The Star: February 14, 2019

24 Thursday February 14 2019
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
The Star
Our People
‘We’ve had this opportunity
•From page 23
When you started your career,
did you ever think you would
end up as an editor?
No, I’m not that deliberate.
Editing is an incredible privilege
and amazing fun and very hard as
well. I was just very fortunate to
get that opportunity.
Have any of your stories stuck
with you over the last 20 years?
Yes, there are some really, really
powerful ones. The very first
big story I covered as a junior
reporter at the Dominion. I was
working over Christmas and a
young couple [Ben Smart and
Olivia Hope] were reported
missing in the Marlborough
Sounds. Those stories always stick
with you. Then more recently,
Christchurch. It was interesting
in itself arriving into a city
where you hadn’t been, I was in
Wellington when the quakes of
2010 and 2011 happened. We
were working very closely with
the team at The Press and in fact
on the evening of February 22,
we in Wellington helped The
Press team put out that edition
that landed on people’s driveways
on February 23. That was pretty
crazy and incredible. That night
the reporters all worked, they
filed their copy and we helped
produce that edition of The Press
from the Wellington newsroom
and that next morning that Press
was on people’s driveways. I
used to talk about that publicly
and people would cry because
that moment when no one knew
what was happening and this
was the outside world and that’s
the power of the media, it’s so
important.
Have you had any big
fumbles?
That’s the nature of news. There
have definitely been things that
I have reflected on later and
thought we could have handled
that differently or we could have
put more thought into that or I
wish we’d had more information
before we published that, we
would have been better off. That
being said, I always describe
the media as a bit of a blunt
instrument, in that you wobble
towards a position of truth
with each iteration of a story.
Journalists are not academics
sitting for three years doing a
thesis and producing a body
of work. You work to whatever
time you work to, weekly, daily
or digital, you get to the truth
and you hold those in power
accountable.
Do you miss working in the
media?
There’s a lot I miss about the
media, absolutely. But I am
also very fortunate to work
with journalists right across the
spectrum and that’s quite a treat
as well.
What do you see for the future
of journalism?
I have great hope for the
media. I think the commercial
proposition is deeply challenging
and very, very difficult in a New
Zealand environment where scale
is a challenge. There are only five
million people, there are only a
certain number of consumers
who are prepared to pay for a
product and a limited number
of advertisers. But journalism
is so fundamental to a safe and
strong society that there must
be a way through this and I
think journalism is as good now
as its ever been. Some of the
investigative work that’s done
by teams across the country by
all media agencies really makes
a difference and its absolutely
essential that the fourth estate
keeps an eye on people in power.
It has to continue.
Are you surprised or
disappointed by the moves made
by Channel Nine in Australia to
sell New Zealand assets such as
The Press?
No, media ownership
changes, it always has done. I
think when I worked for, what
was then Fairfax, I think I
worked under three different
owners in the course of my career.
I always said to my newsroom,
you just do your job, your job
is to be a journalist and hold
the powerful to account and
be a watchdog and champion.
It’s other people’s jobs to worry
about what the governance and
ownership looks like. If you’re
continually worried about what’s
around the corner, you don’t do
your job properly.
Canterbury
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