NZME confirms journalism jobs cut
Wednesday, 19 February 2025
It’s been confirmed that 30 roles will be cut at listed multi-media company NZME in an announcement to staff this morning - 20 production staff and 10 reporters.
Media columnist for the Herald Shayne Currie reported at least seven staff had opted for redundancy - including long-time political editor Claire Trevett, deputy business editor Grant Bradley and senior sports writer and columnist Chris Rattue.
Production journalists - copy and layout subeditors and graphic artists roles - were particularly affected by the cuts. In their stead, 14 “desks” would be set up to reduce editorial reliance on them, producing publishing-ready copy across regions or subject areas.
The NZX-listed firm announced last month that it was proposing to cut 38 jobs and reduce the number of stories it published, while putting a greater emphasis on video content.
The cuts as originally proposed would involve the net loss of 14 reporting and other “content generation roles” and 24 roles in editorial production.
The planned restructuring comes in the wake of NZME issuing a profit warning in November, which it attributed to a delayed economic recovery, and amid fading prospects of assistance for the sector from the Government arriving soon.
There are concerns the threat of economic retaliation by US President Donald Trump could scupper the already stalled Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill that the Government had envisaged would help provide a lifeline to the media.
The bill, introduced by the former government, would force internet giants including Google and Meta to agree licensing deals with the media on terms that could ultimately be determined by regulators.
The News Publishers’ Association warned in December that NZME’s cuts were unlikely to be the only ones impacting journalism this year.
NZME is due to release its annual result for the year to the end of December on February 26.
Broker Forsyth Barr is forecasting it will report a 9% increase in its net profit to just over $13 million, following a big drop in profit last year, but that it will cut its dividend by one cent to 8c a share.
It said in November that there were emerging signs then that the advertising market had reached an “inflection point”, but said NZME’s efforts to take out costs had been slower to materialise.