New Zealand's media is facing its biggest shake-up in years.
New Zealand’s media industry is facing arguably the biggest shake-up in years - with companies resigning to the fact the world has fully adopted digital.
Stuff is closing a newspaper and launching a 6pm bulletin. TVNZ sent execs on a $30k LA jaunt amidst mass layoffs and a lengthy plan to get back to profitability.
All this, while we ready ourselves for a final goodbye to Newshub - whose last 6pm bulletin airs on Friday.
The Herald’s Media Insider Shayne Currie told The Front Page the Newshub team has been going through a grief process.
“We know around a good two dozen people are heading to Stuff to be part of the new 6pm bulletin there. It’ll still be a huge shock and an impact for people on Friday.”
It’s all while Warner Bros Discovery and TVNZ look to future-proof operations.
Currie said the former is looking to launch cut-price advertising as part of its new 6pm bulletin.
“They want to try and hoover up as much advertising revenue left in the market as possible. They pay Stuff a flat fee for the new bulletin, and knowing their fixed costs they will be able to manoeuvre their advertising revenue accordingly without being shackled to a hugely expensive newsroom.”
Three News is promising a new vibrant look and feel with opportunities for audience engagement all while trying to hold on to as many existing viewers as possible, Currie said.
“In the initial weeks, there’ll be a huge curiosity factor about the new-look bulletin. I think as time goes on they really will need to try and build a new audience.
“I think what we’ll see potentially is interaction around polls or quizzes or shorter, sharper bulletins and a shakeup of what we’re traditionally used to seeing at 6 o’clock.
“It’s a huge ask on Stuff. This is 365 bulletins a year over and above the usual journalistic output. It’s a huge tall order for that newsroom. We all like to see competition in the industry and I hope that it’s sustained,” he said.
At state-owned TVNZ, chief executive Jodi O’Donnell has said it is planning for the option to turn off terrestrial television by 2030.
“Now, it may not happen in 2030, it may be slightly later than that. But they certainly want the option to do that by 2030, whereas Warner Brothers Discovery, the owner of Three, has been a lot more bullish around the time frame. They’ve been talking two or three years.
“That doesn’t mean the end of news per se, it just means that the platform changes and we watch television through digital streaming platforms, through smart televisions or through, increasingly, mobile telephones,” Currie said.
TVNZ’s ‘digital plus’ strategy aims to double its digital audiences and triple digital revenue by 2030. Digital revenue last year was just over $50 million, meaning a target of at least $150 million by 2030.
Last week, The Post reported that a 24-hour news channel could be part of that plan, but Currie doubts that that would come to be, calling it a “very big call”.
“They definitely want to launch new channels digitally. I think a 24-hour news channel solely produced out of New Zealand [with] completely New Zealand content, that’s a huge pipe dream and very unlikely.”
He suspects it might end up being a continuous feed with international content partners, such as the BBC or ABC, propping up local content.
Meanwhile, the Government has finally come to the table with a plan to help the media industry.
The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill is set to progress through Parliament with the support of National, NZ First and likely Labour - but not the Government’s coalition partner, Act.
It means Shortland Street looks to be saved - with “immediate action” being taken to allow a 40% screen production rebate for the show, which currently costs TVNZ in the region of $20 million to produce each year.
Currie told The Front Page the bill will force the likes of Google and Meta, owner of Facebook, to pay for the news content they use to help drive their business models.
“National initially under Melissa Lee as Broadcasting Minister didn’t have that much fondness for the bill. But over time, and as Paul Goldsmith has taken the ministerial reins, he’s met with a lot of people in the industry, a lot of the CEOs, spoken to people on the frontline, and realises that something does need to be introduced legislatively to even up the playing field.
“I fully expect Labour will support the bill, given they’re the ones who introduced it in the first place. The Act Party has invoked the agree-to-disagree principles of the coalition deal, so they’re not part of it. But certainly National, New Zealand First, and Labour are expected to support it,” Currie said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about how New Zealand’s media is adapting and what the future might hold for it.
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.
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