The Listener
  • The Listener home
  • The Listener E-edition
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Health & nutrition
  • Arts & Culture
  • New Zealand
  • World
  • Consumer tech & enterprise
  • Food & drink

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • New Zealand
  • World
  • Health & nutrition
  • Consumer tech & enterprise
  • Art & culture
  • Food & drink
  • Entertainment
  • Books
  • Life

More

  • The Listener E-edition
  • The Listener on Facebook
  • The Listener on Instagram
  • The Listener on X

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Listener / Business

If the news media is left to sink or swim, who will hold the powerful to account?

By Peter Griffin
New Zealand Listener·
25 Mar, 2024 04:30 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Digital disruption or disaster? With so much vying for our attention, the reality is news media will increasingly be at the periphery of people's lives. Photo / Getty Images

Digital disruption or disaster? With so much vying for our attention, the reality is news media will increasingly be at the periphery of people's lives. Photo / Getty Images

You just have to browse the Facebook comments sections to get a sense of what many Kiwis think of the crisis engulfing Three and TVNZ, where hundreds of journalists are set to lose their jobs. The reactions fall into a few categories: “I don’t watch TV news anyway”, “go woke, go broke”, “the media lied to us during the pandemic”, “I get my news online anyway” and “Don’t axe Fair Go!”

I’m a news junkie so I still sit down to watch the 6pm bulletin, flicking between 1News and Newshub. Those flagship news shows still attract audiences of hundreds of thousands of people.

But there’s clearly a growing cohort who may only ever see a 1News report as a clip on YouTube or X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. That sees them straddle the “I get my news online anyway” category too. There are, and will continue to be, numerous local and international news outlets serving current affairs coverage online, freely available and behind paywalls.

But there’s limited appetite for paying for a news subscription and Google and Meta control about 90% of the digital advertising market. So there will probably be more media-industry casualties. Long-form video news journalism may largely disappear; fewer experienced journalists will be around to break stories.

People may be consuming digital content in shorter formats on social media. But a news story still requires the same amount of leg work to get right. With so many streaming options, games platforms and social media networks vying for our attention, the reality is news media will increasingly be at the periphery of many people’s lives.

But the public will still benefit from the news media’s efforts to shine light on the postcode-lottery in the health sector, or to expose the ties between politicians and big business. Most people will grudgingly admit that the news media is worth saving even if they’re disengaged from most of it. The question is how to save the media without putting a large burden on the taxpayer.

I believe the days of TVNZ as a public broadcaster are numbered. It should be sold off and the proceeds used to turn RNZ into a true multimedia platform, a stripped-back version of Australia’s ABC. The sun is also setting on digital terrestrial transmission. Within a decade, those radio and TV towers will be switched off as we move completely to internet-based streaming. That will save the industry money on transmission fees.

But it won’t be enough, which is why tapping tech giants that pay little tax here and invest next to nothing in local content is the obvious solution, and the one most countries are pursuing. Australia’s media bargaining code has been a successful effort, yielding hundreds of millions of dollars for publishers. But Meta has opted to pull news from its Facebook platform in Australia to try to avoid paying.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A cleaner approach is the “Netflix levy” that most European countries are considering as negotiations over a fairer international tax regime for multinationals drag on.

A small levy (2-3%) on the New Zealand revenues of streaming providers and the digital advertising giants would yield a decent pool of funding that a body like NZ on Air could dish out to content producers, including news outlets, on a contestable basis.

Discover more

Law & society: The medium needs a massage

25 Mar 03:00 AM

Farwell Fair Go: Looking back at the great Kiwi tv institution

13 May 08:30 PM

Who would celebrate this? Gleeful reaction to Newshub demise grossly misguided

05 Mar 12:00 AM

Greg Dixon: Another kind of politics - a sad day for democracy

29 Feb 04:00 PM

We give the likes of Netflix, Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft our attention and subscription dollars. But it’s time for a more meaningful relationship, one that sees them support the industry they’ve helped hollow out. It’s likely the difference between sinking and swimming for the news media.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Listener

LISTENER
The bestselling authors who draw on the strength of others

The bestselling authors who draw on the strength of others

11 Jul 06:02 PM

The cliché of the lonely writer couldn't be further than the truth.

LISTENER
Jurassic World Rebirth: There’s life in the old dinosaur series yet

Jurassic World Rebirth: There’s life in the old dinosaur series yet

11 Jul 06:00 PM
LISTENER
Foddies Chrissy Glentis’s top picks for those with food intolerances

Foddies Chrissy Glentis’s top picks for those with food intolerances

11 Jul 06:00 PM
LISTENER
Steve Braunias: ‘A funeral is a special event - you only die once.’

Steve Braunias: ‘A funeral is a special event - you only die once.’

11 Jul 06:00 PM
LISTENER
Top 10 bestselling NZ books: July 12

Top 10 bestselling NZ books: July 12

11 Jul 06:00 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Contact NZ Herald
  • Help & support
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
NZ Listener
  • NZ Listener e-edition
  • Contact Listener Editorial
  • Advertising with NZ Listener
  • Manage your Listener subscription
  • Subscribe to NZ Listener digital
  • Subscribe to NZ Listener
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotion and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • NZ Listener
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP