TVNZ boss fronts on proposal to axe Fair Go, Sunday, Midday and Tonight

Friday, 8 March 2024

TVNZ chief executive Jodi O’Donnell says the Government is “very quickly being aware” of the situation confronting the media, in the wake of cuts at TVNZ and television channel Three.

The state-owned broadcaster confirmed on Friday that it was proposing to bin current affairs shows Sunday and Fair Go and its Midday and Tonight news bulletins as part of its plans to axe up to 68 jobs in a cost-cutting move.

That came eight days after TV3-owner Warner Bros Discovery announced consultations on the complete closure of its Newshub news and current affairs arm and any other local programming that was not supported by partners or funding bodies.

O’Donnell said it had been a difficult day for TVNZ staff “with some incredibly tough conversations for many around the business, including the newsroom”.

Staff had been “pretty sad and upset” at meetings on Friday and she was also very upset and angry they had first learned details of the cuts through other media, she said.

However, O’Donnell said she did not believe TVNZ could have handled the announcement differently, given the legal process it had to follow.

TVNZ’s Fair Go team posted on the show’s Facebook page that they were devastated to learn of the plan to axe their show.

“For 47 years we've been battling for New Zealanders and we are not ready for that to end. Our next challenge is working out how to keep going for you,” they said.

Former prime minister Helen Clark tweeted that it was “disgraceful” Sunday and Fair Go were going, suggesting cuts could be made instead to management or office space.

O’Donnell said Midday, Tonight, Fair Go and Sunday were programmes with “a long and celebrated legacy”.

“The proposals we have presented in no way relate to the immense contribution of the teams that work on these shows and the significant journalistic value they’ve provided over many years.

“Unfortunately, we need to reduce our costs to ensure the business remains sustainable. These aren’t decisions we make lightly, and significant analysis has gone into the proposals,” O’Donnell said.

TVNZ remained committed to delivering the most trusted and watched news and current affairs, but what that would look like would change as it shifted to “a digital-first model”, she said.

“Our priority is our people and supporting them through this process.”

O’Donnell told The Post last month that TVNZ planned to become “digital first” in four or five years’ time and was also preparing for the time it would be online-only.

But she said TVNZ’s decision of which shows to cut was not related to a digital-first strategy, but reflected its current challenge was to reset its cost base.

“Unfortunately, long-form investigative journalism is incredibly expensive.”

The state-owned broadcaster said just under half of the overall proposed job cuts were in its news arm.

For context, 40% of TVNZ’s staff were employed in its newsroom, a spokesperson said.

“We won’t be providing a breakdown by department or team out of respect for individuals’ privacy,” she said.

There are continued reports that TVNZ’s Re: News online platform may also be axed.

But O’Donnell said cutting its 6pm news bulletin from an hour to 30 minutes was “not something we are looking at”.

“There are no other cuts planned at this stage,” she said.

Myles Thomas, director of the Better Public Media Trust lobby group, suggested on Friday that the Government could fund TVNZ either directly or through a levy, to avoid job cuts.

'Sadly, the first things to go are the nice-to-haves such as current affairs and programming for niche audiences,“ he said, referring to Sunday, Fair Go and Re: News.

But it was otherwise inevitable that more cuts would need to be made as TVNZ's commercial income shrank, he said, questioning “what would be next”.

“TVNZ's annual budget is roughly $300 million. For the cost of just $5 a month per capita, New Zealand taxpayers could fully fund TVNZ so that it need no longer rely on any advertising at all,' he said.

Options included a new levy on “digital services”, or on internet providers through the Telecommunications Development Levy, he said.

Such a move would help privately-owned media firms, as they would receive all the advertising TVNZ currently received, Thomas said.

O’Donnell said the question of whether TVNZ should be state-funded was a matter for ministers, but admitted the model of it being a state-owned, commercially-funded organisation was becoming more challenging.

TVNZ has been projecting a loss of $15.6m for the year to end of June, but that was prior to the current consultations on redundancies.

O’Donnell said in relation to its current financial guidance that the situation was volatile.

“All media organisations are really impacted with the economic conditions.”

Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee had been given an “indication” of the cost-cutting proposals a week ago, she said.

Lee said on Thursday that she was preparing a paper for Cabinet that would look at “ways that potentially we could help the media sector”.

She would not say whether funding TVNZ was one of the options, but emphasised the obstacles to major government intervention.

“It is very difficult. We cannot interfere in editorial-decision making and there are finite amounts of funding available,” she said.