Tag: Paul Goldsmith

Goldsmith’s expectations and return of a fighter ace

There is no better clobbering machine for a government than the money mallet. So should RNZ prepare itself for another hammering from the coalition government when the 2026 Budget is announced in six weeks time?

In its Budget last year, the coalition gave the state-owned broadcaster a whack by announcing it would receive $18 million less funding over the next four years – an annual reduction of $4.6 million.

The government’s letter of expectation to RNZ last month criticised it for running up a $0.5 million deficit in 2024/5, increasing operating costs by 16 per cent, and employing more staff. Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith went on to say, in a tut-tutting tone, that there was “a vital, ongoing expectation that RNZ deliver improved performance”.

There was no recognition of the fact that the 2024/5 year ended only a month after the 2025 Budget cuts were announced and, since then, RNZ had cut its own budgets in line with its reduced funding, and had reduced staff by 5.3 per cent.

That makes Goldsmith’s letter curious to say the least and invites some reading between the lines.

What I see is a further tightening of the screws. His failure to recognise the moves that have been made since the 2025 budget cuts paints a picture of an organisation that has been profligate when, in fact, it has responded to the 2025 budget as it needed to do. Continue reading “Goldsmith’s expectations and return of a fighter ace” →

A grunt is worth a thousand words

Like a picture, a grunt can be worth a thousand words. The Minister for Media and Communications needed to do no more than make an annoyed sound to convince the chairman of Television New Zealand that the government was, well, annoyed.

Paul Goldsmith would surely have known that he needed to do no more than grunt when TVNZ board chair Andrew Barclay inexplicably raised a contentious One News item in a call he initiated with the minister. A low, short guttural sound said it all.

When interviewed about the call, Goldsmith pressed ‘play’ and stated: “He brought up the story in question, I did not make any comment, as it would be inappropriate for us to discuss editorial matters.”

It would not only be inappropriate, but it would also be unlawful. Section 28 of the Television New Zealand Act states that no shareholding minister (in this case Goldsmith) may give a direction in respect of the gathering or presentation of news or the preparation or presentation of any current affairs programme or content.

A grunt is not a direction. But it speaks volumes.

By now you’ll know what prompted it. A story, stating gang members now slightly outnumbered police, ran before a piece that might be seen as proof that the government’s ‘tough on crime’ policy was working. The later story said there were fewer victims of violent crime and serious repeat youth offending had fallen.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell did not like that – ‘annoyed’ is probably not strong enough – and took to Facebook to say so. A contrite TVNZ news executive rang Mitchell after seeing the post and a second, more positive story followed.

The post was not a direction. But it spoke volumes. Continue reading “A grunt is worth a thousand words” →

Media reform paper: The good, the not-so-good, and the ugly

I must start by shooing the elephants back to the waiting room: There is nothing in last week’s Media Reform discussion paper that will help to sustain New Zealand journalism, nor battle the scourge of transnational social media and search platforms.

I am not dismissing the pachyderms. Far from it, the survival – let alone its sustainability – of principled journalism in this country will confront politicians (and the communities they represent) much sooner than they realise. The looming crisis must be addressed. So, too, must the impact of the Facebooks and Googles of this world.

The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill (a flawed attempt to extract some money from the platforms for news media) gets only a passing mention in the discussion paper and is clearly not intended to be part of its feedback loop. In any case, it is on hold and faces the wrath of the empowered tech oligarchs of the Trump Administration if resurrected.

So, for the moment, I will direct my attention to the content of the discussion paper released by Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith last Wednesday. It was an invitation for the public to have their say on a range of proposals affecting the wider media sector. You can access the discussion paper here .

Some of the proposals impact on news media, even if none of them actually addresses the core problems facing that portion of the sector. Each of the proposals in the paper is described as “high level” and the Coalition Government has yet to decide whether to implement any of them.

The discussion paper is devoted primarily to audio-video production and distribution. In many respects, it is a sensible response to increasingly anachronistic structures and regulation that were a product of the age of broadcasting.

There are five proposals in the paper. Continue reading “Media reform paper: The good, the not-so-good, and the ugly” →

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” →