Staff have been called into a 1pm meeting. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Staff have been called into a 1pm meeting. Photo / Jason Oxenham
TVNZ has backtracked on plans to shut down its 1News website as it hunts for $30 million in cost cuts.
Earlier proposals put to staff outlined plans that included shutting down the site, which TVNZ has now said it will retain but the site will be “reduced”.
Workers were called into an all-staff meeting at 1pm today to hear details of the company’s new strategy.
A spokeswoman for TVNZ said the company had now confirmed the strategic changes it will make to the business to help it reach the $30m target and deliver on its Digital+ strategy.
Creating centres for excellence for data, analytics and AI.
Bringing news and content together into a new division to drive audience and digital growth.
Investing in news on TVNZ+ progressively to build audience and capability.
Retaining a reduced 1news.co.nz while building news audiences on TVNZ+ and developing news capability on TVNZ+.
“Outsourcing decisions around our content workflow and technology functions will be deferred to allow further time to work through the impacts,” the spokeswoman said.
“Next week we will enter the second stage of consultation, which will include proposed structure changes to deliver on our decisions, as well as to drive efficiencies through the business. Proposals will be provided to our people first and we won’t be commenting in the meantime.”
The spokeswoman this morning said no changes to individual roles would be announced today.
E tū negotiation specialist Michael Wood spoke about changes for TVNZ staff. Photo / Alyse Wright
E tū negotiation specialist Michael Wood said this was an “incredibly unsettling” time for staff at TVNZ.
“There are still potentially big changes which are being signalled by the company.
“TVNZ have indicated it might move toward the outsourcing of staff, which is of deep concern and would fundamentally undermine the capacity of the organisation to do its job.”
It’s understood stopping outsourcing is a focus of the union’s collective negotiations with TVNZ.
Media Insider was told earlier this month the union is seeking a commitment from TVNZ not to contract out work that is currently done by members until June 2026.
A TVNZ spokeswoman told Media Insider said at the time the broadcaster doesn’t comment on details of negotiations, but said it had been working collaboratively with the unions to hear how they believe the organisation can meet its $30 million revenue challenge.
On the change proposal, Wood said what has been presented potentially impacts the whole organisation and could be significant for all union members.
“If we’re talking about large teams potentially being merged, if we’re talking about large numbers of roles potentially being outsourced.”
However, he told Media Insider it was positive TVNZ had decided to retain the 1News website.
“If we want TVNZ to continue being a place that people can go to to access news and analysis, having a stable website function is a really important part of that and that is something we gave a lot of feedback on.”
Wood said what staff heard today was relatively high-level strategic direction and there’s a lot more detail to come in the coming weeks.
“Broadly speaking, for a website to be maintained, [it] does mean there will need to be people there that do that work.”
The broadcaster announced proposals earlier this month to close the 1News website in February 2025 and that TVNZ’s youth news site, Re: News, will focus solely on video storytelling.
Other proposals included consolidating some business areas to align with its strategy, outsourcing some areas across TVNZ’s content workflows and technology in financial year 2026 and invest in news on TVNZ+, establishing a new dedicated team for this function.
It also put forward plans for some roster pattern changes, creating a centre for data, analytics and AI as well as making a creative hub.
Media Insider was told on October 7 that a strategic proposal consultation document outlined that an outcome was expected by the end of this month, and structural changes will then be put forward in the first week of November.
The document listed the proposal’s objectives were to increase revenue while reducing costs, deliver on TVNZ’s digital-plus strategy, and focusing resources on creating digital audiences and revenue at a faster pace than broadcast is declining.
The changes come as TVNZ embarks on a five-year digital-first transformation, while also addressing the existing tough economic conditions affecting the media sector.
Katie Harris is an Auckland-based journalist who covers social issues including sexual assault, workplace misconduct, media, crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2020.
