Mediageddon -

Well  - the magazine dinosaur has finally, after many years of gaseous choking from data fumes been flattened by Jacinda’s meteoric impact of a publishing ban. 

I grew up with the Listener - so it’s a sad moment - despite having personally avoided it like covid-19 since Steve Braunias stopped his hilarious back page satire. North and South, and Metro I gave up on many years ago as well. Who would pay for that calibre of writing, and level of tedious human interest stories when the internet is on your doorstep ? Couldn’t care less about Lance O’sullivans haircut - “ Quiff of the year “ was it ? I can’t remember...And sorry to put the boot in - but Woman’s Weekly etc. are the cultural equivalent of Napalm - sort of like burning the village of Feminism to save it .

Enough meanness. There are real people with families who lost their jobs today, largely because of a rushed Govt decision in a crisis - Not deliberately bad, but badly thought out. And despite my contempt for the content they made, a decimated media is not a healthy one. Next on the block could be TV3 - No rumours yet I have heard,  but they have been on the edge for a long time. 

This, like many consequences of the current crisis, has precipitated change that was coming - It’s simply going to happen faster. Remote working - Acknowledging that we are part of a global data village where there is less demand for parochial gossip dressed up as culture - Hopefully more efficient consumption and less waste - and growing from the ground up some sense of shared values which have been broken down by the homogenised world we live it, rather than having half baked culture and values lite rammed down our collective throats.  Here is hoping.

It has long been my belief that NZ needs to get real about the media. Close TV2 and let the commercial interests duke it out ( so to speak..) Amalgamate TV1, RNZ and MTS into a BBC lite. Keep funding local content for the new NZBC but otherwise get out of the way. Ditch any management that want to “ revolutionise “ content or “ reach everyone “ - Concentrate on that old fashioned concept - Quality.

The claim that TVNZ profits are important to the books seems very silly now in light of the current support package.

And -  have a brutal clean out of the state owned media cupboard at the decision making level. To an extent this has already happened, but certain genres like Drama series have a tragic record, with the same old names making the same old content. If you want a lightweight well made soap watch Suits - I don’t believe there is a valid argument to fund these phenomenally expensive exercises in bad storytelling at the expense of local Documentary or Children’s content , not to mention News and Current affairs , which has historical value and / or needs to be locally flavoured. Keep funding the great Local movies being made - We have nearly got back to the days of Smash Palace ( probably one of those tax dodge films btw although i’m not sure…) -  people ARE trying again now at last ! 

It’s a terrible thing in NZ that a small market makes commercial success difficult, but public funding can destroy artistry. Maybe centralising a more focussed local content production environment, and leaving the advertising to Netflix could bring more great local storytelling to the screen.

What a shame these changes are being forced upon us, rather than managed so as to hurt fewer people. Like the economic reforms of the 80’s the medicine was arguably needed, but unpalatable and could have had it’s side effects mitigated vastly better. 

Here’s hoping we come out of this with a re-invigorated media - the mediocrity and pap stripped out,  true NZ stories at the fore, critical and intelligent current affairs / news, and less time for bad haircuts.