What if Newshub’s owners had been walking our streets?

When Newshub met its end last Friday night I was left with a niggling question: If Newshub been owned by local interests rather than an American corporation, would it have been summarily executed?

You see, I have a theory that local ownership exposes proprietors to pressures that are not felt by directors and executives sitting thousands of kilometres away.

If owners walk the same streets as the people they serve, they are confronted and held to account. Even the most isolated find themselves being questioned by the members of the social sets in which they move. They are forced to consider the impacts and consequences of their decisions.

Anonymous overseas executives and directors do not see the results of their abstract decision-making, apart (perhaps) from a small blip on the next set of financials.

TV3 has been losing about $35 million a year and, although no owner wants to see continued deficits, the amount ($21.5 million in US dollars) is not much more than a rounding number for WBD, which last year earned revenue of $US41.3 billion from its worldwide operations. That was roughly what this entire country earned from its goods exports.

There is little doubt that Newshub was costing TV3 too much money and something had to change, but was total closure of the news division the only option? At the time of its announcement, WBD said “there was nothing anyone in our New Zealand network business could have done better”. Maybe not, but could they have done things differently?

There were options.

• The nightly bulletin could have been reduced to 30 minutes (hour-long bulletins a thing of the past in many places) and anchored by one person instead of two.
• Other news programmes such as The AM Show and non-primetime news bulletins could be scrapped.
• The bulletin’s timeslot could be moved to capture a younger audience (and the advertising aimed at them) that is seldom home by 6 pm.
• Foreign correspondents (who admittedly have done a very good job) could be replaced by feeds from sister organisation CNN.
• Stories that everyone has, but which you still need to carry, could be ‘rip and read’ – ripped without charge by agreement from RNZ and read by an anchor.
• Newshub could undertake joint-venture coverage with other news organisations to reduce costly duplication.

Such moves would have had inevitable effects on staff numbers, but a core news staff would have remained to give a unique perspective on the day’s events that has now been lost.

And, yes, it has been lost.

The bulletin produced by Stuff for screening in place of Newshub began well on Saturday. It was professional, informative, even polished. Newsreader Laura Tupou was a familiar Newshub face and so, too, were Samantha Hayes and Gordon Findlater. However, the other familiar face belonged to Paula Penfold whose association with TV3 ended eight years ago.

Penfold is now an investigative journalist with Stuff and the mainstay item of the first two Stuff-produced news bulletins on TV3 were part of her long-running Stuff series on Chinese espionage and manipulation within New Zealand. It has been running in Stuff newspapers and online. Last weekend’s Sunday Star-Times carried the story featured in the Three News bulletin.

I admire and appreciate the work Penfold and her former Stuff Circuit colleagues have done on that (and other) investigations.  However, the item in the television bulletin highlighted an issue no-one can deny. The nightly bulletin will draw on the newsgathering resources of Stuff and its content will, in large measure, mirror what has been or will be published elsewhere by them.

TV3 viewers will have professional and responsible journalism delivered to them but we should not think that, by filling the time slot,  Stuff has filled the hole left by emptying Newshub. It cannot be expected to do that. The loss of so many jobs reduces the amount and range of journalism being produced in this country – and the voices that are heard. No amount of effort and good intentions by what remains of the news industry can fully compensate.

I doubt the workforce will be rebuilt. Like traditional media revenue, the number of journalists employed in New Zealand has been on a downward trajectory and, at best, it will only level out. Production staff whose craft skills are transferable will move out of the news industry.

That said, Sinead Boucher and her team at Stuff deserve full credit for the bulletin they are producing. It looks, sounds and feels like real television, not a bulletin produced by newspaper people who are broadcasting amateurs. My only gripe is a minor one that is easily fixed: the background music on some items is too loud.

Three News will take Stuff’s journalism to a wider audience and, I hope, provide a new platform for its investigative endeavours. Although it does not have its branding at the beginning of the bulletin, Stuff has clear pointers to its newsroom. Personally, I can’t see why the opening titles don’t acknowledge its origins.

It has been a good start. However, the operation will not be without its challenges. Cost will be an ever-present issue, as will the demands on Stuff resources. Television is a voracious beast and Stuff will need to ensure that, in the process of feeding its new commitment, it does not get eaten alive.

The end

There were tears welling in many eyes when, first, The AM Show, and then First at 5.30 on Sky Open and, finally, Newshub at 6 were broadcast for the final time. The final words from the hosts were dignified and heart-felt. On Sky Open, host Eric Young even had his four-year-old son Alfie on set in an energetic walk-on part.

 AM and First at 5.30 had the studio lights dimmed for the last time as they signed off. Only Newshub went out on a slightly jarring note. After fitting farewells from Sam Hayes and Mike McRoberts (with their colleagues gathered around) there was no slow fade-to-black, just the jarring onrush of Lego Masters Australia.

Equally jarring is what will replace the Newshub slots that will not be filled by Stuff. Stuff itself reported on the ‘new’ programmes. AM will be replaced by two home renovation shows back-to-back (one a re-run) then a reality show. Sky Open will broadcast re-runs of Pawn Stars. That can only be good for TVNZ and radio.

I know what it feels like to be present when the rug gets pulled from under the workplace into which you pour your labour and emotion. I was on the staff of the Sunday Herald (the New Zealand Herald’s first attempt at a Sunday title) when it was closed. It felt like a bereavement. My wife Jenny Lynch and I both feel the death of a journalism outlet is like losing a family member. She has felt it more than once. She worked on the Weekly News, Sunday Herald and Thursday, all of which (to use an apt Americanism) were shuttered. In retirement she felt the shudders again when the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly (which she had edited for seven years) had a near-death experience after German publisher Bauer – another foreign owner – walked away from its New Zealand publications. We extend our condolences to all Newshub staff.

Carrying on

On a brighter note…Local Democracy Reporting, the scheme to put reporters back into council chambers and other areas of local government, is to receive further funding in spite of the damaging disinformation that demonised the Public Interest Journalism Fund. LDR had been funded under that scheme for part of its existence.

NZ on Air announced in its latest funding round last week that it will contribute $885,000 to LDR, with the scheme’s administrator Radio New Zealand also providing funds.

Not so lucky was Paddy Gower Has Issues, which missed out in the funding round on the same day its namesake lost his Newshub job. I’m certain, however, that it will not silence the irrepressible Mr Gower, who still has much more journalism to offer us. As I told him on LinkedIn (a wonderful place to drop Dickensian quotes): “I am confidently expecting something to turn up”. I just hope he doesn’t follow the lead of the man who said that. Mr Micawber emigrated to Australia.