Diverse New Zealand media group Stuff is to produce the 6pm TV bulletin for Newshub when it closes its newsroom.
Newshub's US-based parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), announced in February a dramatic and sustained fall in television advertising.
The closure of the Newshub newsroom, without an alternative, would have left state-owned TVNZ with a "near-monopoly on TV news".
However, Stuff, which has major newspaper and digital properties in New Zealand, and Warner Bros Discovery announced an agreement for Stuff to provide a daily news bulletin.
The Monday to Friday 6pm news will begin July 6.
The local market in New Zealand, where move to digital advertising has happened faster, is seen as an exaggeration of global trends.
Linear TV ad spend fell 19% in NZ last year and the local market there has had a frenzied love affair with digital, which is now 44% of all agency ad spend.
And programmatic at 39% has the largest share of digital ad spend of all markets in which SMI reports.
“Our proposal to WBD was to deliver high-quality news now and a news product for the future,” said Stuff owner and publisher Sinead Boucher.
“We will look to innovate not replicate the 6 o’clock news, building on our expertise in digital audiences and engagement and our ability to deliver live and lively news 24/7 all over Aotearoa.
“Newshub and Three, over an incredible 35 years of journalism, has been known for gutsy, independent, non-partisan reporting, values that we share and will proudly continue to uphold.”
Sinead Boucher completed a management buyout in 2020 from Nine Entertainment of Australia at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Boucher remains the company’s sole owner.
Stuff owns dozens of newspaper and magazine titles, including the Sunday Star-Times, the Press and The Post, as well as Neighbourly.
Eddy Whatt, managing partner at media agency Sneakers Media says it’s been a challenging few weeks.
"There are still large audiences in New Zealand that get their news from TV at 6pm and having more than one option is great for a democracy like ours," Whatt said.
"Time will tell if the quality will continue at the level we have come to expect. We wish Stuff the very best in this endeavour."
Industry body IMANZ (Independent Media Agencies NZ it's been an incredibly tough time in New Zealand media in recent weeks, with a succession of announcements across various news companies that ultimately means fewer journalists providing the essential service of a healthy fourth estate.
“(The) announcement that Stuff will be stepping up to take on the 6pm TV news bulletin broadcast for Warner Bros. Discovery is incredibly welcome news for the industry," said Kath Mitchell, general manager.
"It means some jobs will be saved and, importantly, it maintains competition in the TV broadcast news space.
"This news will be celebrated by our IMANZ members, who value very highly the power of great journalism to connect with Kiwi audiences.
"We also need to acknowledge that the underlying market conditions that have brought our local media ecosystem to this crossroads have not been addressed, and the various stakeholders across government, media, tech platforms, advertisers and their agencies have work to do to ensure the health of the sector moving forward.
"Today though, I commend Sinead Boucher and her team at Stuff for another incredibly bold move in their already storied history. They are certainly flying the flag for Kiwi journalism."
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