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Speaker 1: So a radio resurgence is the thing that has helped

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Speaker 1: put nz ME, the company that owns news talk zb

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Speaker 1: back in the black. It's half year results shows a

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Speaker 1: net profit of thirteen point one million dollars, turning around

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Speaker 1: last year's sixteen million dollar loss. The chief executive is

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Speaker 1: Michael Boggs Bogsy.

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Speaker 2: Hello, good afternoon, Heather.

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Speaker 1: You've turned a loss into a profit. You've got to

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Speaker 1: be feeling good about that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's great for everyone here at nz ME.

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Speaker 2: You know, we've got eleven hundred people who work really

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Speaker 2: hard each day, and probably one thousand and ninety nine

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Speaker 2: of them are supporting you thought.

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Speaker 1: Above in the sledging starts immediately. Now on the matter

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Speaker 1: of the results, what's gone on here? Do you think

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Speaker 1: is this just I mean, is this a sign of

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Speaker 1: the strength of the business or is this the economy recovering.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a bit of both. So on an economy,

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Speaker 2: we saw in the last quarter of last year a

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Speaker 2: lot of the larger companies starting to spend again, and

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Speaker 2: so those are the ones who booked through media agencies,

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Speaker 2: specifically in radio. Actually, I'm really wanting to come and

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Speaker 2: be heard. I'm not sure what happened over Christmas. In January, though,

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Speaker 2: they did seem to slow down a bit, so I'm

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Speaker 2: not sure if that was some of the retail sales

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Speaker 2: not being quite as good as they expected.

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Speaker 1: This is what we're finding, right, It is like it

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Speaker 1: is still. It's really volatile, and every time it does

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Speaker 1: something like that, and loads of industry are saying January

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Speaker 1: and December was weird.

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Speaker 2: We panic, don't we absolutely. But what we've actually seen

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Speaker 2: in February March, which I think is really good, is

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Speaker 2: those small medium businesses are back spending again. So a

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Speaker 2: lot of them had stopped, a lot of them have reduced,

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Speaker 2: but Februm March we're actually seeing them back in the

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Speaker 2: market and starting to spend. So hopefully that's a good

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Speaker 2: sign for the economy.

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Speaker 1: Do you think though, it is a grind out of

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Speaker 1: here rather than right, all turbo blasters going and we're out.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So we've started this quarter with about three percent

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Speaker 2: growth year on year, and it's nice to be in growth.

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Speaker 2: We've had a few years of being not in growth,

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Speaker 2: so I think that is a good start. But I'm

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Speaker 2: not sure we're looking at your double digit revenue growth.

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Speaker 2: I think it is a grind. You know, we've got

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Speaker 2: our path.

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Speaker 1: Why why is it such a grind out of this thing?

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Speaker 2: I just think people are still coming out of a

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Speaker 2: tough you know, this still being inflationary pressures. They're not

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Speaker 2: feeling the best, They're not feeling confident yet to go

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Speaker 2: and invest and advertising is probably one of the first

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Speaker 2: leaves you can pull, either to stop but importantly to

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Speaker 2: go ahead as well. So please, we are starting to

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Speaker 2: see them spend again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, what's going on with radiocause I see audio

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Speaker 1: is up twenty three percent in terms of profitability.

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Speaker 2: Great ratings from shows like yourself, obviously, but in the

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Speaker 2: last four months of last year we did actually manage

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Speaker 2: to gain some market share on our competitors in the

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Speaker 2: first eight not as good, but I think we're pleased

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Speaker 2: as a business to be doing better than our competitor

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Speaker 2: in that last period. But I think there really is

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Speaker 2: a resurgent. We're seeing really strong audiences overall. Digital audios

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Speaker 2: now ten percent of our radio numbers, and so that

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Speaker 2: revenue that we're seeing can actually flow through the profitability.

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Speaker 2: So as you see twenty three percent up year on, here.

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Speaker 1: Is part of it that people are gearing up for

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Speaker 1: the election election we see listening.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a bit of a double edged sword for us.

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Speaker 2: So around election we do obviously see people coming and listen.

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Speaker 2: We see some of the political parties and advocacy organizations

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Speaker 2: start to advertise, but we actually see a lot of

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Speaker 2: other businesses go I don't want to be around all

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Speaker 2: this noise. It's all a little bit hard. So it's

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Speaker 2: got a positive er neegative.

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Speaker 1: I are here and One Roof is doing amazingly still,

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Speaker 1: isn't it It is?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So right at the moment, we're putting a bit

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Speaker 2: of investment into One Roof to give it a much

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Speaker 2: better proposition. So you'll see a new One Roof app

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Speaker 2: launched in the coming weeks, much different than what you'll

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Speaker 2: see in the market today. Really focused on giving better

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Speaker 2: audience engagement. When you go to sell your place in

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Speaker 2: tyro it'll be the thing that people all want to

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Speaker 2: use to when you list.

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Speaker 1: Your proper you read my mind. I do sometimes think

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Speaker 1: do I actually need this one an extravagance? What do

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Speaker 1: you think about where the media is at? Have we

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Speaker 1: turned a corner?

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Speaker 2: Well? I think we definitely have. I can't speak for others.

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Speaker 1: But you'd know because you know everything. So when you're

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Speaker 1: out there, what do you think, Like, is it just

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Speaker 1: us who's turned to corner or is everybody turning a corner.

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Speaker 2: I think everyone's certainly feeling better. I'm sure everyone will

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Speaker 2: be getting some more of that spend, but I think

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Speaker 2: each industry is doing a little bit tough. We're really lucky,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're across one roof, as you mentioned, we're

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Speaker 2: across radio. We've obviously got our digital and print businesses

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Speaker 2: as well. Publishing actually grew its profitability this year, so

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Speaker 2: it's got our digital businesses. Our digital business fifty five percent.

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Speaker 2: Now are people gribing to us from a revenue perspective,

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Speaker 2: from a digital So that's a bit of a breakthrough

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Speaker 2: that we're over that fifty percent mark.

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Speaker 1: Big thing last year for endsed me obviously was that

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Speaker 1: the I suppose you could cause it, call it upheaval

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Speaker 1: at the board level. Is that all settled down? Everybody's

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Speaker 1: playing nice?

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I've been really pleased to be involved with award.

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Speaker 2: Stephen Joyce is a great chair for us. He's managed

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Speaker 2: difficult positions. I'm sure in his political stuff, doesn't it.

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Speaker 2: He knows very much about Radio two, which is a

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Speaker 2: great asset to have, so I'm enjoying dealing with the board.

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Speaker 2: You know, we've got a very large shareholder on the

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Speaker 2: board and I'm really pleased that, you know, he acts

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Speaker 2: in the interest of all shareholders, which is really neat

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Speaker 2: to see.

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Speaker 1: Now, what is up with this milky bar that you've

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Speaker 1: brought in to bribe me?

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Speaker 2: Well, I heard you get a bit low at this

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Speaker 2: time of day and you need it a high. So

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Speaker 2: there it is.

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Speaker 1: When it works. Thank you, Boggsy, appreciate it. She's so low,

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Speaker 1: so much, Slee Jing. Michael bogs enzsed me chief executive.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks.

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Speaker 1: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio