NZME agitator wants Herald's ‘political leaning' measured, maybe by AI

Newsroom

20-05-2025

Comment: The Canadian-NZ investor who tried but failed to take board control of media firm NZME still believes its New Zealand Herald needs to 'measure its articles for political leaning' and suggests artificial intelligence can help.
Jim Grenon, who previously formed the right-leaning Centrist site and newsletter, will likely win just his own seat on the NZME board when shareholders vote in a fortnight, rather than the chair plus three others he had sought.
Instead, his board agitation will see former National Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce supported to become a director and take the chair, with three incumbent directors surviving and a new digital expert to be appointed.
But Grenon, who outlined his financial and editorial concerns about the Herald in two letters to the board in March and April, is clearly not letting his focus on the paper's journalism fade as he prepares to join that board.
In information posted to the NZX website on Friday for shareholders before the meeting he outlines his business background in Canada, acknowledges he might not 'on the surface … have a lot of directly relevant experience that will be helpful for NZME' and then returns to his editorial standards theme.
He said his involvement with the Centrist – which platforms fringe and alternative content on climate change, social and gender issues and the Treaty of Waitangi – had exposed him in detail to the Herald's journalism.
'One of the things Centrist does is carefully follow what the other NZ news organisations are doing so I have had a thorough immersion into the journalism produced by NZME,' Grenon tells shareholders.
'I believe it is important for the Herald to be a broad church. To ensure it is on course it needs to be able to measure its articles for political leaning, overall. This is now much easier with AI. The same can be said about measuring the quality of the journalism.'
Grenon has been critical of the Herald and Stuff as long ago as during the pandemic, and the Centrist has said publicly that the Herald's journalism problems were among the reasons for the site/newsletter's launch.
'The NZ Herald also seems to sometimes accept, without questioning, what we see as blatantly misleading government narrative. This includes 3 Waters and the IRD high net worth project. The Herald, BusinessDesk and other major media sources in New Zealand, inspired us to launch NE and the Centrist.'
The right-tinged Free Speech Union has also publicly declared it first sparked Grenon's interest in NZME by alerting him to its refusals to publish certain political advocacy advertisements.
Quite how Grenon would expect the Herald newsroom or the creation of an editorial advisory board that he promoted in his campaign to measure 'political leaning' in its journalism is unclear. What is also unclear is whether he would expect the Herald to make that measurement of leaning public to readers and customers.
In the early weeks of his attempt to turn his 9.97 percent holding in NZME into sweeping aside the existing board, taking the chair and appointing his own nominees, Grenon told NZME he would not be a standard chair.
'I do not propose to act as an average, passive board chair. I propose to be very active at the management level, leading a board and team that will delve into the operational details so as to be able to challenge management. Some other board members may also assist with the technical work. This approach to governance is the only realistic way to ensure NZME gets a fresh set of eyes questioning every aspect of operational effectiveness and shareholder value creation.'
Steven Joyce is chair in waiting for NZME. Photo: Lynn Grieveson
As a lone director he will now need to make that case to his colleagues around the board table.
His previous letters to the board – including one advising directors to forget a futile defence against his raid – listed the company's poor financial performance, insufficient transparency, bloated management and staffing costs and a need for better journalism.
One letter said Grenon expected NZME staff to get with the programme once he took over: 'We expect to find significant cost reduction in the high-cost employees and executive ranks. It is easy to understand why existing management has been resistant in this area. We also hope to find many in the existing NZME staff that can work and thrive in the new paradigm, which will provide opportunities for some to advance.'
Whether he will be permitted by Joyce and the board to be actively involved in changing the executive ranks and spending can only emerge once the shareholders have had their say on June 3.
Grenon has lived in New Zealand for 12 years. He still owns and works with TOM Capital, a private equity business based in Calgary, Canada, that has had financial success investing in energy and manufacturing firms. He lists his board experience at various listed firms over 25 years.
His most recent note to shareholders says he and his TOM Capital colleagues have been poring over NZME's financial affairs for a year.
'I think it is noteworthy that, many times in the past I have acquired significant investments based only on publicly available knowledge but they have almost always worked very well once I was in a position on the inside. These calculated risks, based on some, but incomplete, knowledge and experience, are part of private equity investing.'
A Grenon associate and at one stage nominee for the NZME board, lawyer and blogger Philip Crump, is set to join the new editorial advisory board at NZME, perhaps as chair.
Crump worked within NZME for nine months establishing the ZB Plus centre-right website which was abandoned. He became a favourite of the coalition Government, winning appointments to the board of NZ on Air (the broadcasting and digital content funding agency) and the Waitangi Tribunal.
Once appointed to the NZME editorial advisory board, Crump's position on NZ on Air's board would have to be under examination for any appearances of conflict of interest.
Stuff up again
The latest online audience numbers are out, with Stuff again dominant.
Stuff's online ad after winning 11 Voyager Media Awards, including best digital platform.
The winner for the second year in a row of best digital news platform at the Voyager Media Awards, Stuff has 2.3 million unique readers in the Nielsen online ratings for April.
That is a substantial 417,000 ahead of the nzherald site on just under 1.9m, with RNZ on 1.5m and 1News now a distant fourth on 743,000.
RNZ's continued strength follows the demise last July of the Newshub website.
Nielsen's April release appears more straightforward than its issuing, then retraction, of March figures after concern over errors.
Amended March figures now show Stuff (initially listed as having 2.34m unique readers) was actually 2.2m, and nzherald (initially set at 1.82m) was revised up to 1.89m.
Using the latest figures for March, Stuff lifted its audience by 126,000 in April and nzherald was up 9000.