Media: News half-hour an option for TVNZ

If TVNZ trimmed One News, presented by Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie, it would have to find replacement prime-time content. Photo / Supplied

Television New Zealand is looking at radical solutions to trim $30 million to $40 million from budgets - including halving the 6pm news hour.

It is understood that TVNZ has sounded out TV3 advising: "If you go half an hour, we'd go half an hour too."

"It would be a question of who blinks first," said a TVNZ source who would not be named.

The idea of halving the news hour - creating a 30-minute bulletin followed by Close Up or Campbell Live - has been considered plenty of times.

Publicly TVNZ and TV3 are not talking. But the TVNZ source said: "It makes a lot more sense now than it did in the past."

TVNZ revenue was down 16.6 per cent for the six months to December 31.

But costs are still at 2010 levels, and it is predicting a loss in the year to June 30.

MediaWorks is also facing upheavals. Changes are to come and there is debate about the value of extended bulletins.

Some viewers would see the halving of the bulletin as a terrible step backward.

New Zealanders love watching the news and a commercial half-hour might mean only 17 minutes of news.

But there is not much happening in New Zealand and commercial news is not prepared to deal with detail.

People cannot commit an hour of their time to watch overblown fluff stories and countless live cross-overs.

How much would it save? In theory it would mean fewer staff and reporters.

"If you halve the news hour it might reduce the budgets by 20 or 25 per cent, but not by half," said a TVNZ source.

A TVNZ news veteran pointed out that there was plenty of fluff in the old days on the half-hour One News.

If you cut half an hour of high-rating content from prime time, you have to find a replacement. And that is easier said than done.

NEIGHBOURS...

...everybody needs good neighbours. Another radical TVNZ option from the past that makes more sense now is a sale and leaseback of its network centre.

It is understood TVNZ has sounded MediaWorks out whether it would be interested in moving into its TVNZ South building next door to the network centre on Hobson Street.

The idea might make practical sense. The TVNZ South building is well appointed and would enable TV3 and C4 to access some of the facilities at TVNZ - helping both companies.

It's understood that MediaWorks would not be philosophically opposed to such an idea. The downside is that MediaWorks would need to find a buyer or lessee for its studios in Flower St.

Like the halved news hour there is no overwhelming evidence that the idea has legs. But its clear that everything is on the table, and in this environment radical changes no longer seem so radical.

STATE BROADCASTING

Jonathan Coleman has also been looking at big changes to broadcasting.

But there are no signs of National emerging with a coherent broadcasting policy beyond waiting to see what happens.

Coleman has shown no great love for Radio New Zealand. I hear he has been looking into the idea of a joint body - or an umbrella organisation - for public television incorporating RNZ, TVNZ and Maori TV. Another old idea. Early on it was pointed out to Coleman that Maori would give a short shrift for Maori TV being incorporated into a state broadcasting structure.

Okay, said Coleman, that's fine. What about putting together RNZ and TVNZ?

Another old idea that would destroy one of a handful of independent media voices.

Advisers pointed out that Radio New Zealand staff are paid a pittance compared with TVNZ. If they were joined together there would be a bigger case for RNZ staff to be paid more than for TVNZ to be paid less. So it would cost more.

Back to the drawing board.

ADDING UP

Advertising strategies for the Auckland Super City mayoralty are taking shape.

These are early days but publisher, marketer and one-time Act campaign strategist Mike Hutcheson threw his weight behind Len Brown a long time ago. Advertising veteran David Walden of TBWA Whybin has given a half-hearted dismissal of rumours that he is about to join the John Banks team.

Hutcheson says he is personally motivated by marketing Brown, a left-of-centre candidate whose public relations adviser is former Helen Clark media man David Lewis.

Team Brown has been an early starter, buying advertising to increase his profile outside Manukau, but the campaign is understood to have some business backing.

Auckland mayor John Banks - who has ben in the news recently for his shyness over his directorship of Huljich Wealth Management - is putting plenty of resources into the media.

He has had media training from Bill Ralston and Janet Wilson, and hired former TV3 reporter Scott Campbell on a relatively generous payout.

Walden is one of New Zealand's most experienced admen and confirmed he had held discussions with Banks about advertising for the Auckland Super City mayoralty.

"I'd be happy to clip the ticket but I have not done that yet," he said.

There will be widespread interest in future candidates, in particular with speculation whether John Tamihere stands. The media loves Tamihere and with the Willie and JT show on Radio Live he would get media coverage that would cost a mint in advertising spend. That said, it did not do him much good in the last local body elections.

AUCKLAND PR

International public relations firm Kreab Gavin Anderson is setting up shop in Auckland. The company - with Australian offices in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth - has hired Creo Communications' John Redwood, who will be leaving Creo Communications to run the agency.

Creo has closed its Wellington office after one of its founding consultants, Andy Allison, moved to Christchurch. Creo said that Allison would continue as a staff member but will be working from home in the Garden City. Creo says it is planning to appoint a consultant in Wellington to take on a government advisory role in the capital. Allison was the principal of company Presence PR which was bought by listed company Photon four years ago alongside the Auckland firm Blast PR. The combined assets were called Creo.

BUSINESS TIME

The departure of another senior business writer from the Independent suggests changes ahead at the Fairfax business newspaper. Respected business writer Nikki Mandow has returned to her role as a journalism lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology.

Recently another bulwark of Fairfax business coverage - Independent deputy editor Gareth Vaughan - resigned and will join Bernard Hickey at interest.co.nz.

Fairfax business bureau managing editor Fiona Rotherham said that Mandow would be replaced by Nick Krause, formerly with the Aucklander.

Rotherham said that a replacement staffer had also been appointed for Vaughan. But the departure of the two senior staff will fuel speculation of changes to business news coverage at Fairfax.

The Indie has faced an uphill battle to increase circulation against the National Business Review. The NBR has also faced a battle and taken a risk erecting a paywall around its online content. Owner Barry Colman issued a press statement yesterday saying the online charging strategy had been successful.

Meanwhile, Attn! Marketing and PR has published a Hawkes Bay business magazine The Profit. It will be published quarterly.