There has been no shortage of news about job cuts in recent weeks. File photo.
Photo: 123RF

Job cuts continue at most of the country’s major media outlets and some warn that legislation some hope will help the sector could be a death blow for many involved.

In recent weeks, there has been no shortage of news about job cuts.

Here’s a look at what was reported.

Thing

Stuff has cut video journalist positions in Auckland, while adding new ones in Wellington and Christchurch, cut audio roles, cut two management positions to create a new head of content and media strategy, and would hold meetings with other teams about deletions.

It is understood she has severed ties with style platform Ensemble, which she acquired in 2021 as part of a “life and style refresh”. Stuff did not respond to requests for comment.

NZME

THE New Zealand Herald has ended its Focus video bulletin and host Cheree Kinnear has had her role removed. Earlier this year the company cut around a dozen positions as it moved its resources from regional to Wellington and Christchurch.

Whakaata Maori

Whakaata Māori said it was still going through a “realignment process” and would not make any further comment until final decisions had been made. It was earlier reported that staff had been warned of job cuts and the potential scrapping of the daily newsletter. It faces a planned funding cut of more than $10 million by 2027. A spokesperson said he expected the plan to be finalized by November.

TVNZ

TVNZ is experiencing further cost cutting, after ending Go for it And Sunday earlier in the year. It wants to make $30 million in savings or additional revenue over the next year and has revealed plans to close its website. A spokesperson said the company always works through a “feedback process”.

Media works

Mediaworks is proposing job cuts for the second year in a row. But a spokesperson said the situation may have been exaggerated in reports that “dozens” of staff could be affected. “We are only looking at the function and future of two roles at MediaWorks, in different areas of the business. Although they are still in consultation, we will not speculate on the outcome.”

The decline in advertising

Industry sources say one of the few bright spots is the publicity of TAB, which is now under new owners Entain.

Asked if he would be available for an interview about job cuts and the country’s media, a spokesperson for Media Minister Paul Goldsmith said the job cuts were operational matters that media organizations could talk about.

Mark Jennings, co-founder of Newsroom and former head of news at TV3, said the industry was still suffering the impact of a decline in advertising.

“For businesses that rely entirely on advertising. The situation is bleak. The only answer to this situation is constant cost reduction.”

He said Warner Brothers Discovery had tried to get ahead of the curve by closing its newsroom and outsourcing its news production to Stuff.

“Now the company is struggling with ratings. It has reduced the cost base, but it’s probably questionable whether it’s been able to maintain the kind of revenue it had before.”

In a Newsroom column, he highlighted Sunday’s hearings. The highest rated show of the evening was ThreeNews. “But it was watched by 26,300 people in the demo and 1News beat it with more than six times the number of viewers. A 56-point share to Three’s nine. When Newshub ended in July, its 6 p.m. marked about 20 shares, and years before that it was in the 30s.”

He said TVNZ would probably need to find an extra $40 million instead of $30 million to break even.

“He appears to be very slow in doing so and it will eat into his cash reserves.”

Jennings said these cash reserves were initially intended for a digital transformation that was supposed to start before Covid but had not progressed.

“I would say he’s probably now two or three years behind where he should have been. It’s problematic. He’s struggling to maximize his audiences on TVNZ+. He has good content and is happening good, but it’s not up to par with international streamers.”

Jennings said it would need a subscription model, but that probably wasn’t possible with its current technology stack.

Smaller players such as Newsroom survive on their relatively low costs, but it is difficult to expand in a depressed economy, he said.

What is the future?

In ten years, the market would probably have been more streamlined, especially with regard to free-to-air TV channels, he said.

“It’s hard to imagine either of them in their current form. They’re just facing a steadily declining audience for their broadcast models. They’re going to move to on-demand, but there’s so much competition in this area.”

Jennings pointed to the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, which would force players like Google and Facebook to pay news organizations for content.

Google warned that if the legislation were to pass, it would “reassess how (Google) operates in New Zealand”.

“We would be required to stop linking to news content on Google Search, Google News or Discover surfaces in New Zealand – and end our current commercial agreements and ecosystem support with New Zealand news publishers,” said Caroline Rainsford, Google’s country manager for New Zealand. in a statement on Google’s own site.

Jennings said the bill, in its current form, could be “very bad” for much of the country’s media.

“NPA, that’s NZME and Stuff, are for this and I think if Google and Facebook get out of the news in this country they might think they might be the last men standing.”

RNZ chief performance officer Glen Scanlon said RNZ was concerned about the budget cuts facing the media sector as a whole and the impact they had on people and journalism.

“Our view is that society and democracy are best served by a strong and vibrant sector. The disruption highlights the importance of having a core public media service. RNZ focuses on content sharing and partnerships with other media outlets where useful. A great example are the newsroom positions we fund through the Local Democracy Reporting program.

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