated 13:08, August 12 2015
Police raised possibility of others involved in Dunedin City Council Citifleet fraud
By Hamish McNeilly
It had been billed as the work of a sole suspect, but a police file into the investigation of the theft of 152 cars from the Dunedin City Council fingers the “highly suspicious” activity of another unnamed person. Police have released to Fairfax Media their investigation report into the Citifleet fraud.
Read more

Previous articles:
18.12.14 Stuff: Car fraud pinned on dead man
3.6.14 Stuff: Dunedin council unit under scrutiny

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[screenshot – click to enlarge]

█ For more, enter the terms *citifleet*, *conduct* and *vandervis* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC’s debt level — who do you believe?

Updated post 7.7.14

### ODT Sat, 5 July 2014 (page 34)
Opinion: Letters to the editor
Drastic action urged on DCC’s debt level
The recent Ratepayers Report on New Zealand councils’ relative financial performance makes for sobering reading for Dunedin’s 53,266 ratepayers. The Dunedin City Council’s debt per ratepayer of $15,093 is nearly the highest in New Zealand and is exceeded only by Auckland.
The DCC is amongst New Zealand’s worst-performing councils in terms of operating expenditure at $6885 per ratepayer, well ahead of the national average of $3175 per ratepayer. DCC employee expenditure per ratepayer is $1783, which is three times the national average.
It’s hard to believe Dunedin was once famous for thrift and living within its means. Mayor Cull and the new CEO Sue Bidrose must wake up and make some drastic cuts as soon as possible, given the DCC’s shocking performance compared to most other local authorities.
T. Stevens, Dunedin

[Dunedin City Council group chief financial officer Grant McKenzie replies: “The figures quoted by your correspondent are for the group position of councils and highlight the fact the Dunedin City Council has significant other assets (Aurora Energy Limited, Delta Limited, City Forest’s Limited and Taieri Gorge Railway Limited). The actual asset value for the group is in excess of $70,000 per ratepayer.
“For Dunedin, the average rates bill is $1750, which is the 13th-lowest of all the councils and reflects the benefits we receive from the wider DCC group.”]

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I note Grant McKenzie leaves off mention of the stadium companies DVML and DVL, which are now part of DCHL, and the effect of their growing debt on the council’s overall position. And what of all misappropriation of funds and serious fraud at DCC, DVML and CST still to be revealed, you have to ask.

█ Ratepayers Report at http://www.ratepayersreport.co.nz/

Larry Mitchell’s opinion of DCC’s reply to T. Stevens would be interesting – further, it’s not like other councils don’t have their own companies or significant and strategic assets.

█ Then to blow everything out of Otago Harbour there’s DCC’s exposure to global markets through borrowing – see new comment by Rob Hamlin.

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Related Post and Comments:
12.6.14 Fairfax Media [not ODT] initiative on Local Bodies

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

LGNZ #blaggardliars

Received from Anonymous
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 at 3:17 p.m.

Horowhenua Chronicle 25.6.14

[Anonymous] “Another report by another highly paid expert, strategically placed on the front page to calm the masses only weeks after Horowhenua District Council (HDC) announced rate hikes of 10%.”

[Evidence] No-one believes his crap. Slippery Lawrence Yule treated like yesterday’s scrumpled chip paper.

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Our reading preference:

█ The Ratepayers’ Report is based on data collated by the Taxpayers’ Union, a lobby group, from councils’ annual reports. It also includes information collected independently from the Department of Internal Affairs and Statistics New Zealand. All of this has been checked and sent to the 67 councils involved for them to review. See local government league tables published by analyst Larry Mitchell since 2010.

Related Post and Comments:
12.6.14 Fairfax Media [not ODT] initiative on Local Bodies
21.4.13 Councils “in stchook” —finance & policy analyst Larry.N.Mitchell
30.5.12 Larry.N.Mitchell: 2012 Local Govt League Table Executive Summary

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Fairfax Media [not ODT] initiative on Local Bodies

The Taxpayers’ Union in collaboration with Fairfax Media has launched the “Ratepayers’ Report”. (Link)

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Comment received from Russell Garbutt
Submitted on 2014/06/11 at 10:04 am

The Fairfax initiative on Local Bodies is an excellent one.

It can be found at http://www.ratepayersreport.co.nz/

It seems that this whole thing has stemmed from the excellent work of Larry Mitchell, in trying to educate Local Bodies as to some financial nous, and also to alert ratepayers to what circumstances their local body has put them in.

I know from experience over many years of trying, that my recommendations to local Councillors to contact Larry Mitchell and learn from his experience as an independent consultant on Local Government fell on totally deaf ears. They seemed to know better. Yeah, right.

Now it is out there in a form that is very readable and comparisons can be easily seen.

What is totally amazing is the views of the DCC in this. Yes, the second highest debt per ratepayer, but the DCC says that it has the second highest value of assets. Crap. This is just rubbish and it can’t sell those assets. Every Council has water, roading etc which it must provide and can’t sell, but in the case of the DCC it has the stadium. Not an asset as we all know but a fearful liability, but it appears in the books as an asset. Well, sell the bloody thing. It isn’t needed.

I know that this story won’t be picked up by the ODT as it is a Fairfax story, but the other point in here of course is that the ability of Aucklanders (who have the highest debt levels) to pay. Dunedin doesn’t. Its population is well below that of Auckland when it comes to average income per household.

The other thing that the ODT won’t cover is the local comparisons. While the DCC has a debt level of $15,093 per ratepayer, the Central Otago District Council has only $327 per ratepayer, with virtually the same equity value per ratepayer. What’s the difference? As the CODC says of the area “A World of Difference”. I know which Council I admire the most.

[ends]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DScene, staying power . . .

[screenshot]

THE CONUNDRUM
DScene could fall victim to the disease rabidly attacking the Fairfax Media conglomerate. How to deal with the local monopoly, should the war have been fought online, not on paper.

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### ODT Online Fri, 10 May 2013
D-Scene newspaper may close
Dunedin community newspaper D-Scene may be ceasing publication after five years. The Fairfax Media-owned The Press reported yesterday a proposal to close the weekly publication, a subsidiary of The Southland Times.
Read more

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### 3news.co.nz Fri, 10 May 2013 11:03a.m.
Dunedin’s D-Scene paper tipped to close
By Thomas Mead, Online Reporter
Fairfax Media is considering ending the popular Dunedin community newspaper D-Scene, putting eight jobs at risk. The media conglomerate has put a proposal to staff and is now deciding the fate of the weekly publication in a two-week consultation period with those affected. Southland Times general manager Sue Gregory is declining to comment until the consultation period is over, but confirmed the initiative was underway. D-Scene was purchased by Fairfax Media in September 2008, but is in a competitive environment, up against the well-read Otago Daily Times and weekly The Star.
3news Link

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[This too, gives pause . . .]

### NZ Herald Online 5:30 AM Friday May 3, 2013
John Drinnan: Local history shipped out
History has a price and New Zealand’s photographic history is being shipped to Little Rock, Arkansas. Veteran sports photographer Peter Bush is shocked by Fairfax Media’s decision to sell its newspaper photo archive to an American firm. Fairfax has told Auckland staff it will be shipping photo archives for most of its Australian and New Zealand newspapers to the Rogers Photo Archive, a company based in Little Rock. The company will send back digital versions of the photos, but will keep the original prints, including photos of Sir Edmund Hillary.
Read more

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[2008, remember the Smiths back then . . .]

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 13:59 09/09/2008
Fairfax buying Dunedin community paper D-Scene
Dunedin community newspaper D-Scene looks set to join the Fairfax stable with the media giant announcing it is in the final stages of buying it. A spin-off from Queenstown’s Mountain Scene, the paper was set up earlier this year in a market dominated by long-time incumbent, the Otago Daily Times.
Read more

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### nbr.co.nz Tuesday September 09, 2008
Fairfax buys a lemon
By Mitchell Hall
Fairfax media’s decision to buy Dunedin’s struggling free weekly newspaper D Scene has one competitor sniffing that there’s no business case for the purchase – given how much money it is said to have been losing. The Otago Daily Times is the oldest newspaper in the country – and one of the last independent newspapers not owned by APN or Fairfax. The ODT’s business manager (and Allied Press director), Nick Smith, says a large editorial team designed D Scene with the Otago Daily Times in their sights. “The Otago Daily Times was seen (by them) to be an old and staid paper circulating in a one horse town. “They decided that the ODT was something that – according to their sales people – was a relic from the past, and they were smart boys who’d done all this research and they can take the town over.”
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr