Latest / Best of Business / Steven Joyce: former Finance Minister on his new role on NZME's board

Transcript

Steven Joyce: former Finance Minister on his new role on NZME's board · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: The battle over Enzidny's governance is over for now. At
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: a meeting today, Stephen Joyce was voted in as the
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: new chair and public critic Jim Grennan was also appointed
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: a new director. Steven is with us now, How.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Stephen, Hello, how are you, Heather?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I'm very well, Thank you. Congrats. You've got a big
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: task ahead of you, having you.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Well. I mean, you know, I've done a few big
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: tasks over the years, but it's certainly a bit involved. Yeah.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: I wasn't saying you're not up to it. I mean,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: if anybody is, you know, the business. But is it
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: sobering to look at the state of the economy and
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: how it's affecting the media at the minute?
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's the same for every business actually,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: but I think the media overall is coming out of
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: it relatively well. I know that it's a tough year
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: last year, but I think a lot of the sort
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: of structural issues are in the process of being addressed.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: People now know what the future looks like to some degree,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and then it's really all about taking advantage of the
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: opportunities that are out there.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: What does the future look like, Well.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I think it's a common its primarily digital. It's a
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: combination of as we saw today with the type of
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: stuff and trade. Me it's a combination of media and
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: what they call verticals or classified and it's about not
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: necessarily slavishly following social media's striking your own path.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: So do you think, just judging by what you said
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: then sounds would you agree that it sounds like One
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Roof stays with nz ME.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't think anybody was suggesting that One Roof
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: would be completely separated from ZEM. I'm sure there'll be
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: one of the options to be looked at. The suggestion
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: from some shaholders that I spoke to was that it'd
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: effectively be listed separately and retains some common ownership. To
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: are to effectively reveal the true value of One Roof
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: now where that's the thing to do right now, whether
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: that's the thing to do in the future, or whether
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: we're at it all, those are all discussions out of us.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Do you know Jim Grennan, Yes, well I do now. Yes,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I met him for the first time. Actually I met
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: him a couple of years ago when he was looking
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: at stuff, and then I met him again prior at
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Christmas when his group approached me to potentially be one
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of their director platform and I turned them down at
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: that point, and then I've met him a number of
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: times more recently.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: And what do you make of him?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I think he actually really interesting guy. He's very passionate
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: about the media. He's a significant investor, obviously quite a
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: wealthy person, and I actually think he could be a
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: very positive influence on the board.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Do you think that all of the stuff that's paid out,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: played out publicly has been bad for the company.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's certainly been challenging for the company
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: in terms of having all that happening, But I think, well,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I'm hopeful that the new board has got fresh pairs
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: of eyes and it's a pretty good skill set and
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: it can take the company forward from here. So in
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: that sense, it's good. And I think every now and
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: then it's good to have it's good to have a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: change and a shakeup, and that's of course what's happened
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: out of this. But I think it's also important for
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: the shareholders and the board to come together and provide
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a steady platform for the company to grow from. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: so when I agreed to put my name for it,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I thought, well, there's an opportunity here to actually steady
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the ship down, get it on a sensible platform, and
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: get it firing forward.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: How much are you prepared to get involved with decisions,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: you know, in terms of whether you think a strategy
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: is a good strategy or not.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Well, the board has a role in testing the strategy
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: and providing challenge to management. That's an important part of
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: the gig, and that's their job actually, beyond also hiring
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the CEE if if, if that's required. So yeah, we
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: will be involved in that basis. But do I want
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: to run the actual company? No, I don't, and I
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: don't believe Jim Granan does either. But it is about
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: assisting the management of sending a good team and providing good,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: positive challenge to what they're proposing.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: You weren't suggesting just before that it might be required,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: were you? What were hiring a new ce.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Oh well no, I'm just just like, I'm just saying
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: that that's the job of board, just hypothetically.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: It was a hypothetic.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: So if Michael ever retired, which I'm sure I'll do
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: one day in the distant future. Then obviously our job
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: would be to hire a place.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the video strategy.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Thoughts, not nothing much at this point ex episode that
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: I have had a look at it myself, and as
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: a consumer, I was quite impressed with it.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Okay, the editorial board, how does it work?
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know the answer that question yet. The one
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: of the early questions for Michael and the team will
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: be how are they thinking about doing it, and what
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: have they learned from various options overseas and how do
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: they think it would add value? And then, like I
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: said before, we'll provide some challenge and some positive challenge
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: to that and endorse it if it's the right way forward.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: What did you make of trade me? But it's totally
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: changing the subject here, Steven, apologies, But what do you
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: make of trade me buying stuff into stuff?
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: At least buying into stuff? Yeah? Look, well, firstly, I
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: thought it was reasonably obvious moves, and obviously they've been
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: flagged for a while as well. I think it makes sense.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you cast your mind back to the
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: newspaper days, where the front half of the paper are
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: basically broad on the eyeballs, and then the back half
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: of the paper made the money. And that's a sort
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: of similar tie up that you're seeing in that vertical
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: classified space alongside alongside the eyeballs provided. And that's really
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: what one Roof's doing so well is generating a lot
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: of content. It's it's appearing on the Herald website, which
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: has a lot of eyeballs, and effectively it's it's driving
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: people who are interested in buying and selling houses to
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the website. So it's not surprising to me that the
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: trade me and stuff will try and copy that, particularly
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: as that's where they came from back in the day.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, totally, very good point. Now, does this mean that
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: we're going to see you a lot in the office
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: and you're going to have to be dragged away from
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: your garden?
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Oh? Possibly, possibly daily. No, I will be there regularly,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: and it will drag me away from my garden. But
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: I'm pleased to report that every spare five minutes I
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: get hither. I'm working on my garden at the moment,
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: I'm coaxing my collieflower to produce good heads of collifler.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: How many have you got there?
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: I've got about a dozen, three of them are looking
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: really good, some of them looking a bit weedy.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: A question, because it just seems like a hell of
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: a lot of effort to go to for what like
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: maybe two dozen meals.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: That's just the cauliflower. Then you had the broccoli, then
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: you had the cabbages.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: You feed yourself for a year.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Brussels sprouts, well, no, but I'll get two or three.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I'll get two or three months of green. Certainly more
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: than the family will want to eat, that's for sure. Good.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Well, listen when you're in the office, when they're sick
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: of your cauliflower or your broccoli, and you're in the
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: office and you think, geez, what am I going to
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: do with it? We'll take it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Well. One of your colleagues has already made a request
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: for my apple cucumbers that I used to hand around
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: the gallery.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: See journo is always looking for a freeba. They can't
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: help themselves. But also I'll have one of them. Thanks, Steven,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: look after yourself. It's nice to have you with a
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: company that. Stephen Joyce the new chair of ends in Me,
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: which of course owns News Talk ZB and The Herald.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks EDB, listen live on air
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio