On another podcast edition of Decoded, where we interview inspiring leaders who are shaking things up in their industries, Lee Lowndes (Daylight CEO) and Duncan Greive (Co-founder of The Spinoff) sat down with Don Mann, CEO of Pacific Media Network.
In 2023, Daylight and Pacific Media Network (PMN) undertook a huge project together, rebuilding the digital infrastructure of PMN.co.nz and breathing new life into the PMN brand.
During this conversation, we learn about Don’s incredible career journey, starting in the police force, then managing the Warriors for over a decade, to leading Pacific Media Network which is home to news, 531 PI and Niu FM.
Don is compassionate, future-focused and constantly strives to drive meaningful change in the communities he works with.
The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity. It’s best absorbed as audio, but read on for some of the conversation.
Lee: Kia ora and welcome Don. First, I’m interested in diving into your very early days and first career experience in the New Zealand police. What drew you into that role and what was it like?
Don: I was 18 at the time. It was a really long time ago, and I saw it as an exercise in buying time. I’ve always thought that you don’t necessarily need to make a decision about what you ultimately want to do in life. It’s about taking a first step. So, it wasn’t out of loyalty to service - the police bought time. I’m from a sporting family. You work as a team, and my father, Don Mann senior, he’s very much my role model, and he said to me and my brothers, ‘make the most of what you’ve got, get stuck in, stop mucking around and don’t waste opportunities.’ So, I did.
In those earlier days of the organisation, you were put on the street and into the community straight away. I remember being 19, on the beat in Auckland Central, visiting the Schooner Tavern.
Lee: Being put out on the street from such a young age, how did that shape your perspective on engaging with the community and influencing others in your career?
Don: I’ve thought about this a lot over the years. I was born and raised in Kelston, West Auckland – a working-class suburb. Here’s a story: I was in the force and still playing rugby league under 21s for the mighty Glenora Bears. We had a win, went out, and had a great time. At 3 in the morning I thought I’d better go home because I was on the beat at 7 a.m. So, I get in my police car, I go down to Wood Bay in West Auckland, and there are my teammates with a car jacked up on wheels stealing the tyres. So, I had to arrest my mates. It was a challenge, but I better understood the people and the environment and saw that as an advantage. I was actually part of the community. I didn’t see myself divorced from it.
Duncan: When I think about the police and the media, they’re two institutions that, over the 40-odd years you’ve been in the workforce, have gone through periods of reflection and an attempt to relate to communities in recent years. From your rare position of being in both industries, how have they changed?
Don: I’m Tūhoe and Ngāti Kahungunu on my mother’s side, so I see both institutions as colonial constructs. Looking at the police today, there’s more surveillance than ever before — cameras are everywhere — but there’s also a strong call for visible, real police officers in communities. Similarly, newsrooms remain labour-intensive in media, and while technology offers scaling opportunities, trust and having real people behind stories are essential.
Both institutions face issues of trust and social license. Over time, we’ve seen centralisation versus decentralisation debates: community police stations versus centralised operations or regional news outlets versus a centralised media model. The challenges are comparable.
In terms of representation, progress has been slow. The highest-ranking Pacific police officer is a superintendent, still far from commissioner level. In the media, Māori and Pacific representation in leadership still does not reflect the population.
When I joined the police, there was already a push to recruit more Māori — it earned me recognition early in my career. But now, in 2024, we’re still on that same recruiting drive. A lot has changed, but in many ways, nothing has.
Duncan: You then moved to the Warriors, which was very new and owned by Tainui and Auckland Rugby League. When you got into the organisation, what was the atmosphere like in terms of the excitement of building something from scratch versus joining something with these deep colonial roots?
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Don: By the time I joined, the Warriors had been through a lot. Initially, Graeme Lowe, a former Kiwi and Manly coach, and his partner, the late Malcolm Boyle, co-owned the team alongside Tainui. That business dissolved, and Eric Watson purchased the NRL license — a piece of paper, essentially — with NZ Rugby League as a minor shareholder.
When I arrived, it was just three of us in a Penrose warehouse with flat footballs and some weights — there wasn’t much of an organisation. The team had started as the DB Bitter Warriors and had already experienced a whirlwind: massive initial excitement followed by a drop in support.
For me, it was still an exciting opportunity. Coming from a sporting family, I always aspired to work in sports management. While in the police, I studied business and earned a master’s in management to prepare for a career in professional sports or the Olympic movement.
I got the call about the Warriors while finishing my police career, and although I had another offer at the time, I couldn’t resist joining this small team to help rebuild the club. It was a leap of faith, but it felt like the right challenge at the time.
Duncan: In spite of their on-field performance, the Warriors have generated this cult-like community of fandom based on the work you did, which is unlike anything else in New Zealand sport to me. How did you go about building that relationship with the community?
Don: Yeah, the DNA of rugby league – it’s a game first. It’s a working-class game of outsiders that battled against authority and establishment. It attracts a certain type of person – someone who sticks it to the man, so to speak.
The supporters go there to express themselves and want to be part of something completely different. Historically, when you go to Eden Park, you clap, you don’t boo the opposition, you clap and it’s all very polite and proper. At the Warriors, we’re rock and roll, we’re going to give you a night out, so strap yourself in and let yourself rip. We just carried that on. It’s always been the DNA of the club and it still is.
It’s not hard to be an All Blacks supporter – they’ve got a 95% win ratio, but to support something like the Warriors, you’ve got to give up part of yourself.
Lee: And so, from the journey and experience with the Warriors, what took you into the media space to where you are now with Pacific Media Network?
Don: I spent 14 years with the Warriors and told myself I’d leave if we made a grand final. In the end, I was lucky enough to be part of two grand finals — so I didn’t take my own advice! During that time, I worked closely with broadcasters in New Zealand and Australia, creating content with Sky TV, which gave me valuable experience. When it was time to think about what was next, that knowledge made media a natural fit.
Joining PMN was both exciting and challenging. Our Pacific audience is the youngest and fastest-growing population in Aotearoa, but also diverse. While older listeners still rely on traditional radio and Facebook, younger audiences are gravitating toward Instagram and TikTok.
PMN was initially funded to run radio stations, so we had to recalibrate our relationships with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and NZ On Air to be recognised as a multimedia entity. That included changing our trust deed to reflect a broader purpose and moving beyond just radio to embrace digital platforms.
At the same time, we stayed focused on serving Pacific people, not trying to compete with mainstream youth stations like Flava or Mai FM. We embraced our strengths — Niu FM experimented with digital engagement and 531 shared stories through broadcasts while exploring video and social media. The launch of our new website and PMN News has further expanded our digital presence, adding a new dimension to how we connect with our audiences.
Lee: How have you brought the whole team at PMN on the journey of being receptive to digital mediums and thinking about how they tell stories through a new platform like a website?
Don: We’re partway there. When I started, PMN relied heavily on linear radio transmissions — 531.PI and Niu FM had little digital presence. The first step was figuring out how we wanted to be represented online.
We drew inspiration from platforms like The Spinoff for its distinctive attitude and RNZ for its on-demand, user-friendly approach. Partnering with Meta helped us secure funding to build our website, marking a significant shift for PMN, traditionally funded by NZ On Air for radio, not multimedia ventures.
Internally, the challenge has been aligning the team with this vision. Change is slow; many still prioritise traditional radio. To address this, we brought in experienced media professionals like Susana Guttenbeil and Justin Latif to guide the shift. Their expertise helps bridge the gap between the vision of a digital future and the team’s current practices.
While progress feels slower than I’d like, patience and ensuring no one is left behind are crucial. The next big challenge is navigating emerging technologies like generative AI, particularly as a language broadcaster, where cultural nuance and trust remain key. It’s an ongoing journey, balancing innovation with staying true to our roots.
Lee: If PMN could experiment with anything in the future, what would that vision be?
Don: Peter Lucas Jones, the CEO of Te Hiku Media, has spoken about our data being the equivalent of land. Once we let go of our cultural and language data, it’ll be packaged up and sold back to us.
Of course, everyone is talking about AI. If we could develop our own sovereign AI infrastructure that we owned where we could have language preservation and revitalisation that enabled us to use generative AI as a language broadcaster, and that didn’t result in all that data being sold to someone else – that would be a great thing.
Oh, and another thing – there is tremendous talent coming through the organisation. I would love more opportunities for our people and young people to just do whatever they want and have fun with the way they express themselves.
