Voyager founder and chief executive Seeby Woodhouse has apologised after retweeting a post he called “unacceptable,” which led to the company losing its sponsorship of the New Zealand Media Awards.
While the content of the post was not detailed, the News Publishers Association said it had been alerted to social media material shared by Woodhouse.
A spokesperson said it did not meet the values and standards the NPA expects of New Zealand news publishers.
Voyager’s sponsorship was already withdrawn, just two weeks before the showcase awards. The May 22 awards ceremony will go ahead without a sponsor.
Meanwhile, Woodhouse said he was on social media late at night and shared the post without fully reading it.
“That was a mistake, and I take responsibility for it,” Woodhouse said.
“Even though my profile bio says, ‘retweets do not necessarily indicate agreement’, that is not a shield. I was wrong to accidentally retweet it. There are no caveats to that.”
“If you’ve followed my work for a while, you’ll know I have strong views and I don’t shy away from debate. But none of that makes up for what happened here.”
“Accountability is simple: I shared it, it was wrong, and I’m sorry.”
Voyager said it had already planned to step away as naming rights sponsor after this year, but was disappointed the partnership ended on that note.
“What Seeby unintentionally shared does not reflect Voyager’s position as an organisation,” Voyager said. It said it wished the News Publishers Association all the best for the future.