|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on May 12, 2016 10:07:43 GMT 12
Get ready to have the bite put on you to PAY for online news from the major newspaper organisations in both New Zealand and Australia.
No doubt you will be aware of the proposed huge shakeup coming, which will result in the major newspaper companies merging their operations in Australia.
Here in New Zealand, the resultant forced marriage of Fairfax and APN will result in one HUGE newspaper monopoly which will own every major daily newspaper in NZ except for one metropolitan daily (the Otago Daily Times) and one provincial daily (The Gisborne Herald). And that has got to be bad for consumers and also bad for democracy. No doubt the politicians will be salivating at the prospect of less competition-driven scruitiny of what they are up to.
But a side-effect of these mergers will be a high likelihood that you will have to PAY to access online news stories on BOTH sides of The Ditch. In New Zealand, both APN and Fairfax have been talking about paywalls for a few years, but both sides have been too scared to be the first to go that way in case the competition decides to continue to provide free online access to news for a period of time and thereby grab a majority of the market share. However, with the two sides merged into one, there will be nothing to hold them back. And the same will apply across The Ditch in Australia.
You have been WARNED!!
|
|
|
|
Post by scrooge on May 12, 2016 11:01:54 GMT 12
On the other hand, I won't waste hours of my day filtering out 'NEWS' about The Bachelor... they'd have to pay me to read that.
|
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on May 12, 2016 11:17:09 GMT 12
I think the reasons that those companies are having to join forces are pretty obvious. The media starting getting loose with factual reporting and went 'tabloid', - people gave up buying the product so then we were fed 'celebrity' nonsense. The smart people turned off and gave up at that point.
Media Works are going through similar upheavals. They have made some pretty big blunders in recent months and I have had to give up on The Sound before 9am also.
It is good news in that there will now be a market for someone to step in and fill the void. Hopefully we will go back to honest reporting without all the padding.
There are plenty of good websites around where you can get almost instant updates on things of interest.
|
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on May 12, 2016 11:30:42 GMT 12
On the other hand, I won't waste hours of my day filtering out 'NEWS' about The Bachelor... they'd have to pay me to read that. I've never watched so much as even a tiny fraction of a single episode of that garbage. However, crap such as that seems to be a sad reflection on our “instant-gratification” society where celebrity worship, sound-bites (don't people have a decent attention span any more?) and crass selfies appear to rule the way many people think. Even our prime minister is into that “lowest common denominator” garbage where selfie opportunites and smart-alec soundbites rule over substance. Rubbish such as The Batchelor is merely a symptom of the dumbing-down of large chunks of modern society in NZ. |
|
|
|
Post by ErrolC on May 12, 2016 11:44:27 GMT 12
As a society, we aren't prepared to pay for quality news. Therefore we don't get it. The drop in quality is as much a symptom as a cause (as quality is expensive).
|
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on May 12, 2016 12:05:13 GMT 12
I have a five-year paid subscription to The Washington Times online.
I resisted their offers for years after they put a paywall in place (I haven't yet come up against a paywall I couldn't bust through, although it does take time and effort); however about a year ago I received an offer from them I couldn't refuse. Basically, I was offered a subscription for the price of US$19.99 per year, provided I took out a five-year subscription. So for US$99.95 (paid up-front), I ended up with easy access (without having to use time-consuming paywall-busting methods) to everything published online by what I regard to be one of the best newspapers in the USA for five years. So I bit the bullet and paid for it and I haven't regretted it one bit.
|
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on May 12, 2016 12:14:37 GMT 12
I hope those 'merican papers haven't put you wrong. There are a couple of words following the PM bit...   |
|
|
|
Post by John L on May 12, 2016 14:43:25 GMT 12
Paywalls go up - I just stop accessing their sites - doesn't worry me - there are so many good alternative news sites and blogs out there, it doesn't worry me. It does worry me about all those who still rely on newspapers and TV news for their view on what is happening in the world - basically - they end up like yanks - totally oblivious of what is actually going on and at the mercy of the MSM who say what the government of the day tell them.
- If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
- Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
Thomas Jefferson
|
|
|
|
Post by errolmartyn on May 12, 2016 14:55:49 GMT 12
On the other hand, I won't waste hours of my day filtering out 'NEWS' about The Bachelor... they'd have to pay me to read that. I've never watched so much as even a tiny fraction of a single episode of that garbage. However, crap such as that seems to be a sad reflection on our “instant-gratification” society where celebrity worship, sound-bites (don't people have a decent attention span any more?) and crass selfies appear to rule the way many people think. Even our prime minister is into that “lowest common denominator” garbage where selfie opportunites and smart-alec soundbites rule over substance. Rubbish such as The Batchelor is merely a symptom of the dumbing-down of large chunks of modern society in NZ. I am reminded of the occasion when journo/cartoonist Tom Scott was ejected from one of Rob Muldoon's press conferences - for writing 'rubbish', according to the leader of small stature. As Scott left the room he pointed out that at least he wrote rubbish of the highest quality! Sadly, today's media no longer offer even the 'highest quality' variety of rubbish! Errol |
|
|
|
Post by ZacYates on May 12, 2016 15:35:16 GMT 12
And here I was expecting a post about the recent earthquakes!
I'm glad I had such a limited time in the "news" industry.
|
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on May 12, 2016 16:56:11 GMT 12
And here I was expecting a post about the recent earthquakes! Yeah, well....after seven days of early shifts (getting up at 3:00am for three days, then up at 5:30am for two days, then up at 3:00am again for two days), I was enjoying a sleep-in on the second of my two consecutive days off before getting back into those early starts again. However, my sleep-in was abruptly intruded upon this morning when the first earthquake woke me up, then the second earthquake hit while I was sitting on the throne. I heard that second one coming, although I thought it was a truck running along Villa Street around the corner from my place, but I rapidly learnt the truth once things started shaking. No worries though....nothing fell over at my place. Although I imagine a few WWI aeroplanes would have rocked around a wee bit in TVAL's hangar at Hood Aerodrome. |
|
|
|
Post by Peter Lewis on May 12, 2016 18:23:24 GMT 12
I have a five-year paid subscription to The Washington Times online. But do they still regard 'overseas news' as that from Alaska and Hawaii ? |
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on May 12, 2016 19:21:00 GMT 12
As I said, The Washington Post is one of the better American newspapers.
I mostly go there for the international news stories, although reading about the shenanigans of the American political system can be highly amusing at times.
I guess if Donald Trump becomes the 45th Prez, they will end up being the laughing-stock of the world.
Most other American newspapers don't do international news very well.
|
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on May 14, 2016 22:06:21 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jun 9, 2016 17:32:41 GMT 12
The end of the “asset-stripping by Aussie news media organisations” era appears nigh as NZME sell-off the Wairarapa Times-Age.
|
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jun 9, 2016 17:35:47 GMT 12
from the Wairarapa Times-Age....NZME to sell Wairarapa Times-Age12:33PM - Thursday, June 09, 2016 The deal is expected to be completed by the end of June.NZME Publishing has signed a conditional agreement to sell the Wairarapa Times-Age to locally-owned National Media Limited.
NZME, publisher of the New Zealand Herald, said the Wairarapa Times-Age was performing well and widely respected by the community.
The sale of the Wairarapa Times-Age is a stand-alone transaction and not part of the proposed merger with Fairfax Media NZ.
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of June. The Wairarapa Times Age website and social media pages will also transfer over to National Media Limited.www.nzherald.co.nz/wairarapa-times-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503414&objectid=11653497
from Fairfax NZ....NZME sells Wairarapa Times-Age to
Masterton businessman Andrew Denholm“Business as usual” as Masterton-based newspaper changes hands.2:45PM - Thursday, 09 June 2016 The Wairarapa Times-Age is housed in one of Masterton's most recognisable buildings.NATIONAL media company NZME is selling Masterton-based daily newspaper the Wairarapa Times-Age to a local businessman.
NZME, whose media operations include the New Zealand Herald and radio stations NewstalkZB and Radio Sport, has signed a conditional agreement to sell the Times-Age, Scoop media reported on Thursday.
The buyer is National Media Limited, owned by Andrew Denholm, the current Times-Age general manager.
Included in the agreement are the Wairarapa Midweek and TA Property papers, Scoop said.
The deal is expected to be complete by the end of June.
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs said the paper would be “in great hands.”
Denholm said he was thrilled with the result.
“While we will continue to improve the paper it is very much business as usual.”__________________________________________________________________________ Related story:
• Fairfax, NZME media merger approval soughtwww.stuff.co.nz/business/80896661
So now, instead of only two independent, daily newspapers in New Zealand, there will be three — the Otago Daily Times, The Gisborne Herald and the Wairarapa Times-Age. It will be interesting to see where the Times-Age is printed, as their printing press was decommissioned and sold-off by NZME with the newspaper now being printed in Whanganui at the Wanganui Chornicle, which presumably will remain under NZME ownership until the merger with Fairfax NZ goes through, if approved.
|
|
|
|
Post by corsair5517 on Jun 13, 2016 9:36:35 GMT 12
"News" here is dominated by sport, death and destruction with very little international newsworthy events properly covered. Local TV news is absolutely awful, just terrible with presenters who, generally, are just dills, with no idea how to phrase, pace and use grammar in their usually breathless delivery of banal subject matter.
I watch the BBC news or Al-Gazeera... sparingly, but mostly listen to the BBC World Service on the radio.
I haven't read a newspaper in perhaps 10 years, at least not since we left South Otago and the less strident tones of the ODT....
I despair at the dumbing down of the First World.
|
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Jun 13, 2016 10:01:43 GMT 12
Smaller local newspapers do have a place and may well survive. I have no time at all for some of the larger papers and what they publish as they have more in common with Women's Day than any reputable news source. That Auckland effort is a disgrace and with the TV and radio 'news' it has been become increasingly obvious they are working to an agenda.
Save the dolphin, ban sugar, global warming/rising seas, privately run prisons, and a few other topics form the core of what they run the 'news' reports about and then you can guarantee they throw Lydia Ko in for balance.
If a local paper can avoid all that and report on what is actually going on and what people want to read they should do ok.
They can include local advertising for revenue and basically forget the world news. We get swamped with all those refugee, Middle East, stories as it is.
It will be interesting to see how this Masterton paper will cope but I am sure it will have local support, at least initially.
|
|
|
|
Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Jun 13, 2016 10:29:54 GMT 12
The Wairarapa Times-Age actually has a lot of local support, although many Wairarapa residents have rued the day it got taken over by Australian interests.
Most of the comment I have heard around the town since it was announced it was leaving the APN/NZME stable and returning to local ownership has been, “about bloody time!”
However, even under APN ownership, all pages right up to the editorial page (which is usually about page 8) and the page opposite (page 9) have been “local” Wairarapa news, with national and international news being relegated to page 10 onwards. And I think that is one of the main reasons why the Wairarapa Times-Age has continued to thrive. It's interesting that another independent local daily, The Gisborne Herald has always followed a similar format of “local news first”, followed by national and international news after the editorial pages.
Next time any of you are in Wairarapa for a TVAL flying-weekend, or for Wings Over Wairarapa, purchase a Wairarapa Times-Age and you'll see what I mean. I very much doubt that successful format will change much under local ownership, because it is the local manager of the newspaper who has purchased it.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Red Baron on Jun 13, 2016 10:34:34 GMT 12
The 'local' papaers here are just glorified advertising sheets.They are getting so thin lately they are only a few pages,obviously even the advertising is dropping off.
Quite noticeable the news websites here are starting to feature more and more stuff from overseas 'news' websites.
|
|
