New Zealand’s news media has been dealt a huge blow after two of New Zealand’s major news organizations announced on the same day the closure of programs and hundreds of job losses between them, leaving only one state-run news television station and many job losses. A senior journalist is retiring. work.
On Wednesday morning, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed it would close all Newshub news operations, including its news website, morning TV show and 6pm TV bulletin, resulting in approximately 300 job losses. did.
By the afternoon, national television broadcaster TVNZ confirmed it was canceling its long-running current affairs program Sunday and consumer affairs program Fairgo, and suspending its daytime and late-night bulletins, resulting in the loss of a further 68 media outlets. role that will be played.
As colleagues wiped away tears behind him, NewShub investigative reporter Michael Moller said the announcement had been devastating for him, his colleagues and “all of New Zealand”.
“Newshub acted for the betterment of society. This is a big blow to democracy and a big blow to the country,” he said.
James Gibbons, president of Warner Bros. Discovery Asia Pacific, told staff when the company announced its NewShub restructuring plan six weeks ago: “There is nothing more we can do for our New Zealand network business.” There was nothing,” he said.
“It was a combination of very strong economic headwinds both in New Zealand and in global markets. As we said at the time, the economic downturn was deep and the recovery has not materialized as much as we had hoped.”
Mr Gibbons said $74 million worth of TV advertising would disappear in New Zealand in 2023. “Excluding 2009, the year after the global financial crisis, this was the largest year-on-year decline in 30 years, at 14.3%,” he said.
Warner Bros. Discovery will continue to offer local programming focused on drama, comedy, sports, reality and factual content.
Newshub’s closure leaves the country with only one English-language television news service, now the downsized state-run TVNZ.
in email staffTVNZ chief executive Jodie O’Donnell said canceling the Sunday show, which aired for 22 years and was responsible for agenda-setting investigations, was not an easy decision, but it was necessary to secure TVNZ’s future. .
She said TVNZ wanted to establish a team focused on long-form current affairs and consumer issues for TVNZ’s digital platforms. “I am confident in our future and our ability to continue to achieve our purpose of inspiring the conversation in Aotearoa.”
O’Donnell said in March that “challenging economic conditions and structural challenges in the media sector” were hurting the company’s revenue.
On Tuesday, Broadcasting Minister Melissa Lee said TVNZ’s job cuts were “extremely upsetting” for staff and said while they were working towards a solution, there was no easy solution. “I’m not a magician, so I’m trying to find solutions to modernize the industry… there’s a process happening,” she said.
Greg Treadwell, senior lecturer in journalism at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), said the reduced reporting environment was “terrible news” for the media and ushered in “desperate times for democracy”.
“This is like going back to the 1970s for our democracy, where diverse voices were incredibly restricted and dominated by dominant cultural opinions,” he said.
Mr Treadwell said the cuts were shocking but not surprising.
Treadwell said the country needs to start looking at the crisis in the media industry as a social problem rather than just a market problem. AUT released its annual report summarizing the findings on Tuesday. Public trust in New Zealand media. Trust in the news media continues to decline, with almost all major news organizations found to be suffering from declining trust.
The report found that people who distrust or avoid the news do so because of concerns about its negativity, its impact on mental health, and “political bias and opinion disguised as news.” did.
“We have to figure out how to restore balance to the news environment,” said Treadwell, a co-author of the report. “We need people at the same table, even if we disagree, and the current news media environment risks political division in our communities.”
