The latest shocking blow comes in the news that Warner Bros Discovery plans to shut down Newshub, a rebranded version of what most of us grew up knowing as “3 News” – leaving our country with just one English-language TV news team, and none that aren’t owned by the state. This will mean the end of the flagship 6pm bulletin and redundancies for more than 200 staff, many of whom will probably leave the journalism profession for good.
And who could blame them? Journalism globally and in New Zealand has suffered in recent decades, with hundreds of reporters filing their last stories and not being replaced. There were 1,635 people who listed their profession as “journalist” in the 2018 census – down about 51% from the count in the year 2000. That number undoubtedly includes a wide range of people who are not paid full-time reporters.
To be accurate, left-leaning journalism has suffered in recent decades. Right-leaning media, including radio and television, are thriving.
Newshub’s demise is another flashpoint in this slow crisis. The 6pm bulletin has always existed as a kind of rebellious sibling to the more buttoned-down stylings of 1 News, the flagship news program of state-owned but commercially run broadcaster TVNZ. Whereas 1 News generally had a higher audience, Newshub had far more personality, and seemed far more eager to break agenda-setting stories.
In my years working in the parliamentary press gallery, it was Newshub that I anxiously watched at 6pm, worried that my friends down the corridor would ruthlessly scoop me. Political editor Tova O’Brien rightly made international headlines for her Jami-Lee Ross interview in 2020 and this team seemed to receive more leaks than Wellington’s ageing pipes network, with the recurring phrase “Newshub understands” often setting off a process that would eventually see someone resign.
The above is a prime example of why the MSM is in the gutter – journalists who are more interested in making a name for themselves amongst their peers.
[…] A shift in audiences away from television has contributed to this demise. Television news is expensive and difficult to make well, as many print outlets have found in their own forays into video journalism. Online ads might just not be able to fund good, TV-style journalism in a country of our size.
And why has there been an audience shift? Because of the MSM’s refusal to adapt, their left-leaning bias and their we-know-better-than-you attitude.
But it is still TV which defines the political conversation, and can so often take what would be a ripper newspaper story and make it a proper national scandal. Online news will fully replace this function at some point – but it is nowhere near managing that yet.
Which is a fair point. The internet can’t compete with TV and radio on a social level and will never be able to.
Please allow me to put on my armchair media-producer’s hat. Here’s what I would have done that I believe would have saved Newshub.
Firstly I would have sacked all those that were in it just to make a name for themselves. You know the ones I’m talking about.
Next I would have picked the three top issues of the day and for the first five minutes, presented the facts, and only facts: who, what, when, why. After that, a five-minute ad break. Then an in-depth analysis of each of topic. And not opinion, but analysis and 10–15 minutes on each topic, depending. And use the rest of the time for sports, etc.
Take the smoking legislation for example. Where was the analysis? Where was the examination of the evidence on both sides?
The beauty about this is it would steal audience from TV One. Imagine someone sitting down at the usual time to watch The Chase with family. News comes on. They watch the headlines, then, switch over to Newshub to see an in-depth analysis of the headlines, with no personalities and no journalists trying to make a name for themselves.
Oh, and I’d cut the Maori crap. If I were running a Maori-only station, I wouldn’t sprinkle the news with English crap, so why shouldn’t it be the same here?
