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Speaker 1: Now media company enz Me has revealed it spent five

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Speaker 1: million dollars on restructuring and fighting off a bid to

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Speaker 1: take over control of the company. The company which owns

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Speaker 1: The Herald and of course ourselves in the newstalk zb

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Speaker 1: made a four hundred thousand dollars loss for the first

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Speaker 1: half year. Half of the year, down from one point

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Speaker 1: nine million dollar profit in the previous year. It was

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Speaker 1: the one off costs of just over five million dollars

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Speaker 1: that drag the results into the red. Michael Bogs is

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Speaker 1: the chief executive High Bogsy.

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Speaker 2: Good afternoon.

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Speaker 1: So if you take out the one offs, then Inzigm

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Speaker 1: has actually been doing really well at a time when

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Speaker 1: I can't think of any other media company that has

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Speaker 1: been doing well. How are you doing it well?

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Speaker 2: I think you're exactly right. You know, we're really pleased

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Speaker 2: from an underlying perspective to have delivered a really strong result.

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Speaker 2: Ebit Dhara improvement year on year, and it is a

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Speaker 2: tough economic environment. The good news is we are seeing

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Speaker 2: some of the large businesses back advertising again, so they're

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Speaker 2: going actually we want to start spending on brand again.

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Speaker 2: It's the small business, small medium businesses that really are

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Speaker 2: doing it tough.

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Speaker 1: So why are the big guys doing?

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Speaker 2: Okay, I think they're just getting ahead of it. They

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Speaker 2: can see that things will get better. They're likely got

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Speaker 2: the bigger budgets, and they've really come into radio and

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Speaker 2: into print, which has been really good to see.

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Speaker 1: Do you think they're right? Are we through the worst

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Speaker 1: of it?

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Speaker 2: Well, if you listen to the commentators, even in the

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Speaker 2: last couple of days, seems to be people are seeing

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Speaker 2: green shoots. But sadly, I've been saying that for the

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Speaker 2: last year and every one of our results announcements. So

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Speaker 2: in our pack today we did actually put a chat.

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Speaker 1: How do you know then that this time is into.

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Speaker 2: Full storm and so this time we've not done any

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Speaker 2: forecast based on green shoots. All of our guidance has

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Speaker 2: been based on the economy as we see it today,

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Speaker 2: and that's an improvement on last year.

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Speaker 1: Okay, what's going on with revenue or radio? I see

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Speaker 1: the revenues up.

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Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, so for the first time in some time,

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Speaker 2: we've seen terrestrial radio increasing as well as digital radio increasing.

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Speaker 2: We've seen our overall revenue market share come back to

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Speaker 2: where it has been previously, and we're doing some really

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Speaker 2: neat things around audience. You'll hate to hear this, but

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Speaker 2: you know I heart Country New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: I don't hate that at all.

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Speaker 2: Why would I hate I don't know.

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Speaker 1: You, I know what's going on. You're looking at me

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Speaker 1: and you're going, I'm too cool to like country.

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Speaker 2: That was it?

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Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate that. Excellent, and yet I'm not

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Speaker 1: that cool at all. Now tell me how much did

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Speaker 1: you spend on the lawyers and stuff for fighting off

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Speaker 1: the board takeover it.

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Speaker 2: Well, it was a small portion of our one off.

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Speaker 2: So you will have seen during the.

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Speaker 1: Period read at the start like it was millions.

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Speaker 2: It's exactly right, that's right. So some people have misreported

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Speaker 2: that today actually that there was five million dollars of

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Speaker 2: one offs associated with that. I can tell you it

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Speaker 2: was less than a million dollars, and it's million dollars

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Speaker 2: we prefer not to spend, obviously, So without that five

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Speaker 2: million dollars of one off, which included you know, well,

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Speaker 2: I think you know, it brought some clarity to the

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Speaker 2: business that's being changed at the board. Our shareholders obviously

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Speaker 2: wanted change, and it's working really well for us today.

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Speaker 1: I think that the shareholders who were behind that may

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Speaker 1: regret that given that they now realize the cost of it.

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Speaker 2: Look, I can't talk for them because I would, and.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of money to have squandered on something

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Speaker 1: like that. Tell me how the sedatorial board is going

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Speaker 1: to work?

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Speaker 2: Well, I great news is I think Murray Kirknis, who

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Speaker 2: runs our newsroom here, been intimately involved in designing the

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Speaker 2: charter of the editorial Board, as has our board. It

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Speaker 2: reports to the board, is in an advisory fashion. It

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Speaker 2: has no executive influence as such. And the great news

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Speaker 2: is that Murray and I are able to be part

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Speaker 2: of those meetings while we don't specifically sit on the board.

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Speaker 2: So I think it's a really good way to bring

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Speaker 2: different perspectives, different voices.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like can tell me if I'm wrong,

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Speaker 1: But it sounds like what they're going to be doing

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Speaker 1: is basically just listening to the radio, reading the papers,

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Speaker 1: and then coming at you and saying, look, we think

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Speaker 1: that maybe this is not working. All that is working

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Speaker 1: so kind of informal like that, I.

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Speaker 2: Think it is. But they'll I think they'll take a

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Speaker 2: much more long titudor view of what have we been

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Speaker 2: talking about for the last three years, five years, ten years.

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Speaker 2: Are we covering topics good enough?

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Speaker 1: Right? So they may come to you and say, hey,

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Speaker 1: this is a really big issue that you are not

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Speaker 1: covering at all, and you should be.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely And you know, I think it can be quite

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Speaker 2: easy at times. Sometimes we can be focused on the

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Speaker 2: here and now. So if you've got some people standing

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Speaker 2: back with a little more time coming and giving advice,

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Speaker 2: I think that's really helps.

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Speaker 1: Is this a political leaning thing?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely not. The Charter and I'm not sure if we

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Speaker 2: had a chance to read it says it must be

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Speaker 2: from diverse backgrounds and that's political spectrum as well.

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Speaker 1: What I mean is is it possible that for a

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Speaker 1: long time, I think the criticism has been fair that

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Speaker 1: many media outlets, and I'm not going to name anybody,

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Speaker 1: but the many media outlets have allowed themselves to become

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Speaker 1: perhaps overly caught up in what we would consider to

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Speaker 1: be quite left wing views or woke views. Some would say,

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Speaker 1: is it possible that they will come to you and say,

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Speaker 1: you know, hey, you guys are going down this particular

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Speaker 1: path and that's not a good path to go down.

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Speaker 1: Or balance it out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they could definitely give some perspectives of

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Speaker 2: what we're covering, on what we're not and are we

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Speaker 2: being balanced and everything. But I think the other thing

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Speaker 2: is you will have seen from some of the recent

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Speaker 2: research by Curia that says we are the most balanced

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Speaker 2: of all media, and so that's something we should hold

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Speaker 2: our heads proud with.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Now what about the situation with herold? Now,

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Speaker 1: how's that going? You pleased with it?

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Speaker 2: Very pleased with it. So we're seeing really strong take

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Speaker 2: up not only on our own platforms, but certainly externally

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Speaker 2: as well. So obviously on the Herald website, see it

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Speaker 2: a little harder to see on the Herald appen. We'd

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Speaker 2: like to improve that experience.

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Speaker 1: Actually, that's a good point.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, But we're seeing huge take up on YouTube, for example.

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Speaker 2: Are you so many people sitting at home?

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Speaker 1: What are people doing? Are they going back and watching

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Speaker 1: the interviews again.

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Speaker 2: They are, or even watching it live.

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Speaker 1: How many people have you got sitting down over their

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Speaker 1: breakfast watching it on their laptop?

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Speaker 2: I think you would see there would be many, many thousands.

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Speaker 1: Are you being deliberately a bit vague here?

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Speaker 2: I am confidential?

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Speaker 1: Fair enough? Okay, where are we at, by the way,

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Speaker 1: with the Google and the Facebook guys, paying for news.

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Speaker 2: There's nothing more we're doing at the moment. You know,

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Speaker 2: I think the New Zealand government's very focused on what's

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Speaker 2: happening in Australia and likely to be a fast follower. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so we'll have.

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Speaker 1: To first watch what they do. We're not going to

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Speaker 1: do anything until then, and then we might follow them

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Speaker 1: very quickly.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Now, Bogxley, tell me when you think everybody's going

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Speaker 1: to feel better about the economy, Like, I mean, it's

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Speaker 1: one thing to talk about green shoots and and things

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Speaker 1: turning around in the big advertisers coming in, but what

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Speaker 1: about the average guy out there? When is he going

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Speaker 1: to feel better?

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Speaker 2: Maybe you you get more commentators in here than I

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Speaker 2: do every day to about that. You know, we've been

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Speaker 2: playing a part of our role in the last few months.

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Speaker 2: We've written over or just under sorry, five hundred stories

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Speaker 2: titled on the app trying to tell good news stories

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Speaker 2: about what's happening in business.

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Speaker 1: Is it working?

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Speaker 2: And I think people are going Actually those are really

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Speaker 2: good stories. We've seen communities engaging in them and people

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Speaker 2: going we just like more of that things.

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Speaker 1: Boxy, It's good to talk to you. I really appreciate

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Speaker 1: your time. Thank you so much. Michael Boggs, Chief Executive

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Speaker 1: e ended.

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