"I'm not sure what you get when you take the essential ingredient of conflict out of news stories? Soft, bland, non-offensive happy clappy "good news" stories that don't offend advertisers and readers?" Perhaps what you might get is well researched articles that don't oversimplify stories and resort to lowest common denominator button pushing. I dream of seeing it in New Zealand print media one day. Although I'd have to say that the standard of TV journalism makes print media look pretty good.

"I'm not quite sure what you get if you take the news out of the news." Easy! You get modern "news"! You get "Sound bites", you get 20 minutes worth of "teasers" of what's "coming up next" followed by a 5 minute piece of pretty pictures and no substance. You get mindless regurgitation of the US viewpoint or that of their Israeli masters. The Jews are sacrosanct because of the Holocaust! Pictures of tanks! Missiles flying! Pretty red explosions! Evil bad suicide bombers! "Taiwan, which China views as a rogue province!" Log on to CNN or Reuters or BBC and find the exact same trash!

Quality news reporting is very rare. I can't remember the last time I read a piece of journalism on an international topic offering a balanced, well researched view from an independent New Zealand perspective.

I CAN remember the latest quality domestic piece of reporting, where the journalist had actually done some homework and presented a balanced, empathic article. It was "The Story behind the Napier Siege" by Tony Wall of the Sunday Star Times. This kind of reporting is so rare that I felt compelled to write to the editor of that newspaper and compliment him.

Is it any wonder that journalists can't hold their job when we get better, more informative and more balanced information from Wikipedia and Google?

The problem in NZ is worse. We are "branch media" for all except but a few organizations. - Fairfax: Sydney run, Sydney centric, views NZ as a cost centre. Inexorable decay to recycled Au stories with growing irrelevance. Political reporters fine, and principled, but not really read - and weekend Dom is unreadable. Online is ok - APN. Herald getting worse by the day. Business section very weak. World section all outsourced. Fran O'Sullivan thinks she is the news, and is increasingly small minded and easily manipulated. Brain Rudman? The Sunday Herald? please.. and their online...clearly no interest in staying up to date - you see "breaking news' on their site and you know it is old news - TV3/Radiolive: Au private equity company that is probably geared to the eyeballs and back. You think they are investing? you think they will spend to find the story? Yes, the magick of private equity...like any other bubble that one burst

Leave you with: - TVNZ - which is clearly a mess, and a few local bits and bobs around the place. Have you tried to find anything on their web site? - Some magazine titles which are popping up and look good, but hard see surviving - The NZX rural media titles, which at least have stayed local in ownership rather than be asset stripped by one of the Au majors. - ODT - which keeps plugging away and good on them! - Julie Christie? - South Pacific (fantastic)

Sad state of affairs -

Well Bill, as a media person you seem to have missed the point in your blog, as I suspect, you are still so immersed in the media gig ypu cant see the writting on the wall. The future for newspaper is grim. loss of advertising due to the recession is nothing compared to what the internet is doing to the written media. The newspaper industry will cease to exist within 3-5 years. The vehicle that provides the means to get that lame, limp and uninformed jounalism into our letterbox will not stand up agains the onslaught of free, informed and timley electronic communication and information. the internet has come of age and will as predicted push newsprint into the past. Don't take my word for it just wait a year and see for yourself.

I think the internet will make traditional newspapers redundant as the best journalists go direct. It's hard to see how most papers can add value.

Whether it's print or electronic media, journalism in this country won't improve until journalists are paid like grown ups and enough of them are employed to do the job effectively.

Print journalists for the major dailys have little time to follow up a story, let alone get a direct quote, so pretty much cut and paste press releases.

The media is now far more interested in advertising than news. Need proof? Look at any media outlet and check out what the journalists are paid compared to what the sales reps are paid.

And there is no debate about how media treats advertisers yet the only media not reliant on advertisers is Radio New Zealand National which is so under-resourced it's a wonder they manage to broadcast 24/7.

There's still a market for small local newspapers but the large one's days are numbered. Thats what technology does sometimes, make older formats redundent, not necessarily a bad thing.

Hmm, I must say I prefer to read my news in some areas, particularly technology, from a dedicated (and respected, verifiable) online source than some paraphrased article written by someone with no clue what they're talking about as is often the case in papers.