UncategorizedMay 4, 2016

Raw: Rod McGeoch’s full statement regarding the resignation of Mark Weldon

Staff writers

A MediaWorks source has supplied company Chair Rod McGeoch’s full statement announcing the resignation of CEO Mark Weldon (Click here to read The Spinoff’s report on the ultimately successful plot to oust him):

THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM ROD MCGEOCH
Dear all,

Today we are announcing that Mark Weldon has resigned from his position as CEO.

The Board has accepted Mark’s resignation and respects his decision.

Mark Weldon commented: “I wish to share the news that, last night, I notified the Chairman of MediaWorks of my resignation from my role as CEO.

“When I joined MediaWorks in August, 2014, I had a clear mandate to lead a significant change programme to bring the business back from receivership into a position where it could once again be a strong competitor in the market, with a sound and sustainable future. It was a big brief, laden with inherent challenges, but I took it in good faith and have dedicated myself fully to the goal since.

“I have had the full support of my Board for the strategy that we have executed at every point.

“We have made significant progress as a business. Yesterday I shared with staff that in our profit growth, we have hit our Q1 targets and that, overall, audiences are growing and innovative strategies such as the introduction of Newshub have been well received and are delivering results. Yesterday, we announced a major Joint Venture deal with NBC, the first of its kind outside of the United States.

“However, I have come to a decision that the personal cost is now too high to continue in this role.

“I feel confident that I will be leaving behind a much stronger business than existed when I arrived, and hope the next chapter for MediaWorks will further strengthen the business and ensure New Zealanders continue to enjoy what it has to offer.”

The Board is very grateful for Mark’s success in driving change through the organisation and under his leadership MediaWorks has truly become an integrated company. Mark has agreed to assist the Board on strategic projects and we would like to thank him for his efforts and successes.

The company will immediately start a search for a CEO. In the interim, MediaWorks’ CFO, David Chalmers will act as CEO.

I want to assure you all that the Board has complete confidence that as a team we will continue our momentum and growth and would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your dedication and support of the company. I also want to assure the company and its stakeholders that the strategy initiated by Mark will continue.

Kind Regards,

Rod

Keep going!

UncategorizedApril 30, 2016

This Week I Played: Knights of Pen & Paper 2

Joseph Harper

Contributing writer

If the chore of cobbling together and interacting with real people for a roleplaying session is too much, Joseph Harper has the mobile game for you.

We all know Dungeons and Dragons and the Call of Cthulu etc are cool. There is almost nothing as good as putting on a bonnie wee Scotty boy accent and screwing up your face while pretending to be a 187 year old gnome who is convincing imaginary villagers to join a fight against a pirate menace that may or may not lead to mint magical items and gold. It’s great. But as anyone whose been the organiser person for weekly D&D sesh/indoor netball team/after-work lan party, it’s really fricken hard to herd a bunch of people because everyone has shit to do all the time. Enter Knights of Pen & Paper 2.

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It’s your classic fantasy setting rpg. The twist here, is that you control a gaggle or roleplayers rather than the adventurers themselves. Your players sit at a wooden table with their backs to you as the game master (beardy) reads you through your quests and cracks wise with jokey npcs. It’s cute.

As the comptroller of your adventurers, you’ll explore dungeons, complete menial tasks for strangers, waste snakes and bandits for cash, and buy yourself treaties and weapons (loincloth, lettuce, hammer etc). As the game progresses, you’ll expand your party. The game employs a simplified class/race system. You can employ humans, elves, and dwarves as warriors, mages, clerics, paladins, hunters and thieves. There’s also an added wrinkle where you decide the character of the person playing each adventurer. You can select various John Hughes type teenager archetypes (jock, cheerleader, goth etc etc). It’s all cool and meta.

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It’s nowhere near as involved as your standard tabletop role playing game. Hardouts will maybe find this dumb and bad. Also, if you’ve ever played an rpg (videogame or other), you’ll probably find the early stuff very easy. But Knights of Pen and Paper is pretty clever and is self-aware enough to keep it enjoyable. It costs like $7.50 so it’s pretty pricey for an app game, but if you’re rich and enjoy this kind of thing, it’s an excellent avenue to getting your dungeon crawling, monster bashing fix while using the toilet at work.

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