This is a report for paid subscribers on progress and proposals for the year ahead, including ideas to pivot for faster growth to fund more in-depth investigative and policy debate projects
I have a busy family SME and need to know what is happening of note in NZ.
I don't subscribe to the NZ Herald anymore and am dropping the Sydney Morning Herald as well.
I kept my subscription to Newsroom Pro when you left.
When I get the Kaka, rightly or wrongly, I assume if there is something I need to know about business or politics it will be in there. I am looking at subscribing to one of the US publications too.
I really enjoy the Friday afternoon Hoon as well.
Forget retirement mate. Joe Biden is almost 80 and running the US.
Universities and poly techs plus charities charge and are structured like businesses so I would treat them as Corporates (many are) but I agree students should have easy free access. Likewise teachers are relatively well paid and have great working conditions relatively also. Quite privileged so no need there. I’d treat schools like businesses as well again that’s the bizarre model they aspire to rather than public service.
Have to say I found your comments about teachers shocking. Have you talked to any recently? They are one of the worst paid jobs in NZ for the hours/qualifications/stress. 50% of teachers leave the profession (not just a job, but quit teaching entirely) within 5 years. Does any other profession come close to that?
They should try retail or manual and frontline labour in both the private and public sector for awhile.Most couldn’t handle those pay and conditions and no holidays either. They’re not even nice to our kids and act like megalomaniacs and spoilt middle class brats. I wouldn’t recommend trusting the state to educate and care for children. But I prefer alternative and extra tuition to support the children as school wastes a lot of their productive play and learning time in my opinion. Confining and forcing rote learning isn’t ideal in my view so I don’t have a good opinion of the institutionsveffectiveness and believe they were only set up as babysitting services to get both parents to serve capitalism. Not as the most effective way to teach or learn. So everyone’s unhappy really. Sorry if my comment offended you but in my experience without significant extra cost and support from home children don’t thrive or fulfil their potential at school enough to justify the time spent stuck at desks.
The comparison to labouring is an interesting one. They are paid $25 - $40 an hour which is roughly the same as teachers depending on experience. Except teachers usually have about 3 - 5 years training and don't get paid for any extra hours unlike labouring.
Teachers used to have the same salary as backbench MPs, engineers and lawyers. Now they get half them.
Hard work and sales is on commission is pretty high pressure as well. I do know teachers do feel very put upon with the extra some feel they have to do. But 10 weeks paid holidays is pretty cushy by anyone’s standards. I have tutored and I agree it’s the easy bit and casual contracts and T & C’s are an appalling thing in any work place. I just don’t think teachers have the worst of it relatively.
The teachers don't get the same holidays the kids do. They work about half to all of the term holidays doing prep/marking. And they work the last few weeks of the summer holidays doing admin/prep stuff for the coming year. So they get around the same holidays as anyone else...
Yes well all my three parents were teachers….it’s not as bad as made out to be just like farmers (landowners) earn a lot more than they will ever admit too.
I have to agree with Your Servant. As the partner of a now-former teacher, I was startled by how much unpaid work is expected (effectively demanded) of teachers. They don't get evenings or weekends, and parents and pupils often feel entitled to treat them quite badly. My partner took a significant paycut to leave the field & still feels guilty about walking away from colleagues and the needs of the kids, but our lives have been so much better since then. No one who doesn't care about kids would put up with being treated the way teachers are treated -- and if you care about kids, the state is able to use that against you, by locking you into a position where all the shortcomings of our education infrastructure and many of the shortcomings of our social welfare system are left to you to address.
Ha! Yes, definitely. If I hadn't used up my morning's free time on that comment, I'd have added, I began reading your Dawn Chorus reports as an alternative to the Spinoff's Bulletin, then added the weekly Hoons, and I now subscribe to When The Facts Change. What I want from you is broadly for you to be free to follow your nose and do what interests you -- hence my support -- but I specifically value the mix of morning round-up and analysis, the Hoon's weekly wrap-ups, and your Spinoff podcast's in-depth look at individual topics. Anything beyond those is gravy.
(I'm mostly a morning news consumer. The new evening newsletters don't really fit into my life. That's okay. But if I was going to suggest a new project, it would be something more focused and single-topic. Like maybe a series of intro pieces on political economics for the young and the economically illiterate, like me).
You're the only journalist I currently support, by the way. I'm not super-wealthy, though I'm comfortable enough. If you start giving most of your content away, I'd want to keep supporting you, but I'll be honest, it would be tempting to move the money to something I couldn't otherwise access. I do like the idea of the young (and teachers obviously) getting a special deal here.
Thanks Kath. I find many working in universities would like to subscribe, but have used their budgets on subscriptions for academic journals. Hoping to help them out and say thanks to many who have helped explain things to me over the years.
Bernard, I truly think you've carved a strong niche that nobody else seems to fill in half as good manner. You've done that since your days at interest.co.nz I feel - accessible, understandable and in tune with the questions most of us actually want answered and the curiousities we have.
For me, YouTube is now such a go to to find new podcasts, channels, independent journalism and similar. YouTube's algorithms seem to get me - feed me interesting, insightful content they know I'd like. I see things there first then add them to my Google podcast feed or seek them out online.
You are such great talent on camera. Could you wrap your daily/weekly wrap or otherwise into a video form, to leverage this as an onramp for potential Kaka subscribers. Not every ounce of content has to take on a video form, but rather some weekly content that could fit the medium.
I find it difficult to watch youtube on my headset while cycling into work. I think the issue is the youtube content providers are funded by views clicks and subscriptions and adds we have to hit skip for while they mine us for data.
Try watching it when swimming. Even harder, trust me! It's great at other times though. And like almost every other medium, you're right, it's funded by some mix of those things. Hard to avoid.
Thanks Skeptic. I'd see it more as a shop window than the full store room. I can put video behind the paywall here at Substack, so Youtube may be a subset.
Excellent suggestion Stephen. I've been tempted, but a little scared of the video editing and production costs. But they are getting easier and the wonderful Lynn has developed a particular set of new skills in this area. There may be ways to do it without taking up too much time.
And that children, is how The Daily Kaka was born, which now reaches over 50 million readers every day...
But seriously, do you ever sleep?
But seriously, seriously, I'll be renewing my paid subscription whatever you decide. I read the whole thing, every line, daily (and I'm 56 and work full time), sneakily get The Hoon up on my screen weekly, and listen to most podcasts, not to mention many of the long reads.
I think you may underestimate people, yes, en masse the "median voter" is selfish, but there are core groups of sincere and concerned, and downright altruistic people out there that want your journalism buzzing in the ears of decision makers until they start making sense.
I'm good with whatever model, but really really like the idea of free to students and discounts for the under 30's.
Thanks DRJCA. It is true I spend a lot of time on it, but I do sleep. Covid has narrowed my social activities somewhat. And I'm 55. So not so much socialising anyway... I enjoy it. Just quietly. My idea of a fantastic time is sitting down with the FT/NY Times/New Yorker/Economist/ etc and a cup of coffee and hoovering it up. One of my great pleasures when living in London was the weekend papers.
Bugger. I turn 30 this year! Just missing out on such a great deal. The appeal is there with the topics covered and cost wise, let's people have an opportunity to be a full subscriber and join in on some great journalism without breaking that budget and over stretching to stay informed.
Reason why I become a subscriber early on was with your kaupapa with Newsroom Pro (which I am still a subscriber, so get double helpings in the AM) and valuing your journalism that got down to the core issues I care about, housing, child poverty and climate change.
Dusk chorus is a great idea. As double helpings of news was something I was really surprised about when visiting London. Loved being informed with the right amount of content. These days, news is developing every minute of every hour, and can quickly change like the tides.
Hi Bernard, I have been a subscriber from day one and think the idea of getting your journalism out to more people who want and need to understand the world we live in, where it's heading and importantly, it's relevance to them (younger people and those who are less able to afford access) is fantastic. Your suggestions on how to make this happen seem reasonable and fair. Teachers and students should have access, as well as discounts for younger readers who'll get hooked, as I was.
Thanks Thomas. That's great. When we pull the trigger on the $30 for under 30s and free for students and teachers, I'll ask subscribers to tell all their young student friends and families.
I subscribe to The Kākā because I enjoy your daily updates and consider them a trustworthy source of news on topics I care about, and I think the journalism you do is excellent important work. So given that, I fully agree with your plan to make more of your work public - it deserves a larger audience, and I don't think it devalues subscribing or anything.
I enjoy your commentary and insights. A wider range of options might get to complicated. FYI I also enjoy the daily . One podcast a day .. topical …with a weekend variation. Your weekly “hoon” is great .. the podcast format is the future…don’t really need the zoom unless everyone is beautiful ( which you all are of course) but in my opinion the podcast is all you need along with written summaries .. look forward to the new changes
Thanks Geoff. I've been surprised by the demand for the podcasts. I'm a text guy, but am finding myself listening to podcasts a lot while walking and driving, instead of radio. My aim with the dawn and dusk choruses is to get into those daily commuting habits. We'll see. Doing the Dusk chorus slowed me down a bit today.
HI Bernard - love you work. If you're going to focus on anything, and therefore drop something, my suggestion would be the dusk chorus. There is plenty of news out there - what I value is you sorting the wheat from the chaff and feel you will be better able to do that if you can come up for air. I am a big fan of the hoons too (particularly with the other wonks).
I agree with this. I lean on the Dawn Chorus to be my 'What's _actually_ important today' summary. I (selfishly) don't really want that aggregation/content split across a dawn and dusk. See even your subscribers are selfish. :)
Thanks Bernard, sounds like you've thought this all through pretty well so no particular comments, except to say what you're already doing represents great value so don't feel like you need to do dramatically more for us! You're good enough to both earn your keep, and gain a little spare time for yourself each day if that's what giving up some of your other projects for the Kaka might grant you.
Thanks Tim. That's very kind. Going for runs and walks is my thing. And watching the cricket and rugby highlights. I might do a bit more of those. But my other hobby is reading all the great journalism of the world that's now at my fingertips. Have to be careful with that one.
Just keep holding lower to account so we can break open the Nat-Lab multidecade deathgrip that is preventing NZ from evolving. If you can help NZ divert from our current trajectory then the least I can do is recruit a few more paid subscribers.
Congrats on making a success of The Kaka. Tough time to launch a new enterprise.
Whilst I never dispute any facts you bring to the table, I occasionally disagree with your conclusions which is understandable as I am a far right leaning voter.
I’d love to see health added as a 4th topic to the 3 areas you have decided to focus on. NZ has some challenges ahead in this domain every bit as frightening as an aging population and housing affordability.
One critique if I may; I think you are too polite with some politicians who duck and dive the hard questions eg PM avoiding answering ‘what is your definition of being affordable?’ when discussing housing. Applies to all parties….
Hi Bernard. My gut feel is your proposals offer too much content for free and you may end up losing subscribers rather than gaining them as a result. Also, presumably there won't be a half price offer when subs for the second year become due which may also tip people into the free service?
Thanks J Coe. That is something I worry about. There's a balance to be struck between wide impact and revenues. The key is finding the people who want share it around to their rich uncles and aunties, who then subscribe... :)
So glad You do what you do. I did some radio journalism & worked for a human rights organisation in The Hague. Chechenya & Shell in Ogoniland. My job was to work with media & it made me so aware of what good journalism really can do! A lot of good in a world of harm. By the way I am liking Irish MEP Clare Daley on the Ukrainian war ( & the war in Yemen & Afghanistan & other conflicts). She’s brilliant! Check her last speech out at the Plener
Thanks mikec. Appreciate that. I've been a bit surprised with the positive reaction. I must have spent too much time talking to the protestors at Parliament who had put me on the list of people for execution. And then there's the politicians, some of whom would also like me on a list.
Thanks for setting out your thinking about the future. It's great to hear this is already a success. A couple of thoughts for your consideration:
- I hope you have a reminder system for when subscriptions are due. I don't remember to renew subs unless asked. I also often to it up with a donation if asked.
- I like the Friday podcast when you are talking to other journalists. It's good quality, interesting analysis.
- I'm no marketing expert but I find the 'hoon' language baffling. Likewise The Kaka. They seem to have done personal meaning, as I recall you have explained. :But neither sounds like media and political commentary. Not sure how well they serve the purpose of increasing take up. But, as I say, I'm no marketing expert!
- More importantly, I would like to see a wider range of topics. Transport, infrastructure, immigration policy, economic development. And more. I've read you on these topics and others and hope to see a wider focus. A more general political overview would be good too.
I'm definitely staying as a paying subscriber and excited to see how this all develops.
Agree with you Brenda about the 'hoon' language. It's because Peter Bale keeps interrupting with another brilliant thought and I am still trying to process the half-finished brilliant statement that Bernard has been making. Eyes crossed!
Hi Bernard.
I have followed your work for years.
I have a busy family SME and need to know what is happening of note in NZ.
I don't subscribe to the NZ Herald anymore and am dropping the Sydney Morning Herald as well.
I kept my subscription to Newsroom Pro when you left.
When I get the Kaka, rightly or wrongly, I assume if there is something I need to know about business or politics it will be in there. I am looking at subscribing to one of the US publications too.
I really enjoy the Friday afternoon Hoon as well.
Forget retirement mate. Joe Biden is almost 80 and running the US.
Keep up the good work.
Pat Clark
Thankyou Pat. Yes. 80 here I come!
Universities and poly techs plus charities charge and are structured like businesses so I would treat them as Corporates (many are) but I agree students should have easy free access. Likewise teachers are relatively well paid and have great working conditions relatively also. Quite privileged so no need there. I’d treat schools like businesses as well again that’s the bizarre model they aspire to rather than public service.
Have to say I found your comments about teachers shocking. Have you talked to any recently? They are one of the worst paid jobs in NZ for the hours/qualifications/stress. 50% of teachers leave the profession (not just a job, but quit teaching entirely) within 5 years. Does any other profession come close to that?
They should try retail or manual and frontline labour in both the private and public sector for awhile.Most couldn’t handle those pay and conditions and no holidays either. They’re not even nice to our kids and act like megalomaniacs and spoilt middle class brats. I wouldn’t recommend trusting the state to educate and care for children. But I prefer alternative and extra tuition to support the children as school wastes a lot of their productive play and learning time in my opinion. Confining and forcing rote learning isn’t ideal in my view so I don’t have a good opinion of the institutionsveffectiveness and believe they were only set up as babysitting services to get both parents to serve capitalism. Not as the most effective way to teach or learn. So everyone’s unhappy really. Sorry if my comment offended you but in my experience without significant extra cost and support from home children don’t thrive or fulfil their potential at school enough to justify the time spent stuck at desks.
The comparison to labouring is an interesting one. They are paid $25 - $40 an hour which is roughly the same as teachers depending on experience. Except teachers usually have about 3 - 5 years training and don't get paid for any extra hours unlike labouring.
Teachers used to have the same salary as backbench MPs, engineers and lawyers. Now they get half them.
Hard work and sales is on commission is pretty high pressure as well. I do know teachers do feel very put upon with the extra some feel they have to do. But 10 weeks paid holidays is pretty cushy by anyone’s standards. I have tutored and I agree it’s the easy bit and casual contracts and T & C’s are an appalling thing in any work place. I just don’t think teachers have the worst of it relatively.
The teachers don't get the same holidays the kids do. They work about half to all of the term holidays doing prep/marking. And they work the last few weeks of the summer holidays doing admin/prep stuff for the coming year. So they get around the same holidays as anyone else...
Yes well all my three parents were teachers….it’s not as bad as made out to be just like farmers (landowners) earn a lot more than they will ever admit too.
I have to agree with Your Servant. As the partner of a now-former teacher, I was startled by how much unpaid work is expected (effectively demanded) of teachers. They don't get evenings or weekends, and parents and pupils often feel entitled to treat them quite badly. My partner took a significant paycut to leave the field & still feels guilty about walking away from colleagues and the needs of the kids, but our lives have been so much better since then. No one who doesn't care about kids would put up with being treated the way teachers are treated -- and if you care about kids, the state is able to use that against you, by locking you into a position where all the shortcomings of our education infrastructure and many of the shortcomings of our social welfare system are left to you to address.
Thanks Leaflemming. So that sounds like a vote for free for teachers?
Ha! Yes, definitely. If I hadn't used up my morning's free time on that comment, I'd have added, I began reading your Dawn Chorus reports as an alternative to the Spinoff's Bulletin, then added the weekly Hoons, and I now subscribe to When The Facts Change. What I want from you is broadly for you to be free to follow your nose and do what interests you -- hence my support -- but I specifically value the mix of morning round-up and analysis, the Hoon's weekly wrap-ups, and your Spinoff podcast's in-depth look at individual topics. Anything beyond those is gravy.
(I'm mostly a morning news consumer. The new evening newsletters don't really fit into my life. That's okay. But if I was going to suggest a new project, it would be something more focused and single-topic. Like maybe a series of intro pieces on political economics for the young and the economically illiterate, like me).
You're the only journalist I currently support, by the way. I'm not super-wealthy, though I'm comfortable enough. If you start giving most of your content away, I'd want to keep supporting you, but I'll be honest, it would be tempting to move the money to something I couldn't otherwise access. I do like the idea of the young (and teachers obviously) getting a special deal here.
Thanks Kath. I find many working in universities would like to subscribe, but have used their budgets on subscriptions for academic journals. Hoping to help them out and say thanks to many who have helped explain things to me over the years.
Bernard, I truly think you've carved a strong niche that nobody else seems to fill in half as good manner. You've done that since your days at interest.co.nz I feel - accessible, understandable and in tune with the questions most of us actually want answered and the curiousities we have.
For me, YouTube is now such a go to to find new podcasts, channels, independent journalism and similar. YouTube's algorithms seem to get me - feed me interesting, insightful content they know I'd like. I see things there first then add them to my Google podcast feed or seek them out online.
You are such great talent on camera. Could you wrap your daily/weekly wrap or otherwise into a video form, to leverage this as an onramp for potential Kaka subscribers. Not every ounce of content has to take on a video form, but rather some weekly content that could fit the medium.
I find it difficult to watch youtube on my headset while cycling into work. I think the issue is the youtube content providers are funded by views clicks and subscriptions and adds we have to hit skip for while they mine us for data.
Try watching it when swimming. Even harder, trust me! It's great at other times though. And like almost every other medium, you're right, it's funded by some mix of those things. Hard to avoid.
Now that's an image. I bet someone has thought of it though. Projected onto the floor of the pool? But then no way to breathe easily...
Thanks Skeptic. I'd see it more as a shop window than the full store room. I can put video behind the paywall here at Substack, so Youtube may be a subset.
Excellent suggestion Stephen. I've been tempted, but a little scared of the video editing and production costs. But they are getting easier and the wonderful Lynn has developed a particular set of new skills in this area. There may be ways to do it without taking up too much time.
And that children, is how The Daily Kaka was born, which now reaches over 50 million readers every day...
But seriously, do you ever sleep?
But seriously, seriously, I'll be renewing my paid subscription whatever you decide. I read the whole thing, every line, daily (and I'm 56 and work full time), sneakily get The Hoon up on my screen weekly, and listen to most podcasts, not to mention many of the long reads.
I think you may underestimate people, yes, en masse the "median voter" is selfish, but there are core groups of sincere and concerned, and downright altruistic people out there that want your journalism buzzing in the ears of decision makers until they start making sense.
I'm good with whatever model, but really really like the idea of free to students and discounts for the under 30's.
You'll get to 2500 easy.
Thanks DRJCA. It is true I spend a lot of time on it, but I do sleep. Covid has narrowed my social activities somewhat. And I'm 55. So not so much socialising anyway... I enjoy it. Just quietly. My idea of a fantastic time is sitting down with the FT/NY Times/New Yorker/Economist/ etc and a cup of coffee and hoovering it up. One of my great pleasures when living in London was the weekend papers.
Bugger. I turn 30 this year! Just missing out on such a great deal. The appeal is there with the topics covered and cost wise, let's people have an opportunity to be a full subscriber and join in on some great journalism without breaking that budget and over stretching to stay informed.
Reason why I become a subscriber early on was with your kaupapa with Newsroom Pro (which I am still a subscriber, so get double helpings in the AM) and valuing your journalism that got down to the core issues I care about, housing, child poverty and climate change.
Dusk chorus is a great idea. As double helpings of news was something I was really surprised about when visiting London. Loved being informed with the right amount of content. These days, news is developing every minute of every hour, and can quickly change like the tides.
Thanks Ryan. Hoped you enjoyed today's Dusk chorus then. Although a bit late at 6pm. My aim is 5pm.
Given the unfolding events at 4pm today, hit the nail on the head with the Bernard Hammer.
Hi Bernard, I have been a subscriber from day one and think the idea of getting your journalism out to more people who want and need to understand the world we live in, where it's heading and importantly, it's relevance to them (younger people and those who are less able to afford access) is fantastic. Your suggestions on how to make this happen seem reasonable and fair. Teachers and students should have access, as well as discounts for younger readers who'll get hooked, as I was.
Keep up the great work.
Tom
Thanks Thomas. That's great. When we pull the trigger on the $30 for under 30s and free for students and teachers, I'll ask subscribers to tell all their young student friends and families.
I subscribe to The Kākā because I enjoy your daily updates and consider them a trustworthy source of news on topics I care about, and I think the journalism you do is excellent important work. So given that, I fully agree with your plan to make more of your work public - it deserves a larger audience, and I don't think it devalues subscribing or anything.
Thanks for what you do.
Thanks Cain. Much appreciated.
Hi Bernard
I enjoy your commentary and insights. A wider range of options might get to complicated. FYI I also enjoy the daily . One podcast a day .. topical …with a weekend variation. Your weekly “hoon” is great .. the podcast format is the future…don’t really need the zoom unless everyone is beautiful ( which you all are of course) but in my opinion the podcast is all you need along with written summaries .. look forward to the new changes
Cheers
Geoff
Thanks Geoff. I've been surprised by the demand for the podcasts. I'm a text guy, but am finding myself listening to podcasts a lot while walking and driving, instead of radio. My aim with the dawn and dusk choruses is to get into those daily commuting habits. We'll see. Doing the Dusk chorus slowed me down a bit today.
HI Bernard - love you work. If you're going to focus on anything, and therefore drop something, my suggestion would be the dusk chorus. There is plenty of news out there - what I value is you sorting the wheat from the chaff and feel you will be better able to do that if you can come up for air. I am a big fan of the hoons too (particularly with the other wonks).
I agree with this. I lean on the Dawn Chorus to be my 'What's _actually_ important today' summary. I (selfishly) don't really want that aggregation/content split across a dawn and dusk. See even your subscribers are selfish. :)
Ha! Thanks Luke.
Amen.......you nailed it right there.
Thanks Nick. That's really helpful.
Thanks Bernard, sounds like you've thought this all through pretty well so no particular comments, except to say what you're already doing represents great value so don't feel like you need to do dramatically more for us! You're good enough to both earn your keep, and gain a little spare time for yourself each day if that's what giving up some of your other projects for the Kaka might grant you.
Thanks Tim. That's very kind. Going for runs and walks is my thing. And watching the cricket and rugby highlights. I might do a bit more of those. But my other hobby is reading all the great journalism of the world that's now at my fingertips. Have to be careful with that one.
Just keep holding lower to account so we can break open the Nat-Lab multidecade deathgrip that is preventing NZ from evolving. If you can help NZ divert from our current trajectory then the least I can do is recruit a few more paid subscribers.
If teachers get it, consider nurses too.
Congrats on making a success of The Kaka. Tough time to launch a new enterprise.
Whilst I never dispute any facts you bring to the table, I occasionally disagree with your conclusions which is understandable as I am a far right leaning voter.
I’d love to see health added as a 4th topic to the 3 areas you have decided to focus on. NZ has some challenges ahead in this domain every bit as frightening as an aging population and housing affordability.
One critique if I may; I think you are too polite with some politicians who duck and dive the hard questions eg PM avoiding answering ‘what is your definition of being affordable?’ when discussing housing. Applies to all parties….
Happy bday, at 55 work less, run more 👍
Thanks Neil. Much appreciated. I'll keep running. And trying to ask the most pointiest of pointed questions.
Hi Bernard. My gut feel is your proposals offer too much content for free and you may end up losing subscribers rather than gaining them as a result. Also, presumably there won't be a half price offer when subs for the second year become due which may also tip people into the free service?
Thanks J Coe. That is something I worry about. There's a balance to be struck between wide impact and revenues. The key is finding the people who want share it around to their rich uncles and aunties, who then subscribe... :)
So glad You do what you do. I did some radio journalism & worked for a human rights organisation in The Hague. Chechenya & Shell in Ogoniland. My job was to work with media & it made me so aware of what good journalism really can do! A lot of good in a world of harm. By the way I am liking Irish MEP Clare Daley on the Ukrainian war ( & the war in Yemen & Afghanistan & other conflicts). She’s brilliant! Check her last speech out at the Plener
Brilliant! Got a link or a youtube? I could put that into a chorus somewhere.
Just keep up the good work, Bernard!
Thanks mikec. Appreciate that. I've been a bit surprised with the positive reaction. I must have spent too much time talking to the protestors at Parliament who had put me on the list of people for execution. And then there's the politicians, some of whom would also like me on a list.
Must be doing something right then, Bernard, to annoy both extremes!
Thanks for setting out your thinking about the future. It's great to hear this is already a success. A couple of thoughts for your consideration:
- I hope you have a reminder system for when subscriptions are due. I don't remember to renew subs unless asked. I also often to it up with a donation if asked.
- I like the Friday podcast when you are talking to other journalists. It's good quality, interesting analysis.
- I'm no marketing expert but I find the 'hoon' language baffling. Likewise The Kaka. They seem to have done personal meaning, as I recall you have explained. :But neither sounds like media and political commentary. Not sure how well they serve the purpose of increasing take up. But, as I say, I'm no marketing expert!
- More importantly, I would like to see a wider range of topics. Transport, infrastructure, immigration policy, economic development. And more. I've read you on these topics and others and hope to see a wider focus. A more general political overview would be good too.
I'm definitely staying as a paying subscriber and excited to see how this all develops.
Agree with you Brenda about the 'hoon' language. It's because Peter Bale keeps interrupting with another brilliant thought and I am still trying to process the half-finished brilliant statement that Bernard has been making. Eyes crossed!
Thanks Beverley. Yes. We both get a bit excited sometimes. Will think of that in future.
Brenda. Many thanks. The 'hoon' word was my idea of having a bit of fun and linking it to The Kākā, given the plural of Kākā is a 'hoon'.