Good and bad news in today’s announcement of better funding for NZ news media
Better Public Media has mixed views on today’s announcement from Kris Faafoi to help news organisations around New Zealand. As an immediate response to the current circumstances the announcement of the $50m package is welcome and will help a range of media.
But Faafoi’s admission that the RNZ/TVNZ merger is “on ice” is disappointing. This project to rectify public media in New Zealand is urgent, and yet it is delayed again. Instead of years of reviews and studies, the government could by now have a long-term solution to public media that supports private media – for example less ads on TVNZ could be helping Mediaworks, and a better funding model could already be supporting more news media and other content production via NZ On Air.
“We’re left wondering what the rationale is behind pausing the work on a business case?” said BPM Director, Myles Thomas. “Surely that ongoing research and modelling can be done remotely and online.”
Other elements of Minister Faafoi’s announcement seemed more sensible with government doing what it can to remove costs it imposes on media organisations, like transmission costs through Kordia and Platform Contributions which are the small portions that broadcasters and websites contribute to NZ On Air funded projects. These savings will help the broadcasters like TVNZ, Mediaworks, Prime and NZME.
“Less clear is the support offered to online news organisations,” Thomas said. “Stuff, NZME’s news operation, ODT, Newsroom and Spinoff are all examples of news organisations reeling under Covid-19 recession and loss of advertising. Magazines are even more at risk, as we’ve seen with the closure of Bauer. Hopefully the $11 million targeted assistance goes some way to supporting all these and the many other struggling news organisations. Likewise increases in the Local Democracy Reporting scheme would be very welcome.
“Today’s package seems to be slightly misdirected. If the target is to help news media, as Minister Faafoi says, then the choices to help TVNZ, Mediaworks and Prime arent really on target. From a policy point of view, the goals don’t seem to match up with the mechanism.”
Outside of news, the rest of the TV, print and film industries are on hold, and being mostly made up of freelancers, are starting to suffer. NZ On Air has commissioned some ‘lockdown projects’ and this should be stepped up considerably to give media companies and staff, more work and provide more lockdown specific content for Kiwis.
BPM looks forward to more significant long-term measures in the second ‘tranch’ of support. Like most New Zealanders, we are pleased that the option to requiring digital intermediaries like Google and Facebook to contribute to media production is on the table.
I sure there are many quality journalists/commentators who could start quality online news outlets for $100,000 – that’s 500 start-ups.
If only a handful on those 500 new outlets developed a successful business model and grew – NZ would be in a much better position.
Sounds like the government is throwing 50 million into a black hole leading nowhere.
Yes Minister Faafoi’s performance on RNZ’s Nine to High Noon, was tantalisingly next to a possible tasty non burger. As he hesitatingly chose his words carefully just before he resumed the scripted talking points ad nauseum. Hearing KR assume the role of ‘ fighting for private business interests ‘on a State funded media platform was almost comical, if it wasn’t true. She’s been promoting corporate narratives all week.
Sad.
All a bit reminiscent of the GFC …. lessons not learned, and can kicked down the road a bit further.
And yes there are some good bits such as the Kordia thing – but really – how bloody magnanimous of them.
(Just imagine as a parallel:
You own a factory that you’ve built up over time. You even generate your own electricity to run it in a sustainable way. Along comes a neo-liberal bean counter thinking gee whizz – all that electricity! It could be more “efficiently and effectively” used and sold elsewhere for a tidy profit – and incidentally, support another bureaucracy including CEO, board, salesmen et al. Let’s just take that capacity to generate electricity off you. And as a sweetener, we’ll tell you we’ll ‘incentivise’ you to be even more efficient and effective by charging you $millions because you’ll always have a ‘choice’ to go get your electricity from another supplier.
I can imagine the outcry)
There’s no reason other than ideology for this lil ‘ole naytion that punches above its weight not to have 3 public radio networks and a couple of TV networks and at least provide the ‘platform’ (to use the buzz) for private content producers to ensure plurality.
We’ve ended up with an over-managed system just to provide the very bare and dying essentials. Rationalising the expensive management structures; even using existing structures – such as NZonAir with its funding streams – keeping the ring-fencing of ‘public’; Kordia >> Kordia Platform and Technical Services – perhaps/preferably as a subsidiary to NZoA; buying RNZ and TVNZ a double bed …….
and stop seeing everything as a means to generate profit (such as frequency allocation under yet another bureaucracy – one that no longer sees radio interference and enforcement as an issue)
And it doesn’t have to come with elaborate ‘rebrandings’ or market promotions either.
Faafoi does have to get off his chuff of course and do something akin to OZ re the Google/Facebook problem.
I could write his lines for him if he likes – one of which would be:
“We believe there are efficiencies to be made, and we’re looking at the Google and Facebook issue (in this space, going forward”
Comments are closed.