Just a week after Warner Bros. Discovery's shock announcement that it plans to shut down Newshub, TVNZ has told staff it intends to cut several popular and long-running news and current affairs shows.
Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
TVNZ is shutting down Sunday, Fair Go, 1News at Midday and 1News Tonight in an effort to keep its business "sustainable" in a declining advertising market for broadcast news.
The state-owned broadcaster announced yesterday it was proposing to cut 68 jobs, amounting to 9 percent of its total staff, to counter what it called "tough economic conditions and structural challenges".
Staff were called into meetings today, where they learned Fair Go, Sunday, and the two news bulletins would be shuttered under the proposed cuts.
Breakfast and Seven Sharp, which have been able to generate income through partner content deals, would continue to air under the new structure.
Outside TVNZ's Auckland building a staff member, who RNZ has agreed not to name, said the writing was on the wall for months.
"I think people kind of had an idea. Last year there was a shift around of some of the higher-ups to sort of hold off the redundancies," he said.
"You could sort of see that it wasn't going too well for the last couple of months, you could see that this was going to happen."
The company's chief executive Jodi O’Donnell said the changes were necessary to balance the station's costs and revenue after it announced a $16.9 million operating loss for the six months to January.
“TVNZ’s executive team has focused on reducing operating costs over the last 12 months. Unfortunately, we’re now at the point where we need to reduce the size of our team to bring our costs more in line with our revenue. Changes like the ones we’re proposing are incredibly hard, but we need to ensure we’re in a stronger position to transform the business to meet the needs of our viewers in a digital world," she said.
O'Donnell said TVNZ would be taking the next few weeks to respond to feedback from staff before confirming its new structure in April.
The proposal to close Sunday comes despite it airing a succession of stories which helped shape the news agenda.
It set off a reckoning for the then-Labour goverment with its investigation into Rotorua's emergency motels, and delved deep into the roiling internal strife at Gore District Council.
Fair Go has also aired investigations in between its advocacy for New Zealand consumers, including one questioning the efficacy of some council recycling initiatives.
TVNZ's proposed cuts come just a week after Warner Bros. Discovery's shock announcement that it is planning to close its news service Newshub in June.
There had also been rumours of announcements expected at TVNZ this week when media minister Melissa Lee appeared on RNZ’s Checkpoint on Wednesday to be interviewed for the first time about Newshub's planned closure.
Presenter Lisa Owen asked Lee - a shareholding minister at TVNZ - if she was concerned the state-owned broadcaster was planning cuts or redundancies in news.
She said these were operational matters to be addressed by TVNZ itself. But she also confirmed TVNZ had updated her last Friday “about what the latest financial result might mean for the company”.
The Auckland Central TVNZ office. Photo: RNZ / Michelle Tiang
By the time the media minister was on Newstalk ZB’s Drive show just over an hour later, the story had changed.
TVNZ news staff had been told to “watch their inboxes” tomorrow for news about the future of news at TVNZ.
“I have no idea. I don't know that there is an announcement,” Lee told Newstalk ZB, when asked if cuts in news were planned.
“I’ve had a busy day with meetings and I don’t have the details,” she said.
When pressed she told Newstalk ZB: “They did not tell me they were cutting staff on news.”
Under the ‘no surprises’ policy, it would be a big surprise if she had not been informed of a matter about which she would certainly be grilled subsequently in Parliament, not to mention by the media.
TVNZ top brass signalled tough choices ahead
TVNZ bosses were telling MPs to expect cuts at the broadcaster in no uncertain terms last month. TVNZ’s chief operating officer Brent McAnulty told a select committee hearing on the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill (a means of getting Google and Facebook to pay local news publishers for content) "the legacy of decades of investment in local newsrooms” must be protected.
Photo: Supplied / TVNZ
TVNZ executive editor of news Phil O’Sullivan said last month 270 news and current affairs staff produced around 240 news stories a day and the cost of local news coverage was extensive.
“The health of local media is vitally important. When 90 cents of every (digital advertising) dollar goes offshore we know there’s a problem to fix,” he told Parliament’s Economic Development Select Committee.
“This is a fight for survival for us. More and more journalists are leaving our profession. There will be less oversight of people in power and coverage of stories of importance. It’s very serious,” he said.
TVNZ’s 2023 Annual Report says it had 735 full-time employees. Of those, 327 earned more than $100k a year.
In September 2023 TVNZ announced it was planning significant cuts to content production, programmes and operational spending in response to reduced spending on advertising.
Future projects were placed under review and pay rises for top-earning staff were scrapped at the state-owned broadcaster.
Recruitment for vacant roles was “paused” until 2024 and TVNZ would fill some other vacant roles and defer the starting dates for some roles.
Acting chief executive Brent McAnulty said senior executives have identified “all the possible cost savings opportunities we have” in recent weeks.
“Content budgets have been reduced, both for local production and international content. There have been some really tough calls to make here, but we need to live within our means,” McAnulty told staff.
“All projects are being reviewed to decide whether they should continue, be paused, or be cancelled for this financial year,” his memo said.
TVNZ currently has a tender out for what it says is an essential overhaul of its digital technology. The Briefing to the Incoming Minister of Media and Communications said this was a $100m project.
TVNZ’s most recent Statement of Intent (PDF) said alignment of revenues and costs was under “increasing pressure”.
“We’ll adopt a dynamic approach to the allocation of business resources between investing to sustain our core TV business and accelerating the growth of our future online business. The stronger the commercial performance of our core business, the more actively we’ll be able to invest in shaping our future,” the document says.
TVNZ cut 90 jobs in mid-2020 during the first national Covid-19 lockdown.
McAnulty assured TVNZ staff in September 2023 TVNZ still had strong share of television audience and revenue and its online platform TVNZ+ has an “impressive growth trajectory.”