Making Data Work for You: Critical Thinking for Communicators
2026-08-04 10:30 - 13:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | Online
12th June 2025, 6:00pm-8:30pm

Overview This exclusive PRINZ event offers PR professionals a rare opportunity to hear directly from senior media executives at TVNZ, NZME, RNZ and Stuff. Each executive will provide a 10 minute update on the latest developments in their organisation, followed by an engaging panel discussion on the evolving media landscape in New Zealand and what it means for PR professionals in 2025. Here is your opportunity to get your information from the horse’s mouth. Our panellists will engage in discussion on topics such as: The role of earned media in 2025Challenges facing newsrooms and implications for PRHow to support traditional mediaEffective media pitching in a fast-paced news environment This event is free for members and will be live-streamed for those outside of Auckland. Thank you to Foodstuffs for kindly hosting this event.

Your panellists are:Joanna Norris is the Managing Director for Stuff Masthead Publishing and a member of the Stuff Group Executive Leadership Team. Stuff Masthead Publishing is a national portfolio business of subscription focused products including digital news websites, magazines, newspapers and events and a national social media network Neighbourly. The business is aggressively transitioning to a digital and experience focused business. Joanna has worked in media for more than two decades in New Zealand, the UK and the Middle East. She has worked as a reporter, editor and media executive. She was appointed Managing Director in 2023, having previously held the role of Chief Content Officer for the Stuff Group. She loves creativity, a good story, great New Zealand food and getting into New Zealand’s high country to tramp and ski with her family.

Murray Kirkness has been Chief Content Officer (Publishing) since June 2023, a role encompassing the NZME Editor-in-Chief position. Murray leads NZME’s editorial team of about 270 people nationwide to deliver high-quality, trusted news and content across multiple channels. Murray’s role includes growing the company’s various digital subscription platforms such as Herald Premium and BusinessDesk, and responsibilities across radio news and print publications including the NZ Herald and NZME’s regional newspapers. He has worked in newsrooms across New Zealand and Australia.

Jodi O’Donnell was appointed as TVNZ’s Chief Executive Officer in Jan 2024. She has over 25 years experience in the media industry focused on creating exceptional customer experiences and developing high performing teams. Jodi has held a range of senior marketing, communications and commercial roles, including most recently as TVNZ’s Chief Revenue Officer. Jodi is an accomplished leader with a strong track record of driving transformational change, digital innovation and commercial sustainability in the local media sector. A passionate advocate for storytelling and the power of video, Jodi is focused on the transformation of audiences and revenue for a digital-first streaming business. Jodi is a passionate kiwi and is proud to live and work in the most beautiful country in the world.

Tim Watkin, RNZ Executive Editor – Audio Tim Watkin has worked in journalism for nearly three decades, winning awards for news reporting, feature writing, TV and radio producing, and podcasting, including NZ Journalist of the Year in 2006. He’s been deputy editor for the NZ Listener, founding producer of TVNZ’s Q+A and Executive Producer at TV3’s The Vote and The Nation. He has written for the Guardian and the Washington Post, founded Pundit.co.nz and led RNZ’s move into podcasting in 2016. He is currently Executive Editor, Audio at RNZ, leading a team of 15 and working with a range of external producers. RNZ podcasts – such as Gone Fishing, The Service, Our Changing World and Nellie’s Baby – frequently top the podcast charts in New Zealand, have won more than 90 awards in competitions worldwide and had more than 40 million listens in the past year. Tim lives in Auckland is married with two sons and a dog.

Your moderator for the evening will be Damien Venuto. He is currently a Senior Account Director at One Plus One Communications. Prior to this, he was the host of the New Zealand Herald’s Front Page Podcast, which he and his team grew to a cumulative audience exceeding two million, and spent four years as online business editor for the NZ Herald. Prior to that, Venuto spent four years at Tangible Media, most recently as Editor of NZ Marketing Magazine and StopPress. Readers of his Herald columns and past work in the trade press will be well aware of Venuto’s keen insight into the world of communications and marketing, and his ability to simplify the complex in service of a great story.

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