Granny Herald – getting more irrelevant

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 pm, May 26th, 2009 - 24 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, Media - Tags:

This morning’s NZ Herald was interesting. I picked it up while waiting for the bus, rather than reading it on the iPhone in the mobile edition as I usually do. It has fewer ads.

I realized yet again that the NZ Herald editorial staff do not live in the same city as I do.

Yesterdays hikoi was on page three in a couple of short articles. On page one there was a story about:-

  • John Key posturing on controlling ‘P’. Yeah right. After you’ve managed to something about it, another drug will simply take its place. Misuse of drugs have been a problem since I was a child. It seems unlikely that a PM more noticeable for his enthusiasm than his effectiveness is going to be able to do much about addictive behaviours.
  • Something about the family of the Rotorua people who scored some money from Westpac.
  • And North Korea playing with its toys to the consternation of it’s neighbours
  • and nothing about Auckland…

In the meantime a (very conservative estimate) of 7000 people gave up work and school to go out in a cold and rainy winters day to protest about aspects of the super-city protest. I had too much to do on the current project, so I went to work. I suspect that the protest would have been a lot bigger if it’d been on a weekend because not everyone could take time off. As it was it, filled the whole of Queen Street, which is why the police estimates are very conservative.

However the NZ Herald editors thought that a major protest about the governance of our city was less important than the stories about places other than Auckland. I find this surprising.

Nobody wants it

Nobody wants it

Most of the sales of the NZ Herald are in Auckland. Most Aucklanders would be more concerned about the probable rates increases next year to fund this amalgamation than any of the page one or two stories today. The current estimates for initial amalgamation costs are looking like being at least $550 to some uncosted  higher figure per person.

The ongoing costs don’t look like they will diminish for quite some time. Any fiscal advantages from the amalgamation will be a at least a decade away.In the meantime it will generate increases in rates.

At present there appears to be a rush by some elements in the government to use this as a way of generating opposition to itself. Even the rather conservative Bill Ralston is pointing this out.

You’ve got to hand it to this government. In the space of a fortnight they managed to take the disorganised, disillusioned, disparate beaten rabble that were the opponents of the Super City proposal and turn them into a cohesive, unified powerful protest bloc.

The NZ Herald editors obviously don’t live in the same city that Bill or I do. They put the story on page 3. Why bother supporting a newspaper that seems to make editorial decisions about placement that ignore social changes in their own market.

The sooner the NZ Herald goes the way of the dinosaur, the happier I’ll be. There hasn’t been a decent local news source in Auckland since The Auckland Star died. Probably explains why no-one wants The NZ Herald. I’ve really got to stop buying the pathetic paper alternative and concentrate on picking up the news more widely on the net. Personally I’d suggest that some of the remaining journo’s at the NZ Herald should start looking at honing their on-line skills.

BTW: The only really interesting thing about the NZ Herald at present is their video. The footage is great. But their site could do with some work as I found out while trying to view a second video without stopping the first. Also the on-line edition of the Herald generally shows less signs of editorial interference in story placement.

24 comments on “Granny Herald – getting more irrelevant ”

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  1. Zaphod Beeblebrox 1
    26 May 2009 at 9:12 pm

    Dom Post and SST leaves them in the dust. The economics section seems like it was written in the 1980s by Roger Douglas, The business reporters write as if the financial meltdown never happened.
    At least McCarten and Ralston on Sunday are worth waiting for (don’t always agree with them but at least are interesting)
    Fran Ughhhhh…
    BTW Did anyone read Rod Oram in the SST on Sunday, that guy is always right on the money.

    • chris 1.1
      27 May 2009 at 10:50 am

      Yes, I love Rod Oram, but the point of newspaper is not to just support our views is it? Fran has relevant things to say, you just clearly find them a bit challenging.

      Leave the open partisanship to the blogs otherwise we’re all fucked.

      • Zaphod Beeblebrox 1.1.1
        27 May 2009 at 12:50 pm

        Its how well they argue and whether they make sense in light of their underlying philosophy and how useful the ideas they are to our everyday lives. Yes, I do find Fran challenging since I can never work out where she is coming from. Armstrong and Ken James are two whose ideas I can follow.

  2. felix 2
    26 May 2009 at 9:21 pm

    Shouldn’t that be “less relevant”?

    (or for national supporters: fewer relevant)

  3. the sprout 3
    26 May 2009 at 9:22 pm

    “less relevant” would suggest it has recently been relevant.

    yeah i noticed the Herald’s furious attempts to completely deny the existence of 10,000 Aucklanders marching against the Supershity.

    funny if it weren’t so tragic.

    the sooner they sink the better. O’Reilly’s in deeper financial shit by the day so i wouldn’t be surprised if he lets the thing go soon in a fire sale – only problem is – nobody wants to buy it.

    i wonder too how much longer the intellectual pygmy that is Tim Murphy will last? i mean, who would actually still pay money to buy a copy?

  4. mike 4
    26 May 2009 at 9:27 pm

    ” 7000 people gave up work and school”

    yeah right – looking at the pics I’m guessing crime in Auckland and Rotorua was at a record low on Monday.

  5. Akldnut 5
    26 May 2009 at 9:58 pm

    Mike you’re a fucking wanker

  6. Robert Winter 6
    26 May 2009 at 10:38 pm

    ‘Less relevant’ isn’t really the issue. The Herald’s editorial staff, not being idiots, and being thoroughly clear about where their loyalties lie, recognise that if they are to say anything much about the emerging Supercity imbroglio, they will have to acknowledge, however painfully, that an administrative challenge is rapidly becoming a major political threat to NACT. So, downplay and isolate the hikoi, focus on a worthy topical issue (‘P’), laud car crushing and other populist government initiatives, and wait for the Budget to provide days of coverage of anything other than the Supercity. Then, I expect, begin a campaign of good news about the Supercity – efficiencies, cost-saving, effective decision-making and a host of stories along the lines of ‘we-amalagamated-into-a Supercity-and-never-looked-back’. And, I fear, images of an avuncular Mr. Banks.

  7. Tigger 7
    27 May 2009 at 8:16 am

    Uh no Mike, some white guy still managed to assault my nephew on the North Shore that day. Clearly all the good, law abiding people who might have stepped in and helped out were otherwise engaged.

  8. the sprout 8
    27 May 2009 at 9:59 am

    at last, i see the problem now.
    the Herald, in its ‘What Kiwis think about the Budget’ section, thinks 5 out of every 6 NZers are self-employed.
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10574752
    that explains a lot.

    • Jasper 8.1
      27 May 2009 at 11:25 am

      Yes, and many of those “self employed” morons wouldn’t know how to run a business if it came up and slapped them in the face with a rainbow trout challenging them to a duel.

      What do you do when you’re business is facing a cash shortage, but asset rich, like NZ is? Shut up, cut back, or try to borrow (if you can?)
      Most of this lot would cut back. Idiots.

      New Zealanders are so arrogant and smug and cocky when it comes to running businesses, it’s no wonder they get the shock of their lives when they wonder why their trillion dollar export deal with india doesn’t go through.

      Could it do with the “I’m from Noo Zilland, we are clin and grin. Gimme yar munny, soign here, thunk yew bye bye” attitude?

      Possibly so.

  9. Greg 9
    27 May 2009 at 11:08 am

    “And North Korea playing with its toys to the consternation of it’s neighbours”

    Understatement of the year?

  10. MikeE 10
    27 May 2009 at 11:10 am

    “John Key posturing on controlling ‘P’. Yeah right. After you’ve managed to something about it, another drug will simply take its place. Misuse of drugs have been a problem since I was a child. It seems unlikely that a PM more noticeable for his enthusiasm than his effectiveness is going to be able to do much about addictive behaviours.”

    I agree with you completely on this, but wasn’t this blog cheerleading the BZP ban.

  11. the sprout 11
    27 May 2009 at 12:39 pm

    and just when you think the Herald can’t get any more shit, it publishes this story

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10574748

    seems a couple of Labour MPs going to McDonalds is far more serious and worthy of a story than 10,000 Aucklanders rebelling against the NACT stitch-up of Auckland.

  12. Rich 12
    27 May 2009 at 3:50 pm

    You *buy* an NZ newspaper.

    As far as I’m concerned the Dom Post and NZ Herald are on a par. I’ll read them online, I might read them in a cafe, but I certainly wouldn’t hand over dollars for them.

  13. Macro 13
    27 May 2009 at 7:41 pm

    I gave up reading the “Herald” years ago! If I wanted the opinion of a pack of materialistic “greedies” I’d go ask them. But as they are so transparently obvious and simplistic there is usually no need. As for providing information on what is happening in the world – the “Herald” is probably the last place you could rely on to give any reliable information. I shan’t grieve when it eventually disappears. Good riddance.

  14. Swampy 14
    27 May 2009 at 8:53 pm

    No you have yet to realise that you people have blown this whole thing out of all proportion.

    South of the Bombay Hills the average joe in the street could not care less about the whining from parts of Auckland. It is all vested interest groups who want to maintain the status quo for the power that it gives them.

    As I reckoned at the time the Transition Agency bill went into Parliament, Labour acted so outraged and so outrageously over the Bill that you would think it should have been called the “Outlaw the Labour Party Bill”. The way Labour reacted with the filibustering nonsense makes me think that is exactly the threat that Labour sees from this process. Labour has everything to gain from a huge bloated bureacracy that they created from local government reorganisation in 1989, it is all set up to their advantage and as a national political party with its claws firmly into the local government scene the reorganisation will slash their power base severely.

    Now what that has to do with democracy? Not much. Democracy is about a whole lot more than creating a cushy environment for a Parliamentary party to build up its support base from. I think that is a fair comment because National does not contest local government elections. It is all parties of the Left – the Progressives, Labour, Greens – which contest both types of elections.