Media Watch - New Feature - The Future of The New Zealand Media
Opinion
New Zealanders need to pay for news. And the government needs to implement the Fair Digital Bargaining Bill that will enable small, medium and large outlets to force social media giants and Google to do business with us. I will be honest. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the proposed law. But one thing is for sure. So long as the giants reign, making a living in this market will be hard and more outlets will close or downsize if government intervention is halted.
The NZR Editor
In this weekly opinion column, I’ll be looking at developments in local journalism and asking a simple question: what’s its future?
The column is a new NZR feature and an interesting one. New Zealanders proclivity for news has not abated but the way we receive our news has shifted and tossed the mainstream media into a major reconfiguration.
On Sunday, RNZ reported The NZ Herald was contemplating axing 14 North Island newspapers. Previously, TVNZ pushed forwards with redundancies, and Newshub disappeared from our television screens before Stuff revamped it as TV3 news.
It is most unlikely these will be the last of the redundancies or restructures or closures, because mainstream media outlets appear to rely on advertising monies over subscriptions to pay their bills.
In my experience, since entering the decaying and fracturing media market in 2022, I have found New Zealanders uber reluctant to pay for their news. I have even found people trying to find ways to get my work for free.
After decades of getting their news fix for free or for a few dollars, and with advertisers moving to new platforms to reach audiences, readers and viewers are going to have to consider their options and pick where to spend their cash.
So, what about in Christchurch? To date the citizens have not felt these changes. The Press is still available in Pak n Save when you do your shopping and The Star sits on the packing stands near the exit. And it’s free. Other local newspapers are still available. But one thing is clear, most of the print media is riddled with adverts. And they are growing smaller with time.
None of this is to say that the quality of the articles has sunk. On the contrary, good, solid stories still abound. But the local population’s tastes have shifted markedly in part due to people’s proclivity to use smartphones to get information.
Like them or hate them, smartphones form the backbone of the modern information system. Many people appear to be tied to them like a ball and chain. Quality no longer matters as much as before. Speed does. And this is where the Googles, the Facebooks and the algorithms of other platforms matter.
In the eyeball economy, making sure your story reaches your market is crucial. And it is very hard to accomplish. Even mysterious at times is trajectory of a story. One article will catch fire. Another will limp into oblivion. But even if viewers see your post, they might not even venture past that and click it to see the remainder.
So, if viewers are short on time or worried about being clickbaited, how can modern media make a living?
Some writers swing viewers by reputation. That much is obvious. Big names attract attention. Such a phenomena is evident on Substack. For the mainstream the same can be said. The name or brand matters and people tend to go for what they know. But they have significant staffing costs to cover and that can and probably has led them to saturating the market with media on a daily basis.
For new media, like myself, this makes life particularly hard. As I have discovered, I’ve had to learn to market myself and my brand. I’ve had to learn to podcast and to design and publish short films and reels. And we can move quickly.
But again we, like the mainstreamers, face that critical problem. New Zealanders are reluctant to pay for their news. So, for news to thrive, in a multipolar media system, two things need to change.
New Zealanders need to pay for news. And the government needs to implement the Fair Digital Bargaining Bill that will enable small, medium and large outlets to force social media giants and Google to do business with us. I will be honest. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the proposed law. But one thing is for sure. So long as the giants reign, making a living in this market will be hard and more outlets will close or downsize if government intervention is halted.
Currently, the bill has had its first reading and been through select committee. According to RNZ, the second reading was supposed to start on Wednesday but the Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith has delayed this.
A lot is riding on the passage of this bill.
Ed.