14. Journos who get the job done

This blog has been wallowing in the misery of modern media for a while now, and in our last post, we were bloody mean about poor old Nigel Latta, who is probably trying his best. So maybe, just for once, we could try to be kind for a change, and name a small few of our favourite journos – reporters, presenters and editors who do  a bloody great job, day in and day out. They're not the loudest or the flashiest, and so don't always get the credit for the great work they do, but we love their work, and we are totally willing to sing their praises.

Miriyana Alexander, editor, Herald weekend papers: Daily newspapers are getting thinner, both literally and figuratively, but you can't beat the chunkiness of the weekend editions. Alexander brought new life to the Herald on Sunday when it was starting to get a bit stale a couple of years ago, and has brought the same vibrancy to the Saturday edition since taking that over as well in 2015, with a strong mix of dead-on spot news, long-form features and some great light fare. There is always something for everyone, and Alexander's editorial style is open to the broadest of audiences. Brunch just wouldn't taste the same without it.

Duncan Bridgeman, NBR news editor: When media careers at single organisations often last about as long as a spilled drink in a rainstorm, Bridgeman has been holding it together at the NBR for a long, long time. He's the one person who is most responsible for producing a great fuckin' business publication week after week, for the past decade. His writing doesn't dumb down the business talk, while still remaining totally accessible for a biz newbie, and he has helped hold the whole thing together as it made its faltering, and successful, steps behind a digital paywall. The most indispensable business reporter in NZ.

Hayden Donnell, Spinoff anti-sex editor: Blessed and cursed with the best deadpan face in the business, Donnell's writing style was stifled by the necessity of hard news at Newsworthy and the Herald Online, but has found full force at the slippery Spinoff. That news background gave him the skills to properly cover some of the crazy shenaigans at the Auckland council, but it's the eye for the absurd and the willingness to take the piss out of everything that is good and proper in the world that makes his writing so interesting. He's not just the country's go-to guy for ripping into the stupid shit the rich and powerful keep saying in this country, he's also a cracking songwriter as well. Why is life so hard, Hayden?

Kristin Hall, Seven Sharp reporter: It isn't always that easy to maintain your dignity when you're a reporter on one of the 7pm current affairs shows. If a producer isn't making you ride a environmentally-friendly scooter across town while wearing a Panda onesie to make some point about global warming, then you're on a show presented by loveable shitstain Mike Hosking. But Hall gets the balance exactly right – she's groovy enough to handle the inexplicably popular 'zany' segments of Seven Sharp, but tackles big topics with a kind of bemused empathy that can't be faked, is pleasantly open with her unhappiness when she doesn't get the answers that she needs, and is determined enough to stick with her questions until she gets them..

Mohamed Hassan, RNZ podcaster: An award-winning poet who has also put in the hours in some busy newsrooms, Hassan is a relatively recent addition to RNZ's burgeoning podcast team, but has already proved that he has got the goods with his Public Enemies series, which took an honest and open look at some of the prejudice and hatred that Muslims face in western society. Hassan's strengths are an obvious way with words and an unwillingness to give into po-faced judgements, tackling tricky subjects like his experiences in the customs queue with wry humour and a resigned shrug:



This is so easy. Five more on Thursday.