The Spinoff reported last week that Los\u2019e had been acting in a PR capacity for the Pacific Business Trust, while also working at the NZ Herald.<\/p>\n
Los\u2019e was the kaupapa M\u0101ori editor of the Herald and has regularly written for the Kahu section. <\/p>\n
NZ Herald journalist Joseph Los’e’s author page on nzherald.co.nz.<\/p>\n
An article about the Pacific Business Trust and its chief executive, Mary Los\u2019e, was published in the Kahu section of the Herald\u2019s website in February 2024. Mary Los\u2019e is Joe Los\u2019e\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
The Spinoff reported that Los\u2019e had tried to pitch a story about the trust and his sister to other media outlets in November 2023, before it appeared in the Herald.<\/p>\n
The Spinoff reported Los\u2019e had suggested to a journalist from another outlet \u201csome angles for potential coverage, as well as offering a pre-written feature about his sister … and her path from acting on Shortland Street to the upper echelons of business\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Spinoff reported Los\u2019e had said the piece would be produced by a freelancer and supplied free of charge. \u201cHe had a headline in mind: \u2018From green room to boardroom\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the headline that was used on the eventual Herald website piece.<\/p>\n
\u201cLos\u2019e\u2019s email raises a number of questions about the Herald\u2019s editorial processes,\u201d wrote The Spinoff\u2019s Hayden Donnell.<\/p>\n
\u201cKahu\u2019s feature on Mary Los\u2019e isn\u2019t flagged as having been provided or commissioned by an outside organisation. Though it acknowledges that the subject\u2019s brother works as an editor at the Herald, it doesn\u2019t mention he had pitched the story to other media while doing PR for the trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
The piece about Mary Los’e, chief executive of the Pacific Business Trust, ran on the Herald’s website in February 2024.<\/p>\n
Los\u2019e did not wish to comment when approached last week, referring Media Insider to Kirkness. Media Insider has sought comment from Los\u2019e again on Thursday, following news of his resignation.<\/p>\n
Last week, an NZME spokeswoman said: \u201cWe don\u2019t comment on employment matters.\u201d Today, she said: \u201cWe cannot comment on employment matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Massey University associate professor of journalism James Hollings ran through possible scenarios in a response to Media Insider questions last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not so concerned that he was promoting his sister\u2019s organisation, and being paid for it, while an editor at the Herald. He is free to moonlight, if the Herald was okay with that,\u201d Hollings said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as he declared that outside interest to the Herald, it would be up to them to manage that conflict, for example, by getting him to stand down from any editorial decisions that involved that organisation or stories about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that aside, I think many journalists would consider it morally questionable to be doing PR while also working as a journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, if he did not declare that interest, \u201cand used his position to place the feature in the Herald, that appears to be a clear conflict of interest\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt effectively deceives the readers of the Herald, by not disclosing that interest. If the Herald knew about his conflict, and agreed to publish the article without disclosure, that is poor judgment, and in my view, they should withdraw it and apologise to their readers for that lapse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Herald did not know about the conflict of interest, in my view that would be a serious breach of trust by an employee, and the Herald should take remedial action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn any case, the Herald should explain what it knew and when, if they wish the public to continue to have faith in their editorial content.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spinoff reported last week that Los\u2019e had been acting in a PR capacity for the Pacific Business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,26676,2851,12509,2741,6150,25812,46662,10938,2936,2435,5844,5268,1073,111,43,139,69,1030,3109,7241,1123,18994,17363,5843,27886,9438,19135],"class_list":["post-415883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-allegations","tag-also","tag-capacity","tag-claim","tag-conflict","tag-funded","tag-headed","tag-herald","tag-insider","tag-joe","tag-journalist","tag-lose","tag-media","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pr","tag-public","tag-publicly","tag-relations","tag-resigned","tag-resigns","tag-senior","tag-sister","tag-trust","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}