The ongoing saga of Campbell Live

The ongoing saga of Campbell Live.  It sounds like a soap opera doesn't it?  To give you a back story, back in 2005 there was a man named Paul Holmes (at that time he wasn't knighted) who presented what was known as The Holmes Show at 7pm on TV One. 

At the time, the opposing network, TV Three didn't have a current affairs show after their news.  I actually don't recall what they had.  In 2005 it was announced that the then anchors, John Campbell and Carol Hirschfield would be getting their own TV show at 7pm on TV Three and it would be called Campbell Live.  Around about the same time the Holmes Show was cancelled and replaced by Close Up.  Close Up was hosted by a number of people including Susan Wood and most recently Mark Sainsbury.    Sainsbury wasn't drawing enough ratings so at the end of 2013 the show was cancelled.  This was 10 months after Sir Paul Holmes' death (he had been knighted a short time before his death) and replaced with Seven Sharp.  Seven Sharp is modeled on Australia's, The Project, a light hearted news and discussion show.  Campbell Live retained the more formal format.

Unfortunately for Campbell the ratings declined and declined and at one point it was reported they went below 200,000 which for a country with a population of 4, 500,000 people is very low and damaging, especially when your competitors, Shortland Street and Seven Sharp draw 800,000 between them.

So the question has to be asked, why did Campbell Live start losing viewers?  It's not a simple question to answer because things don't happen overnight.  They tend to happen gradually.  My first guess, and it's an educated guess is that it was caused by the obsession with Kim Dot Com (who I'm not going to waste time introducing, that's what Google is for) and people simply didn't return.  So the question then needs to be asked, if people stopped watching Campbell Live what did they do?  Seven Sharp's ratings have always been pretty stable as have Shortland Street's which can only mean one thing, they switched off the TV and did something else.

The good news though is that bad news about the Campbell Live show came out in the media last Thursday - that the show may be getting the chop.  Fortunately viewers have responded by signing several petitions, joining social media groups (of which I am a part of) and most importantly, they have begun watching the show again.

Now remember, I'm not in New Zealand and I no longer work for Australian Associated Press so I have less time to devote to watching, listening and writing news.  It normally happens late at night after the gym.  I'm not sure if the quality of the show improved following the end of the KDC saga or if it was still poor quality reporting, but one thing I do know is that the reports seen on Campbell Live are quality, and to lose the show would be disappointing. 

This week Campbell Live has shown important stories on breast cancer sufferers still waiting for their breast reconstruction in Dunedin, synthetic marijuana, zero hour contracts and the Auckland/NZ housing market.  These are reports that affect people's every day lives.  Now Prime Minister John Key does not seem to understand this, nor does Mediaworks CEO Mark Weldon.  Neither one of them is a journalist, they have never studied a journalism or media paper.  They haven't studied politics.  Their employment background is in economics and accountants.  They personally may not care about the news but clearly thousands of New Zealanders care about the news and I care about the news.

New Zealand Herald contributor Bryce Edwards wrote a piece in today's New Zealand Herald which basically, in a nutshell, went into the fact we need political discourse and if Campbell Live goes we will lose that, and we will lose the fourth estate.  With one less media vehicle it is much harder to hold those in positions of power accountable.

That is what this seems to be.  It seems like the powers that be want to axe Campbell Live because the show is a threat, but that does citizens of New Zealand a disservice.  Most people do not attend political meetings so they rely on the media for their political information.  It's hard to be engaged if you are not getting information, although, one could argue that is what those in power want.  They want people to be disengaged and apathetic because then they can get more unpopular policies through.

This will be an interesting saga to watch and I can only hope that Mediaworks come to their senses and retain Campbell Live because we need journalism which serves the public interest.  Regardless of your political leanings, retaining free speech and opposing views is essential for the integrity of democracy.