Tim Murphy

Former Act Party President Tim Jago loses all aspects of his appeal against conviction for historical sexual offending and his sentence of 2.5 years’ jail.

Three judges of Court of Appeal say the imprisonment sentence was “stern” but open to the judge and in accord with law.

Marina Hyde in the Guardian on UK leaders.

Who’d fit these categories in NZ?:

“We either get inadequate chancers (eg Johnson or Liz Truss) or chance inadequates (eg Theresa May, Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer), all of whom are forever being presented as the next true hope.”

Five Eyes now Three Ayes and Two Noes

Think all is good. Other things he wants to do in retirement!

Lovely moment at the Auckland Council end-of term valedictory speeches when councillor Sharon Stewart paused to pay tribute to Herald chronicler of Auckland Simon Wilson who she announced is also retiring at year’s end.
Wayne Brown: I had no idea Simon was retiring, after three years of training him

Ruth Richardson vs Nicola Willis this morning:

“The Government must stop pretending that the current approach will work. The attacks on me and others who are pointing out the fiscal elephants in the room do Ms Willis, and all New Zealanders, a disservice."

Think some of the minors were down - TOP for example shed a point or more. Not sure how the rest works

Latest Taxpayers Union/Curia poll has left-bloc ahead by one seat and able to govern if election held today.
Act big mover

Lab - 33.8 (up 0.2)
Nats - 33.1 (up 1.2)
Greens - 10.7 (up 0.9)
NZ First - 8.1 (up 0.3)
Act - 6.7 (down 1.9)
TPM - 4.3 (up 1.1).

61 seats left, 60 right

Just radio I think Bill

Morning report's audience nudges up to 338k, (up 5.4k)
but
It fell in what RNZ sees as the all important Auckland market by 3.1k while growing in - wait for it, Wellington.
Morning Report's 338k compares with
Hosking Breakfast on ZB 433k (down 6k)
So, back within the 100k range

RNZ National's slight rise puts it back to 6th biggest (from 8th) for cumulative audience across a week of all stations.
Commercial stations' results last week:
Newstalk ZB - 620k (down 27k)
Breeze 558k (down 55k)
More FM 514k (up 14k)
ZM 500k (up 400)
Edge 489k (up 7k)

And, just like that:

RNZ's radio audience has increased for the first time since 2022:
RNZ National up 8000 to 475k
RNZ Concert also up 8000 to 170k
in the latest GfK radio survey.

(RNZ has just had a highly critical report on its letting radio listenership slip)

NZME CEO Michael Boggs adds, in investor briefing, that the editorial advisory board would be expected to provide "constructive challenge" to the editor Murray Kirkness and his team.

NZME says of its new editorial advisory board: "The EAB does not have executive or decision-making powers but will provide independent counsel to the Chief Content Officer and the NZME Board on editorial standards, audience development and digital transformation initiatives."

Webling is interesting: last bobbed up in media as a comms adviser during merger fight at TVNZ, was press sec for 3 National leaders (English, Brash, Key) and ministerial staffer for Nat Simon Power.
Pagani is seen as from the right end of the left in politics

NZME announces its 'editorial advisory board' to oversee NZ Herald editorial strategy (and second-guess issues of 'balance' and 'political leaning') - is chaired by ex Herald premium editor Miri Alexander, lawyer/Grenon man Philip Crump, ZB panellist Josie Pagani and ex Nats press sec Brent Webling.

Numbers matter:
Govt: 'final settlement' for cancelling the IRex ferries from Hyundai is $144m.
KiwiRail: total cost of settlement is actually $222m (incl deposit and part settlement)
+
Total cost of abandoned iRex is $671m (incl land-based costs, project mgmt, wind down)

Do you ever just rewatch the final lineout of the Rugby World Cup 2021, played in 2022? No?

You really should. It’s one of the best moments of my life.

Latest TPU/Curia political poll calls a hung Parliament, with Labour overtaking a falling National and the coalition support parties slipping
Labour - 33.6 (up 2)
National - 31.8 (-2.1)
Greens - 9.8 (+0.4)
Act - 8.6 (-0.5)
NZF - 7.8 (-2.0)
TPM - 3.2 (-0.3)
Left/rt 61 seats each

AI robots curating Herald site strike back in June Nielsen audience stats:
Stuff 2,260,000 uniques (- 70k)
Herald 1,890,000 uniques (+ 140k)
RNZ 1,260,000
1News 620,000
Stuff's lead at 370k still big, but gap to Herald drops 210k. RNZ off 1.5m high earlier in '26

Interestingly Stuff appears to be stretching its lead over the Herald site which has stories and content now curated and highlighted by AI …
The humans seem to be leading the machines/algorithms in these earlyish months…

Stuff says it is number one in Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Canterbury - the first two of those in the old Herald newspaper’s footprint

Latest Nielsen news site audience numbers for May, (per Stuff release)

- Stuff is No 1 at 2.33 million readers with a 574k gap to NZ Herald on 1.75m.

- that means the NZH fell more than 100k - and puts it in sights of third-placed RNZ, which has been in the 1.5m range of late.

Few on the partisan left acknowledge TPU/Curia, but they might steal a glance at its latest poll results:
Labour 34.8 (up 1.6)
National 33.5 (down 1.1)
Act 9.1 (-0.4)
Greens 8.3 (-0.9)
NZF 6.1 (-1.3)
TPM 3.3 (-0.6)
Almost 35 is giddy heights for Labour.

Give that subeditor a Tesla!

Parliament's auto-captioning finally recognised Winston Peters in the manner he aspires to:

Stuff names a new MD for its soon-to-be-co-owned, No 1 news website firm Stuff Digital:
Nigel Tutt, who ran its digital business a decade ago under Fairfax ownership before leading a digital experience company and Bay of Plenty economic development body.

TVNZ poll had National and Labour down 2 & 3. But centre-right ahead 63-58 in House.

RNZ poll now has Nats down by 2.2 to 30, but Labour up 1 to 33 in post-Budget survey. Greens up 1.6 to 11.6.

RNZ echoes TVNZ with NZF up a couple, to 9, but Act down 2.8 to 6.6.

RNZ says centre-left 63-57.

2/ Way to steal a headline:
The Stuff Digital 50% sale to TradeMe comes on the day NZME finally meets to settle its board war and hear progress on its real estate brand OneRoof and a possible listing or part/sale

Just in: Stuff sells 50% of its digital business to TradeMe - giving TradeMe Property a chance to really dominate the real estate online space.
Stuff owner Sinead Boucher finally gets an equity partner - and undisclosed $ - after five years on her own. She'll chair combined board.