Your Daily Ten@10 - 2025/9

This is edition 2025/9 of the Ten@10 newsletter.

Welcome back. It's 2025 and 20 years since I started writing about politics and anything else that took my fancy. Thank to my VIP members for making this site what it is today. In July we will be having a 20th birthday celebration. Stay tuned for more announcements.

This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.

Enjoy!

• 📰 Media's Self-Reflection: A series of articles by Shayne Currie examines the state of New Zealand media, but critics argue it leans more towards self-promotion than critical analysis.
• 📉 Missed Opportunities: Despite interviews with media, advertising, and PR professionals, the articles lack in-depth discussion of the real challenges, such as the shift of advertising to digital platforms.
• 🏛️ Government and MSM's Claims: Mainstream Media (MSM) asks the government for help through the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill (FDNBB), but some see it as a form of entitlement or socialism rather than a market solution.
• 💻 Digital Platforms' Role: MSM complains about losing advertising to tech giants like Facebook and Google, but the technological reasons behind this shift remain inadequately addressed.
• 💸 Funding and Fairness: Sinead Boucher and Michael Boggs argue that platforms should pay for the content they use, but critics view their approach as relying too much on government intervention rather than innovating within their own businesses.
• 🔄 Trust Issues: While acknowledging a decline in trust, some media outlets, like NZME, emphasize efforts to rebuild that trust, including clearer labeling of opinion pieces and presenting multiple viewpoints.
• 📚 Listener’s Alternative Approach: Are Media, publisher of The Listener, avoids the FDNBB debate, focusing instead on a strong paywall model for its dedicated audience.
• 🏛️ FDNBB as Socialism: The FDNBB (Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill) is criticized as a state-sponsored wealth redistribution scheme, benefiting MSM (Mainstream Media) while targeting big tech platforms like Google and Facebook.
• 🇦🇺 Australia's Role: The concept of the FDNBB originated in Australia, where the Morrison Government (centre-right) introduced a similar law targeting digital platforms, despite their varying success in regulating the internet.
• 🇨🇦 Canada's Model: A similar model was introduced in Canada by a left-wing government, reflecting a broader trend towards socialistic policies affecting digital platforms globally.
• 🏛️ NZ Government's Action: Surprisingly, New Zealand’s centre-right government has pushed forward the FDNBB despite its socialist undertones, with a series of decisions that may indicate a shift in their economic priorities.
• 🗣️ Government’s Unclear Priorities: Despite the Select Committee’s recommendation to halt the bill, the government chose to keep it alive, signaling a commitment to wealth redistribution through state intervention.
• 💼 MSM Complaints: MSM figures like Sinead Boucher claim that tech giants profit from New Zealand journalism without compensating content creators, misrepresenting the relationship between platforms and news outlets.
• 🖥️ Technological Misrepresentation: The real issue lies in content aggregation, not direct content copying. Platforms like Google News and Facebook direct traffic back to the original source, benefiting MSM with increased visibility.
• 📈 Ad Targeting & Effectiveness: Platforms like Google and Facebook offer advanced targeting, engagement tracking, and cost-effective advertising solutions, making digital ads more effective than traditional MSM ads.
• 📉 MSM's Declining Value: MSM is losing relevance as an advertising platform but instead of adapting, they demand government intervention to redirect advertising revenue back to them, despite the changes in consumer behavior.
• 🏢 MSM's Arrogance: The MSM’s failure to address the decline in their advertising effectiveness reflects a broader sense of entitlement, relying on government support instead of evolving their business model to survive without it.