Latest / Best of Business / Michael Wood: E tū negotiator on Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon's potential impact on NZME

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Michael Wood: E tū negotiator on Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon's potential impact on NZME · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news Talk ZEDB. Follow
• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Brian Bridge, a new billionaire investor into enz into the
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  Speaker 2: media company enz Me, which owns Senior Zellen Herald and
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  Speaker 2: this station, news Talk SEBB, is wanting a clean out
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  Speaker 2: of the company's board. Auckland based Canadian Jim Grennan has
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  Speaker 2: told the company's board he wants to remove most of
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  Speaker 2: the current directors. Concern is now growing amongst journalists and
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  Speaker 2: staff about a possible move or a shift in editorial direction.
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  Speaker 2: Michael Wood is the negotiation specialist at E two. He's
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  Speaker 2: with me tonight. Hi, Michael, Hi, what role are you
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  Speaker 2: playing here?
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  Speaker 3: Well, as you can imagine, this is a significant interest
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  Speaker 3: to our members, so many of the journalists n ZDME
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  Speaker 3: and as the union who represents them. We're working through
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  Speaker 3: this issue with them, and I think it's fair to
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  Speaker 3: say that the primary primary concern here is to ensure
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  Speaker 3: that journalists are able to continue doing their job with
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  Speaker 3: genuine editorial independence, without fear or favor. And the concern
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  Speaker 3: here is that we clearly have an individual who is
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  Speaker 3: highly motivated to take control of a major media entity
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand who is doing so quite clearly with
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  Speaker 3: the intent of promulgating a particular political perspective, and there
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  Speaker 3: are real concerns about what that might means. The editorial
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  Speaker 3: independence of journalists are at dyments.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously, this has a process to go through. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you can't just overtake a board, right, so there's a
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  Speaker 2: process that that has to go through, and there will
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  Speaker 2: be other investors who will have to decide on this.
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  Speaker 3: That's right. There's clearly a commercial process which is playing
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  Speaker 3: out here. But again one of the concerns here is
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  Speaker 3: it's pretty cloak and daggers. When this individual originally took
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  Speaker 3: a stake in the company last week, the comments he
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  Speaker 3: may r all about dampening down any suggestions that there
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  Speaker 3: was a bigger play here. And then this week, of course,
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  Speaker 3: we have learned that there is in fact a bigger play,
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  Speaker 3: which is a move to potentially try and take over
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  Speaker 3: the board and to install other people like minded people,
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  Speaker 3: and some names have been reported on in that respect.
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  Speaker 3: So there's not any openness or transparency here. There has
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  Speaker 3: been no commitment made by mister Grennan to those principles
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  Speaker 3: of editorial independence, which is critical. I remember we're talking
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  Speaker 3: about one of the major media organizations in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: It has a huge impact on our public's discourse in
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand. Held has often been thought of as New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand's paper of record. And we've never had a situation
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  Speaker 3: where a particular individual with a lot of money and
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  Speaker 3: a lot of power and a lot of influence has said, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I want that, and I want it because I want
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  Speaker 3: to get my views out there. This is new territory
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  Speaker 3: for New Zealand and we don't think that would be
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  Speaker 3: healthy for our media environment.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know, of course, any of this yet, this
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  Speaker 2: is speculation.
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  Speaker 3: Well, mister Grennan has purchased a significant stake. He has
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  Speaker 3: gone on record today as saying that he wants to
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  Speaker 3: create a position whereby he installs a majority of board members.
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  Speaker 3: He has made a claim that he has support of
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  Speaker 3: thirty seven percent of shareholders for that plan. As you
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  Speaker 3: said before, there's clearly a corporate process which is playing
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  Speaker 3: out here, but he has now laid out a very
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  Speaker 3: clear plan in this area. And the background of that
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  Speaker 3: as well is that mister Greennan has engaged in the
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand media environment. He has set up a publication
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  Speaker 3: a network previously called The Centrist with a specific goal
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  Speaker 3: about influencing the public discourse in New Zealand. So this
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  Speaker 3: doesn't seem like an individual who is going in simply
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  Speaker 3: because he wants to make a commercial investment, which is
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  Speaker 3: what we normally get in the media environment. Mister Greenin
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  Speaker 3: appears to be an individual who wants to make this
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  Speaker 3: investment and wants to have this influence on the board
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  Speaker 3: to push a particular agenda. And that's what makes us
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  Speaker 3: different and worrying to other changes in corporate media ownership
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  Speaker 3: that we've seen over the years.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Michael, I really appreciate you coming on the program.
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  Speaker 2: Michael Wood, who's a negotiation specialist at the ITTU Union.
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