Tag: Facebook

Ad spend milestone is nothing for New Zealand to celebrate

If it was possible for something to be epically depressing, it would be the advertising statistics released last week. For the first time, the annual digital-only advertising spend in New Zealand was double that of all other media combined.

The vast majority of that digital-only spend is with Facebook, Google, and TikTok. It disappears offshore with only a risible amount of taxation deducted from companies that are artful profit shifters. Worse, it has sucked the lifeblood out of our media industries along the way.

Figures released by the Advertising Standards Authority showed that the digital-only spend was $2.7 billion. All other media in New Zealand– through both their traditional outlets and their own digital platforms – attracted $1.35 billion in advertising revenue. The numbers could not have been starker.

The New Zealand Herald’s Media Insider, Shayne Currie, attempted to cast doubt on the digital spend after the ASA figures were released, noting that – unlike local media – the transnational platforms do not release actual figures. The digital-only spend is based on estimates. However, if anything, the digital-only estimates may be on the low side because the Interactive Advertising Bureau tracks only Facebook, Google and TikTok. It does not report on LinkedIn, Spotify, X and the like.

Nonetheless, the estimates released last week are not only consistent with revenue growth in other mature markets but reflect trends that have been apparent for years. Continue reading “Ad spend milestone is nothing for New Zealand to celebrate” →

Feathers will fly as Willie puts the cat among the kiwis

Some time this week Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson will set the cat among the kiwis. He will introduce the Digital Bargaining Bill to Parliament.

The Bill is expected to mirror legislation passed in Australia and Canada that forces digital platforms to negotiate fairly, and in good faith, with news organisations for the use of their news content.

The passage of legislation in those countries prompted immediate strong-arm reactions from Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and ominous rumblings from Alphabet, the owner of Google.

Days before Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code came into force in 2021, Facebook cut access to all news content for Australian users. It flailed around and banned everything it thought was Australian news. That included some government pages and even a page of advice on bike trails.

The total news ban lasted only a few days. It was lifted after a sizeable negative worldwide public reaction and assurances to Meta that the code would not be invoked by the Australian Government if the platform owners negotiated in good faith. Google had already blinked and had done deals with Australian media companies.

Canada’s Online News Act was given the Royal Assent in July and at the beginning of August Meta blocked Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram. Google has warned it could remove Canadian news from its platforms in Canada when the law takes effect (up to 180 days from the Royal Assent). However, Google’s owner is still negotiating with the Canadian Government over the regulations that would flow from the law. Meta has not joined those discussions.

A coalition of the country’s broadcasters and publishers last week asked the Competition Bureau to investigate the ban and use its powers to force Meta to reverse course. Continue reading “Feathers will fly as Willie puts the cat among the kiwis” →

News media face distrust by association

A new study suggests that the news media’s tanking levels of public trust may made worse merely by association with social media.

The study, released this month by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, has exposed gaps between trust in news via conventional delivery and the same thing consumed via social media.

It doesn’t matter whether people use social media or not: Levels of trust is lower if they simply associate news with the platforms.

The gap varies between platforms and between countries but the overall finding is that levels of trust in news on social media, search engines, and messaging apps is consistently lower than audience trust in information in the news media more generally.

And our media is becoming more and more associated with social media. Continue reading “News media face distrust by association” →

It’s those geeks with gifts again

Beware of geeks bearing gifts.

I gave that warning in a column seven years ago and repeated it here last November. I’ll say it again: Beware of geeks bearing gifts.

I make no apologies for sounding like a cracked record.

On the face of it, New Zealand media companies appear to be trotting along nicely in their bid to get some money for the content that Google and Facebook have been freely appropriating.

The Commerce Commission has issued a draft determination allowing members of the News Publishers Association to bargain collectively with Meta and Google on payment for content. The NPA is a mix of metropolitan and regional newspaper publishers but in this initiative it is minus NZME, which has already brokered deals with both Google and Facebook. NZME’s agreement with the latter is not payment for content but support for NZME’s “subscriber growth and retention”.

Call it ‘content’, call it ‘retention’, no matter. They’re paying up one way or another. All’s good.

But is it? Continue reading “It’s those geeks with gifts again” →