The news shown in bite-sized social media morsels

The significant investments that Stuff and NZME have made in video news are starting to look like wise moves even if the payback has yet to fully materialise.

Their current major initiatives – Stuff’s production of Three’s nightly news and NZME’s two breakfast video shows on Herald Now – are unlikely to be financial saviours for either group. They are, however, the foundations that will allow both groups to take advantage of significant shifts in news consumption.

Their strategic thinking was given a boost last week with publication of the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report which has found growing audience enthusiasm for online video content at a time when search referrals to digital news sites is plummeting toward ‘Google Zero’.

The Reuters report surveys 48 markets (Australia is the closest we get). For the first time, all of the surveyed countries report a majority of people watching online video news. Seventy seven per cent of people globally consume it each week. In 45 of those markets, more people watch online video news than broadcast television bulletins. And 57 per cent of 12 to 15 year-olds identify a single platform as their most important news source. It is TikTok – the go-to site for short-form vertical videos.

It is noteworthy that this growth in online video consumption is all happening on third party platforms. Worldwide, video consumption on news websites and apps has dropped five per cent in the past year. The report is unequivocal: “…if news videos from mainstream news organisations are being watched, that consumption is likely happening somewhere other than that publisher’s own website or app”. Over the past three years the proportion who consume video on news websites and apps has dropped from 28 per cent to 23 per cent.

In a New Zealand context, that points to a future where few will be watching Garth Bray’s HeraldNow Business or Ryan Bridge Today on the Herald website, or repurposed Three News on Stuff, but will turning to YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Continue reading “The news shown in bite-sized social media morsels” →

Matthew Hooton’s controversial appointment: A smart move?

 It takes a lot to bowl over seasoned journalists but the appointment of Matthew Hooton as editor-in-chief of The Post in Wellington skittled more than a few. Even the Stuff website described it as “a bombshell move”.

Hooton’s background is political communication and public relations. He was one of Jim Bolger’s press secretaries and a National Party strategist. He has never been a journalist, although his commentaries have been a regular feature in the New Zealand Herald and other publications.

His website describes him as “the country’s leading centre-right political commentator”. It goes on to say he “is well connected with the most senior figures in all three parties in New Zealand’s centre-right National-Act-NZ First Coalition Government and with the Opposition Labour Party.” Perhaps he is not on the Green Party or Te Pāti Māori invitation lists.

Although he has widespread consulting experience beyond politics, it is his perceived political leanings that will create the greatest controversy over his appointment at The Post.

There will be critics aplenty, who will see The Post being printed on blue paper and espousing the unchallenged views of the Right (with a very large Capital R). They will be goaded into red-faced rage when they see the title of his recently completed PhD thesis: “Groundwork and Principles of Applied Conservatism”.

I suspect that controversy has a large part to play in Sinead Boucher’s decision to appoint him editor-in-chief of Wellington’s daily newspaper, but it will not be through any desire to provide him with a powerful soapbox for political allegiances. Continue reading “Matthew Hooton’s controversial appointment: A smart move?” →

A prediction: New Zealand’s media when I turn 100

Commentators who project themselves into the future are either very gifted or exceedingly stupid. Only time will tell which of those I have been.

I have been encouraged to lay my credibility on the line by a series of reports over the past week that address the future of mass media – the print, broadcasting, and mainstream digital outlets that are the primary producers of journalism.

I have projected myself forward to a time when I am preparing for my 100th birthday. Okay, it’s not that far away. We are talking about a leap in time of not much more than 20 years. Given the pace of technological change, that is as far forward as any sane person should be prepared to predict.

What I see is a landscape in which print is the quaint pursuit of an artisan group of niche periodical publishers, broadcasting is no longer a term in common use because it has been replaced by streaming services, and ‘mainstream’ is something that marketers recall with wistful fondness.

I see China and Bangladesh continuing to flood the world with mass-produced use-and-throw-away garments with which we clothe ourselves, while information seekers turn to the equivalent of nineteenth century bespoke tailors for their news. Journalism will become personal.

Several developments have drawn me to that prediction. Continue reading “A prediction: New Zealand’s media when I turn 100” →

RNZ budget cuts are more ideology than good sense

Why doesn’t the National Party and its coalition partners simply admit that they want Radio New Zealand to die a natural – or perhaps unnatural – death?

First, the National government under John Key froze RNZ funding for eight years. Then the coalition led by Christopher Luxon wasted little time to impose a $4.9 million annual reduction. Now the latest Budget imposes a further $1.4 million a year baseline cut. The broadcaster was already operating at a net deficit of $886,000 on last year’s accounts.

That $6 million cumulative annual cut is in addition to the effects of inflation, which has breached the 1-3 per cent target in the past two quarters and is expected to hit 4 per cent in the current quarter. Treasury predictions of a future rate fall fail to allow for a demagogue in the White House and a dictator in the Kremlin.

It is clear that National and its bed mates do not like the state-owned broadcaster, and Christopher Luxon installed a minister to reflect that attitude. Paul Goldsmith has been anything but a champion for RNZ and, as result, it has had no-one to fight its corner in Cabinet

RNZ is seen as a bunch of Lefties whose sole aim in life is to bring unjustified grief to the good people on the other side of the political spectrum who really do know how to run the country.

Of course, that is nonsense. Continue reading “RNZ budget cuts are more ideology than good sense” →