Newshub and TVNZ cuts: Will they cause trust in news crisis to worsen? - The Front Page

The latest job cuts to hit the local media industry come as trust in news hits a new low.

Yesterday, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that it will be closing down Newshub and all related news shows across its network on July 5.

Why is Newshub closing? What we know so far

A few hours later, TVNZ announced its current affairs show, Sunday, had been cancelled and will end mid-May, along with TVNZ 1′s Midday and Tonight bulletins and the terrestrial broadcast version of consumer affairs show Fair Go. The latter will continue digitally in a reduced format.

It means around 350 jobs will be cut across both broadcasters, in what Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee described as a “terrible day” for news.

And the news comes as the wider industry is struggling with trust issues with its audience.

The latest AUT Trust in News survey found only 33 per cent of New Zealanders trust the news, down 20 points since the survey started in 2020.

Media Insider author Shayne Currie told The Front Page that the cuts at other organisations will put pressure on those that remain.

“Journalists have lots of story tips, great contacts, and they’re not covering every story that comes into the newsroom. It’s really important that we’re selecting carefully the stories and issues that we’re picking up and we’ll hear back from our audience often on what we’re missing. There’s pressure to make sure that we give journalists time to investigate issues,” Currie says.

The loss of an entire brand in Newshub also means a loss in media plurality - and that will impact what issues get covered and see a loss in some opinions and views that would have been otherwise covered.

Currie believes that there is opportunity in this loss for other organisations to step in.

“What’s the opportunity now for an NZME or a Stuff or a Sky to actually look at how much of the Newshub audience can they now pick up, whether that’s through video news or other means. I know that. That will certainly be a conversation that’s happening at all levels of... some of these mainstream media companies that are left.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more details on the confirmed closures impacting local media.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.