Newshub presenters Samantha Hayes (from left) and Mike McRoberts and TVNZ Sunday host Miriama Kamo.
Newshub presenters Samantha Hayes (from left) and Mike McRoberts and TVNZ Sunday host Miriama Kamo.
Television journalists and viewers will learn this morning whether parts of Newshub will survive a threatened closure - several possible lifelines have been considered - and if TVNZ will keep its current affairs show Sunday.
TVNZ is holding the final meetings with its staff about its proposed job and show cuts today, finally clarifying which programmes will go and which journalists face redundancy.
The threat of cost-saving cuts at the state-owned broadcaster was first revealed last month.
Yesterday, TVNZ gave an update on the change consultation and confirmed Fair Go and the Midday and Tonight news bulletins would go off-air mid-next-month. There has been a proposal to continue Fair Go as a digital brand only.
Sunday’s future is still on the line and meetings between executives and the show’s staff will take place today.
Today’s TVNZ meetings coincide with an all-staff meeting at Newshub, which is set to close at the end of June, seeing some 300 jobs go. A mid-morning meeting will outline the outcome of the company’s five-week consultation process on this.
Newshub staff have been working on plans to save their news organisation, which they have put to their bosses at Warner Bros. Discovery. While consultation has been ongoing, Warner Bros. Discovery has also been discussing a possible new news service with third parties, including rival media organisations.
Guy Body's April 8 editorial cartoon on TVNZ's job cuts.
As Media Insider revealed yesterday, any potential outside partnership would likely see the company continue to close its newsroom and pay out redundancies, but then pay a fee to a third party - likely another media firm - to provide a news service, including a 6pm TV bulletin. Stuff is understood to be a frontrunner, possibly alongside Sky Television.
It is understood any new bulletin might have only one newsreader, rather than two, and may rely more heavily on foreign news.
Meanwhile, a team of Newshub staff - led by senior investigative journalist Michael Morrah - has also been thrashing out a potential arrangement to save Newshub. Details of that proposal are understood to have been presented internally to staff last week.
It is understood that proposal outlines a transformation from a terrestrial TV news service to digital over the next two years.
Paddy Gower (from left), Karen Rutherford and Charlotte Foster leave the Newshub offices after staff were told of a proposal to shutter the news business. Photo / Dean Purcell
Morrah previously told the Herald,“we’ve got to give it a crack, right? It might not make a difference. We don’t know, but we have to put something forward in the event that we could save part of the newsroom”.
At TVNZ, meanwhile, a round of meetings was held yesterday morning. They revealed the end of the Midday and Tonight bulletinsand the Fair Go show in mid-May.
For Fair Go, TVNZ said it planned to continue “the brand” online. Four new roles with a specific focus on long-form consumer and current affairs were slated.
“There would be an opportunity for this team to continue reporting under the Fair Go brand and viewers would still be able to share their consumer concerns by writing to the Fair Go inbox,” TVNZ said in a statement.
One News 6pm newsreader Simon Dallow presents a story on TVNZ's proposed news cuts.
TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnellsaid the consultation process had been robust and all feedback had been considered.
“I want to acknowledge again the significant value and contribution that these shows have made over many years,” O’Donnell said.
“While these decisions are incredibly difficult, we must bring our costs more in line with our revenue and get our business in shape for a digital-first world.”
The cuts were necessitated by falling revenue, chief executive O’Donnell said. Tough economic conditions and structural changes had impacted revenue and prompted difficult choices “to ensure TVNZ remains sustainable”, she said.
Despite trying to lower operating costs in the past year, “we’re now at the point where we need to reduce the size of our team to bring our costs more in line”, O’Donnell said.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
