I had the absolute pleasure of organizing a meeting between a ex Scott’s boy Craig Gribble, who at the time was a big wig at Merri Lynch Sydney offices, and the legendary founders of TRADE ME Sam Morgan and Rowan Swain. There, we were waiting breathlessly for the pitch from the 5 Merrill executives. The Merrill boys were repping the Canadian pension fund. They wanted to know if Sam, in all his newfound success, wanted to buy the Yellow Pages.

Did TRADE ME want to buy the biggest competitor they had? Amidst all the excitement, Sam jumps up and draws a chart on the whiteboard, meeting over!

Sam and Rowan left after 5 minutes, and my mate A Cassels, who I invited for a fly-on-the-wall perspective, were left wondering what all the fuss was about.
5 years later, Gribble sent me a Xmas card showing how Sams’s diagram had shown how online ads’ impact on Yellow had imploded its value from 2.2 b to 500m. I recall someone saying it was Telecom’s best deal ever. Talk about good timing!

The destruction of local markets by Facebook and Google is evident everywhere, and the appreciation and common sense of Sam appeared to be greatly appreciated. Sam had saved them 2 b after all.

These two online behemoths now take in over 85% of all ad spend in NZ. It’s even hit my beloved outdoor sector.

When I look at MSM imploding, I see a much steeper bell curve. Instead of 6/7 years, they are gone in two. Given the brutal power, nasty opinion pieces, self-importance and ruthless reporting styles of many MSM outlets. Couple that with the brutal narcissistic nature of some reporters, it’s no surprise there is much sympathy seeing many of the MSM crew working at McDonalds.

But it’s the shows like Country Calendar that help communicate good Kiwi values that get canned first that sadden many.

And highlight how dumb and selfish MSM is, that I think it might go even faster.

And we look at TVNZ breathlessly, announcing 40m for a digital transformation project as though they have just discovered online. We scratch our heads and wonder, where did all the Covid cash go?

We are looking forward to Winston’s inquiry where ONE NETWORK WL has squeezed a sentence into the inquiry.

What MSM outlets took Govt $ and didn’t deliver the value? We wonder if bottom-feeder outlets like The Spinoff will get a few questions in the inquiry, and If Duncan Grieve co-founder of The Spinout will still be on Jacindas Xmas card list come Xmas 2025.