Latest / Best of Business / Michael Boggs: NZME CEO on the company growing earnings and bouncing back

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Michael Boggs: NZME CEO on the company growing earnings and bouncing back · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZEDB. Follow this
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  Speaker 2: So a radio resurgence is the thing that has helped
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  Speaker 2: put nz ME, the company that owns newstalk zb back
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  Speaker 2: in the black. It's half year results shows a net
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  Speaker 2: profit of thirteen point one million dollars, turning around last
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  Speaker 2: year's sixteen million dollar loss. The chief executive is Michael
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  Speaker 2: Boggs Boggy.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, good afternoon, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: You've turned a loss into a profit. You've got to
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  Speaker 2: be feeling good about that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think it's great for everyone here at nz ME.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we've got eleven hundred people who work really
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  Speaker 3: hard each day and probably one thy and ninety nine
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  Speaker 3: of them are supporting you thought.
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  Speaker 2: Above in the sledging starts immediately. Now on the matter
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  Speaker 2: of the results, what's gone on here? Do you think
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  Speaker 2: is this just I mean, is this a sign of
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  Speaker 2: the strength of the business or is this the economy recovering.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's a bit of both. So on economy,
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  Speaker 3: we saw in the last quarter of last year a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the larger companies starting to spend again, and
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  Speaker 3: so those are the ones who booked through media agencies,
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  Speaker 3: specifically in radio. Actually, I'm really wanting to come and
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  Speaker 3: be heard. I'm not sure what happened over Christmas. In January,
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  Speaker 3: though they did seem to slow down a bit, so
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if that was some of the retail
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  Speaker 3: sales not being quite as good as they expected.
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  Speaker 2: This is what we're finding right is like it is still,
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  Speaker 2: it's really volatile, and every time it does something like that,
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  Speaker 2: and loads of industry are saying January and December was weird.
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  Speaker 3: We panic, don't we absolutely? But what we've actually seen
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  Speaker 3: in February and March, which I think is really good,
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  Speaker 3: is those small medium businesses are ba expending again. So
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  Speaker 3: a lot of them had stopped, a lot of them
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  Speaker 3: have reduced, but February March we're actually seeing them back
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  Speaker 3: in the market and starting to spend. So hopefully that's
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  Speaker 3: a good sign for the economy.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think though, it is a grind out of
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  Speaker 2: here rather than right, all turbo blasters going and we're out.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. So we've started this quarter with about three percent
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  Speaker 3: growth year on year, and it's nice to be in growth.
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  Speaker 3: We've had a few years of being not in growth,
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  Speaker 3: so I think that is a good start, but I'm
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  Speaker 3: not sure we're looking at you double digit revenue growth.
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  Speaker 3: I think it is a grind. You know, we've got
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  Speaker 3: our part.
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  Speaker 2: Why why is it such a grind out of this thing.
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  Speaker 3: I just think people are still coming out of a
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  Speaker 3: tough you know, this still being plationary pressures. They're not
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  Speaker 3: feeling the best, They're not feeling confident yet to go
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  Speaker 3: and invest. And advertising is probably one of the first
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  Speaker 3: leaders you can pull either to stop but importantly to
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  Speaker 3: go ahead as well. So please, we are starting to
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  Speaker 3: see them spend again.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, what's going on with radio? Because I see
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  Speaker 2: audio is up twenty three percent in terms of profitability.
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  Speaker 3: Great ratings from shows like yourself obviously, but in the
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  Speaker 3: last four months of last year we did actually manage
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  Speaker 3: to gain some market share on our competitors in the
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  Speaker 3: first eight not as good, but I think we're pleased
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  Speaker 3: as a business to be doing better than our competitor
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  Speaker 3: in that last period. But I think there really is
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  Speaker 3: a resurgent. We're seeing really strong audiences overall. Digital audios
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  Speaker 3: now ten percent of our radio numbers, and so that
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  Speaker 3: revenue that we're seeing can actually flow through to profitability.
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  Speaker 3: So as you see twenty three percent up year one.
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  Speaker 2: As part of it that people are gearing up for
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  Speaker 2: the election.
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  Speaker 3: Election, we see listening. Yeah, it's a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: double edged sword for us. So around election we do
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  Speaker 3: obviously see people coming and listen. We see some of
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  Speaker 3: the political parties and advocacy organizations start to advertise, but
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  Speaker 3: we actually see a lot of other businesses go I
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  Speaker 3: don't want to be around all this noise. It's all
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  Speaker 3: a little bit hard. So it's got a positive iner neegative.
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  Speaker 2: I ah here Yeah, And One Roof is doing amazingly still,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it It is?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So right at the moment, we're putting a bit
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  Speaker 3: of investment into One Roof to give it a much
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  Speaker 3: better proposition. So you'll see a new One Roof app
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  Speaker 3: launched in the coming weeks, much different than what you'll
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  Speaker 3: see in the market today, really focused on giving better
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  Speaker 3: audience engagement when you go to sell your place in Tira.
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  Speaker 3: It'll be the thing that people all want to use
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  Speaker 3: to when you lest.
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  Speaker 2: Your proper you read my mind. I do sometimes think
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  Speaker 2: do I actually need this one? An extravagance? What do
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  Speaker 2: you think about where the media is at Have we
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  Speaker 2: turned a corner?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think we definitely have. I can't speak for others.
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  Speaker 2: But you'd know because you know everything. So when you're
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  Speaker 2: out there, what do you think. Is it just us
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  Speaker 2: who's turned to corner or is everybody turning a corner.
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  Speaker 3: I think everyone's certainly feeling better. I'm sure everyone will
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  Speaker 3: be getting some more of that spend, but I think
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  Speaker 3: each industry is doing a little bit tough. We're really lucky,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we're across one roof. As you mentioned, we're
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  Speaker 3: across radio. We've obviously got our digital and print businesses
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  Speaker 3: as well. Publishing actually grew its profitability this year, so
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  Speaker 3: that's got our printing, digital businesses, our digital business fifty
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  Speaker 3: five percent. Now are people subscribing to us from a
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  Speaker 3: revenue perspective, from a digital so that's a bit of
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  Speaker 3: a breakthrough that we're over that fifty percent mark.
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  Speaker 2: Big thing last year for endsed me obviously was that
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  Speaker 2: the I suppose you could cause it, call it upheaval
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  Speaker 2: at the board level. Is that all settled down? Everybody's
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  Speaker 2: playing nice?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. I've been really pleased to be involved with award.
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  Speaker 3: Stephen Joyce is a great chair for us. He's managed
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  Speaker 3: difficult positions. I'm sure in his political stuff, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 3: He knows very much about Radio two, which is a
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  Speaker 3: great asset to have. So I'm enjoying dealing with the board.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we've got a very large shareholder on the
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  Speaker 3: board and I'm really pleased that, you know, he acts
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  Speaker 3: in the interest of all shareholders, which is really neat
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  Speaker 3: to see.
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  Speaker 2: Now, what is up with this milky bar that you've
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  Speaker 2: brought in to bribe me?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I heard you get a bit low at this
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  Speaker 3: time of day and you need it a high. So
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  Speaker 3: there it is.
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  Speaker 2: When it works. Thank you, Boggsy, appreciate it. She's so low,
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  Speaker 2: so much. Slee Jing. Michael Boggs enzed Me, chief executive
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  Speaker 2: for
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