Tag: media

  • Reviewing The Post as a standalone news website

    In April 2023 Stuff (the parent company of Stuff.co.nz) launched three new digital news sites. There is now one each for The Post (formerly the Dominion Post), The Press, and the Waikato Times, and the sites feature for the first time the ability to subscribe to a digital news offering: Stuff launched new digital sites…

  • Reflections on Spotify’s AI DJ

    A little while ago Spotify launched an AI DJ. It’s an evolution of Spotify’s algorithmic playlists and radio stations, but it felt like a reasonably big leap forward to me. One big difference is that the AI DJ talks to you like a radio DJ telling you what’s coming up and what the last song…

  • Briefly: Stuff jumps aboard the crowd-funding journalism model

    Today Stuff.co.nz launched a campaign to get their users to fund their journalism directly: Stuff has a long and trusted history of telling New Zealand stories. Through some of our newspapers, that dates back more than 150 years. Today, we’re seeking your support to keep us telling Kiwi stories for another 150 years. This reliance…

  • The Herald introduces a paywall

    I’ve previously blogged that I want to pay for NZ news but no-one would take my money. I’m glad to see the New Zealand Herald has finally introduced a paywall. I think the paywall is a great development for the media in New Zealand — so much so that I bought a small number of…

  • Why can’t I subscribe to quality local NZ media?

    I would pay for local, digital news, but there are no easy ways to do that. Why is it so hard? I live in New Zealand where we have two large national newspaper brands: the New Zealand Herald and Stuff.co.nz. (side note: these brands are actually trying to merge at the moment).  I subscribe to…

  • What are Facebook’s responsibilities as an information gatekeeper?

    I’ve previously written about how Facebook is a sort of quasi monopolistic utility. Part of Facebook’s status as a dominant player is that it has a huge rule in determining what news people see. A few developments in the past few months have raised interesting questions about how Facebook deals with its role as an…