Blow for democracy as well as NZ media

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

New Zealand’s diminishing media landscape suffered a further major rupture yesterday with the news TV3 owner Warner Bros. Discovery plans to shut down its news operations at the end of June — having failed to turn the business around in the face of declining advertising revenue since it bought the television arm of MediaWorks just over three years ago for $20 million.

About 250 or more staff, including many high-profile presenters and journalists, are set to lose their jobs in the global entertainment giant’s proposal to “remodel and restructure” its free-to-air business in New Zealand — including “the closure of all Newshub’s multiplatform news operations and output”. It also said “new local programming would only be in collaboration with local funding bodies and other partners”.

Politicians have lamented the imminent loss of our second mainstream television news service, after 34 years of operating against the incumbent, state-owned TVNZ’s 1News, and in the process creating a competitive TV news environment.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins described it as a “real tragedy”.

“Newshub is a very large player in the New Zealand media sector and in the New Zealand journalism space. This is bad news for the overall heart and health of our democracy,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters described it as an “absolute disaster” for Newshub staff and their families, but also a “disaster for the country’s democracy”. He had personally considered whether Government changes were required in the media industry, but wouldn’t elaborate as it had to be backed by his coalition partners.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was “shocking and saddening” news. It was important to have a well-functioning media, but it was “highly unlikely” the Government would make any specific intervention — citing the obligation on media companies to innovate. He also said there was still a “plurality of voices” in New Zealand and that would continue.

Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee, a former journo herself, said she felt for the journalists involved and described it as a “structural issue” and a failure to attract enough advertising.

Act leader David Seymour said it was a sad day for the media and for democracy, which needed a competitive media. He felt TVNZ having to pay a dividend — last paid following a $59.2m net profit in 2020/21 (its first in a few years then) — would make for a more level playing field.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said the demise of Newshub made it even more vital that TVNZ and RNZ were supported to be quality public broadcasters.