MEDIAWATCH: Another one bites the dust – Newshub latest casualty of legacy ratings systems implosion

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
69
2510

Wow…

Newshub set to close at end of June, Warner Bros. Discovery staff devastated

One of our biggest commercial media company’s newsrooms – Newshub – is set to close at the end of June, with dozens of high-profile presenters and journalists out of roles.

High-profile talent such as 6pm news presenters Mike McRoberts and Samantha Hayes and new 7pm show host Ryan Bridge are set to lose their jobs.

The Newshub website will also close under the proposal.

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Warner Bros. Discovery laid out the plans to close Newshub at an all-staff meeting at 11am today. Security guards were placed outside the company’s premises in Auckland and Wellington.

…the rumours are circulating that Newshub could be in danger but no one believed the American’s would be so venal and slash all the good will TV3 has generated over the years.

There are now whispers about a TVNZ budget blow out and Stuff in desperate talks with lenders.

The problem for Newshub was that the ratings systems all legacy media like TV, Newspapers and Radio used were always more art than science.

TV, Radio and Newspapers used a range of ratings systems that were all ridiculous and never actually real. Online ratings are brutal and they are the only ones the advertisers want now meaning all that capital for legacy media is too expensive to support the ratings online are generating.

This will see an enormous collapse of the media market and Newshub is just the start.

It will bring to an end one of the most important arms of Journalism NZ has while also costing us Patrick Gower and Ryan Bridge.

This is a terrible day for the staff, this is a terrible day for NZ Journalism and it’s a brutal reminder of a free market media industry with a population size too small to properly fund a totally free market system using advertising and too stingy to effectively pay for public broadcasting.

All our chickens are coming home to roost today.

Thoughts with the talented journalists and broadcasters who have fought so hard for the sake of the Fourth Estate.

 

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69 COMMENTS

  1. Newshub to close.
    Shocked (maybe) but not surprised!
    Corporate neoliberal Amerika, Corporate neoliberal/3rd Way Nu Zulln.
    Same shit, different stink.

    There was a way to prevent this (primarily by cutting back on the ticket clippers rather than staff at the coalface. As is the case elsewhere. Just a shame Willie Jackson fell for the so-called stakeholders and consultants and neglected the biggest stakeholder of all – the public)

    What say you now Melissa Lee?
    And what of Prime?

    • This is quite remarkable. The local economy is now such a decrepit basket-case that it can’t even sustain one broadcast-network newsroom — and that’s after all but four local broadcast stations (i.e. non-network) have also shut down. (Channel 39 Dunedin is about to close, and the remainder can’t afford to run the full-sized newsroom usually expected from a local affiliate station).

      The Murdochs, N.B.C., the Packers/Gordons, the Ramsays, Tony O’Reilly & Denis O’Brien, the old Dunn-Irwin press (now A.R.N.) — they’ve all written off the country as being an unprofitable waste of time. And that was with almost no competition or regulation!

      The wild card is Sky News. When Murdoch dumped his Sky (N.Z.) stock, he also shuttered Sky News N.Z. — but their main bulletin “Sky News First” (the old Channel Nine/Paul Ramsay broadcast) lived on, eventually being produced by Warner Bros.. If this isn’t axed also, will the regulators tolerate yet another absolute press monopoly?

      This may actually end up being an opportunity for the labour movement. They used to print the Grey River Argus every day, after all. And union broadcasting (T.V. and radio stations) is alive and well in various other countries.

    • Possibly the Perigo of 40 or so years ago. He was probably the first to go down the rabbit hole. Even then people thought his salary was excessive (around $60k pa from memory)
      I’m surprised he hasn’t hitched his wagon to RCR. Perhaps he could get himself a podcast with the “nepo kid” MeX.

          • Linsey does have a spot on RCR. Listen to it before you say ‘eww’ and don’t be such a wet mop as saying ‘ewww’ before you do listen to it after you just praised him and recommended his return then some ‘wokester’ told you he’s now cancelled. You people really need to start thinking for yourselves

            • Ya Vol! I’ll listen if I happen upon him in passing and have heard him elsewhere in the past. I haven’t been impressed with the guy in quite a while.
              “You people really need to start thinking for yourselves”

              Projection much?

            • Wellsy you will have noticed there is no individual thought on the left they rely on their political party to tell them what to think.

      • Because we have been taken over by aliens from planet Midas.
        …The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into pure gold (700 BC! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas)
        They knew everything then! We are just riding on their coat-tails or should I say hems of tunics?)

      • “Because no New Zealander would.” – Ada.

        Idiot.

        Every NZer invested in NZ and every NZer owned the public commons and assets.

        Then, every NZ watched as they were stolen from the public and/or flicked off cheap to robber barons, domestic or foreign.

        All the idiots thought it a good idea, some idiots still do.

  4. Talent like… losing their jobs. What talent? That now resides on the Web. Look at the number of viewers for Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan in the US versus CNN and others. People vote with a click.

    • Which is a shame and probably part of the problem. I remember thinking a couple of decades ago when I was buying my Hons degree in Media and Sociology that if people only ever ‘consume’ media that they actively solicit, they insulate themselves from reality, and diversity. Their horizons, and even spatial awareness diminishes and they retreat into their tribal bubbles.

      • That’s true, but maybe we all used to reside in a big single self referencing bubble? The Internet pricked that bubble. Maybe we need to get better at critical analysis given the multiplicity of sources and opinions.

        • Some of us used to inhabit communities (and still do) where people interact with one another unmediated and in rel time, and when we interact with other communities we used to be reasonably confident the means of mediation was controlled and representative of them. Not so now. But I take your point.

          Question: Where do you see things going now?
          I see Melissa Lee has just had to admit (on 3 News), she “mis spoke”

          But as I’ve said before, none of this had to happen. There were always alternatives.

          “Maybe we need to get better at critical analysis……”

          Ain’t that the truthiness in this space, going forward. Sure as shit that isn’t going to happen with ideologues and cultists whose cerebral needs are met by the shit we’re exposed to now. Never mind though I guess. In all likelihood they might die of starvation, heart disease, diabetes or the effects of climate change. Grab ya purple crystals now

          • You’re not still fighting corona are you? Mote people have been harmed by the mismanagement of corona than they would have if they had of just breathed in the full I’ll effects.

    • All true. What point of difference does Newshub provide? I cant see why people are getting upset over what is, in all truth, mediocracy. There are better places to stay critically informed. Forbes may decry the loss of public interest journalism but on free to view TV it’s all too little, all too late. Sure, jobs lost, lives interrupted, but it’s all precarious these days. No guarantees. Little tenure.

    • I’m grateful for Tucker Carlson and his amateur interview with Putin. He was made to look mediocre no matter which platform you saw it on.
      Your reference is American and people vote with their pussy grabbing ye hah moment. Not a great reference Nick J but whatever rocks your boat, hard right Carlson and Rogan obviously do.

  5. A sad day for journalism in NZ. How much blame should NZ journalists shoulder?

    Can a revamp of the state broadcaster mandate create a level playing field?

    Asking people and businesses to play nice is as infantile as it is futile.

    • Follow the money. The journalists product sells the advertising, the adverts fund the journalists…. obviously the balance sheet is not working. Costs to high or income to low, or both.

    • And what then of the digitally divided and the indigent?.
      Oh that’s right, apologies. You’re a chosen one here to show us the way.
      How stupid of me. I should have realised how gorgeous you are. Is there somewhere I can follow you and give you likes?

  8. I always wondered how they could afford to pay those news readers so much for reading an auto cue.

    The field journos are very good, hopefully RNZ can expand and take them on.

    • And why did they need TWO auto-cue readers?! Like having a comfort/support person close by. At least TVNZ gave that idea up, and just 1 person to read.
      Oh, and they fired their Dunedin-based journo a couple of years back. So no sympathy from this southerner.

  9. This is the reality of private overseas ownership. They don’t give a rats about locals, local situations or local content. Nact are doing everything they can to get the foreign buyers ban scrapped or to weasle around it.

    Next Nact will be looking to privatise (sell off) the school building portfolio, the state housing, the hospital buildings and do a leaseback.
    The new landlords (megafunds) they sell to will jack up the rents (to the govt/taxpayer) and cut maintenance to the bone.

    But at least all this will allow the present day residential property landlords/speculators to get their nice big annual tax breaks and for the wealthy to continue to get their tax free capital gains, so that’s all that matters.

  10. That’s true, but maybe we all used to reside in a big single self referencing bubble? The Internet pricked that bubble. Maybe we need to get better at critical analysis given the multiplicity of sources and opinions.

    • As soon to be above. I.E.:

      Some of us used to inhabit communities (and still do) where people interact with one another unmediated and in real time [neighbours], and when we interact with other communities we used to be reasonably confident the means of mediation was controlled and representative of them. Not so now. But I take your point.

      Question: Where do you see things going now?
      I see Melissa Lee has just had to admit (on 3 News), she “mis spoke”

      But as I’ve said before, none of this had to happen. There were always alternatives.

      “Maybe we need to get better at critical analysis……”

      Ain’t that the truthiness in this space, going forward. Sure as shit that isn’t going to happen with ideologues and cultists whose cerebral needs are met by the shit we’re exposed to [and HARD sold] now. Never mind though I guess. In all likelihood they might die of starvation, heart disease, diabetes or the effects of climate change. Grab ya purple crystals. Clutch them hard and check out The Standard for the various sages to let you know how to survive it all

  11. what do you expect from privatised media….we’re just lucky they didn’t flog it off to china or russia or even fox

  13. The fact that from now on that we only have 100% Government controlled news media doesn’t frighten me at all! I, for one, welcome our new Orwellian overlords.

    • We had that in the 60’s and 70’s and that seemed to go OK. Brian Edwards in the like didnt hesistate to challenge the government.

      I would rather the media be controlled by the public service, than profit making corporations.

      • Millsy
        So you want media controlled by the state? Of course you do. Welcome to Russia under Putin. You’ll feel right at home.

        • Jonzie, seems you missed the memo, the media is controlled by the state and yes we are now Russia under Luxon.

        • As opposed to private corporations and advisertisers controlling them all? If the oil and gas sector sponsorted a currrent affairs show, would they not influence over their reporting on climate change?

  14. No more Paddy Gower!!!!!!!!
    Every cloud has a silver lining.
    Maybe I’ll go and buy a TV and get connected again.

    • I wouldn’t bother yet. Better to spend it on a few books and access to things like radio.garden or ad-free youtube.
      See it as the evening’s foreplay and get an early night.
      Besides, you’re likely to get ripped by some Australian owned mega -store where you’ll be bombarded afterwards by emails until the day you get death

  15. Dear media colleagues; for allowing, without the slightest protest, one of your own to be sacked for daring to sub some fairness and objectivity into your news reporting, for allowing your media to totally ignore the plight of the single most courageous journalist in modern history, letting him sit in solitary confinement for years where he is now in peril of his life for having exposed the geopolitical criminality we are a part of, for perpetuating political bias in the coverage of conflict, where the stories of those who our geopolitical masters want praised are prioritized over the stories of those they want damned, even when they are victims of a genocide, for your role in all of that, for putting your “celebrity” and salaries before the principals you claim to be defending, you can all rot in hell.

    • There has been much sobbing and wailing (literally) from media people over the demise of NewsHub, but what is happening to them is just what they have reported, or failed to report, as happening across the New Zealand economy for the past forty years. Foreign capitalists buy up New Zealand producers and then close them down so that they can supply the New Zealand market from their home countries, or from cheaper labour countries in which they have capital invested. In the case of the news and information industry it is a no-brainer. The US, Reuters and the BBC get to supply New Zealand its news directly, at almost zero marginal cost. At the same time they gain full control over content and do away with the need for local workers who may have a slightly different perspective to their foreign controllers and managers. This has happened in New Zealand’s wood processing industries, manufacturing, retailing, banking and so on across the whole economy. The colonialist media and politicians who enthusiastically championed this wholesale abdication of economic independence now react with shock and horror when it all comes a little too close to home. They won’t get much sympathy from the folks in Kawerau.

      • ” There has been much sobbing and wailing (literally) from media people over the demise of NewsHub, but what is happening to them is just what they have reported, or failed to report, as happening across the New Zealand economy for the past forty years ”

        YES.

  16. That’s a news audience vacuum The Daily Blog could part fill. There are a few experienced journos looking for work any kind of work..

    However, what are the odds the government journalism fund rides to the rescue?

  17. If they’re that talented in the first place then they can carry on there profession online and make way more money.

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