Author: Gavin Ellis

Gavin Ellis is a media consultant, commentator and researcher. He holds a doctorate in political studies. A former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, he is the author of Trust Ownership and the Future of News: Media Moguls and White Knights (London, Palgrave) and Complacent Nation (Wellington, BWB Texts). His consultancy clients include media organisations and government ministries. His Tuesday Commentary on media matters appears weekly on his site www.whiteknightnews.com

Brace yourself: This could be crunch year for NZ news media

Buckle up because 2025 is going to be a rough ride for news media.

It has started inauspiciously with NZME’s announcement of 38 job losses at the New Zealand Herald and NewstalkZB, the full impact of which has yet to be seen. That followed the closure of 11 of the company’s community newspapers at the end of last year, plus the loss of 11 roles in its regional newsrooms last July.

We began the year with the effects of TVNZ’s cuts, announced last November, starting to appear. Familiar faces on its sports team reappeared on Sky and Trackside over the summer break, and yesterday Breakfast was back with a reduced lineup but no reduction in forgettable chitchat. The state-owned broadcaster has lost almost 130 staff since 2023. The latest tranche took out 50 jobs and adverse effects on its newsgathering are inevitable.

In December Whakaata Māori cut 27 roles and ended its news programme. Jobs have also gone at Stuff, although musical chairs have made it difficult to determine exactly how many have gone. Earlier, of course, TV3’s American owners walked away from their responsibility to provide its own news service.

What more, you ask, could be lost when news services have been cut to the bone? The answer: A lot. Our commercial news media are in a worrying financial state. Continue reading “Brace yourself: This could be crunch year for NZ news media” →

Quote of the Year 2024

I have awarded the Quote of the Year 2024 to my dear wife, Jenny Lynch. Over the top of the morning newspaper she looked at me and said: “Stupidity seems to be a national pastime”.

Lest I be accused of nepotism, I offer as evidence countless news stories, interviews, and utterances from the past 12 months. I exclude social media from my body of evidence on the grounds that it would be too much like shooting fish in a barrel.

News media’s hellish year, as seen by a cock-eyed optimist

Hidden in every nightmarish landscape there has to be a glimmer of hope. And, unless we look for it, we are sentenced to a form of purgatory. So, while I am struggling to retain my optimism in the face of claims that I am naïve beyond my (advanced) years, I refuse to see New Zealand media’s past year only in terms of what has been lost.

I was heartened to see that New Zealand Geographic has reached the 10,000 subscribers it needed to continue publishing. I was encouraged by Duncan Greive’s note that The Spinoff added 3,000 recurring members in less than two weeks in response to a plea for financial support. He said in an email: “The goal remains the goal, but between the new members and some one-off donations, we’re feeling much better about where we’re at going into summer, and cautiously optimistic that with a lot of work we can achieve that big goal some time in the new year.”

Then my old colleague Tim Murphy also came to my rescue with an email that included a link to Newsroom’s report to readers for 2024 (you can read it here). In the report was a section titled “Journalism with impact”. It listed the news site’s prominent investigations and analyses, demonstrating that accountability journalism is alive in this country. It was work of which Murphy and his co-editor Mark Jennings could be justly proud.

Had other outlets chosen to follow Newsroom’s end-of-year example I am sure they, too, could have pointed to where their journalism had worked as it should – speaking truth to power.

Our journalists can take real pride from some of what they have done. They demonstrate they have the knowledge, talent and intellect to deliver on their solemn obligations. That’s the good news.

However, the news is never all good. In the past, I have referred to such fine examples as ‘oases of good journalism’, recognising that they exist in an otherwise arid desert. There is still much wrong with the way the editorial content of our news media is being produced and that, together with a raft of systemic failures, has placed the industry in jeopardy. And in 2024, the sand encroached even further. Continue reading “News media’s hellish year, as seen by a cock-eyed optimist” →