Is our print media, worth saving?

My letter to Hon Paul Golodsmith.

'Dear Minister.The public interest journalism funding introduced by the Labour government and continuing under your stewardship, is totally wrong in approach. It puts me in mind of the American expression: 'Play stupid games, win stupid prizes'. More particularly for me, the old nursery rhyme: 'Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating a Christmas pie. He stuck in his thumb, pulled out a plum and said: "What a good boy am I"' applies. A prize-based approach to subsidies is wrong. While in general I'm opposed to state help for failing technologies and prefer to allow market forces to prevail, in the case of published newspapers, perhaps there is room for public assistance. I say this, not because papers are worthy in their own right, but because so far, no alternative has emerged. I read all four metro papers daily and a sampling of overseas pubs including the Spectator and the New York Post. The latter is particularly interesting as it attempts to woo readers with excruciating hip and colloquial speech - 'Ink' for sign, 'Hizzonner' for the Mayor etc. In other words an attempt is made to duplicate online news feeds. This is NOT an approach I favour.The public service departments that work for you and other Ministers, don't work on Jack Horner principles. They aren't paid if they produce policy papers which Ministers agree with. Rather the work done, canvasses all sides of an issue and leaves the Minister to choose the preferred option, or to ask for further work to be done on one or more of the most-favoured viewpoints.The departments work on behavioural imperatives called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These don't seek to insert policies, but to ensure that the policy work is executed to ensure the Minister has all the relevant information including the options that are being rejected. I suggest that a set of KPIs be devised for newspapers - and a lump sum payment be made - perhaps related to circulation - say every three months on submission of a report detailing KPI achievement.The KPIs need only relate to the four main Opinion sections of the paper which can be subdivided into 'Editorials', 'Opinion Pieces', 'Cartoons' and 'Reader Correspondence'. Like policy papers you receive, balance is the only option. A particularly egregious lack of balance was evident in 'The Press' last Tuesday when four (out of a total of eight) letters, were published that were anti-Israel. None were replies to earlier letters and none gave examples of the 'crimes' being complained about. Indeed one was left with the uncomfortable feeling that it was an orchestrated effort. Like Sherlock Holmes: 'Dog in the night', the missing letter-writer was John Minto*, so draw your conclusions! Having worked in the Public Service for many years, mainly in Ministerial comms, with hard KPIs, I would be happy to help with a relaunch of a National-Coalition version of Public Interest Journalism'.

* Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (New Zealand)