Now we're up to our 100th post and we keep thinking of new things worth complaining about, so we're not stopping anytime soon. It's also extremely cathartic, getting all this shit out of our thick skulls.
We're also surprised it has lasted this long because we kinda thought the whole media business would have collapsed by now, but it's still hanging in there. And even though we're still fairly convinced all the funding and goodwill is about to run out, and the media landscape is facing a digital apocalypse, there are some bright signs out there. Not a lot, but some reasons to be cheerful.
We're just hoping these dim lights at the end of the tunnel aren't an oncoming train.
* Stuff is beefing up its Auckland coverage with some big names
Although it has long had a dedicated central newsroom in Auckland, Stuff has also relied on its fragile network of suburban papers to cover most of the issues facing NZ's biggest city, and those guys are busy enough putting out multiple editions a week.
But this is changing now, with the media giant actively recruiting some bloody good journos for its Auckland team, poaching phenomenal talents like Todd Niall from RNZ or Andrea Vance from TVNZ, and making a lot of other good hires.
This won't please the dullards moaning that Auckland gets too much attention from the national media as it is, and it won't silence those who have righteous concerns about Stuff's ongoing destruction of its regional services
But any kind of decent investment in any kind of newsroom is good for everybody, even if they're a bunch of fuckin' Jafas.
* Nicky Hager's legal win is a win for all confidential sources
The wide-ranging apology that the police were forced to give to freelance journalist Nicky Hager was a victory for all media in this country, and a victory for the vital process of keeping your sources anonymous. If you can't promise that kind of protection, you can't blame people for keeping their mouths shut.
It almost makes all the aresholes saying this is proof that Hager is the only really journalist in the country bearable.
* The government doesn't hate its own public broadcaster
It's still struggling to shake off a public perception as Radio Lefty, but RNZ still likes to rip into the government that ultimately pays its bills, no matter who it is – Guyon Espiner had a deliciously snarky interview with Andrew Little last week and nobody gets off easy when any of their interviewers get their teeth into something meaty, no matter what ideology they personally follow.
Fortunately, it is still a new government that doesn't have open disdain for RNZ's efforts, and recognises the need for a full and fair public broadcaster. It might not have got as much in this year's budget as earlier comments indicated, but its funding hasn't been frozen for nearly a decade, like the last lot did.
It's good to have a newsroom that has no commercial imperative in this country, and it's good to have a government that recognises that fact. For as long as the honeymoon lasts, anyway.
* All the TV
Television is dying, say all the cool kids, but it's not dead yet. Not by a long shot, and there are some incredibly good producers, directors presenters and reporters putting out an extraordinary amount of live TV every week.
Between the main bulletins, the off-peak shows, the breakfast broadcasts and the weekend current affairs, there is more than 60 hours of live broadcasting going out on the airwaves for free every week, and it's amazing that it goes as smoothly as it does. Even when the live cross breaks down, we should be heartened by how much live visual news a tiny country like our can produce.
* Leaving the PM alone
Journalists are generally awful human beings, who rely on terrible tragedies to keep the news flow going, so it's actually nice to have a big news story that is genuinely positive, like the Prime Minister having a baby.
Even better, our press is a lot less trashy than, say, their UK counterparts, and even though things can get a bit tabloidy sometimes (especially when the NZ Herald leads its website with a fuckin' Daily Mail story), the NZ press pack is far better at respecting somebody's personal boundaries, even if they're the leader of the nation.
So after the PM goes home with the baby, it's a strong bet that we're all going to leave her the hell alone, until she's ready to come back to work. There will still be opportunistic scum looking to pap the baby, but who the fuck would buy it? The public backlash alone would be astronomical.
* There's always a place for hyper-local news
Everyone wants to know what is going on in their immediate vicinity, so there is always going to be a place for local news in the media landscape, a lesson that has been lost in endless consolidation and buy-outs, as fiercely regional news enterprises were swallowed up into larger media behemoths.
This has been a huge demographic that is increasingly ill-served by the national media and you only have to see the utter destruction of local sports coverage to see how much the big boys in the boardroom care about the regions they ostensibly serve.
But there is an increasing certainty that these things can be run better without the massive overheads and even bigger over-expectations from a central office. Some areas are focusing solely on the communities around them, with local newspapers for local people.
Nobody is going to make a lot of money out of this, but people in a town like Kaikoura want the Kaikoura news, and if they're not getting that from a news website overloaded with national and international news, they've got to get it from somewhere.
* The kids are all right
A member of the Media Scrum crew had the opportunity to meet some students journos recently, and holy shit you guys, the kids these days are a brilliant sign for the future. They're so full of youthful idealism which is more tied to reality than ever before. They're politically aware, scarily smart, and it's amazing how much they're ignoring the whole idea that journalism is a dead end career with few prospects, and are going for it anyway.
We'll lose a lot of them very quickly - they're getting into comms at younger and younger ages - but looking at the next generation of journalism is the best reason to be cheerful, even when it feels like this entire industry is falling down around us.
- Katherine, Margaret, Ron and Steve
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