RNZ won’t win young listeners through radio, says new chairperson

Thursday, 2 July 2026

RNZ’s new board chairperson Brent Impey says he doesn’t expect young people to be listening to the state broadcaster on the airwaves, instead believing there are other ways to help bolster the network’s stagnating audience.

Impey started in the role this week, having been announced as board chairperson by Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith in late May.

A well-respected media operator with a business background, Impey has been on the board of RNZ for about 18 months. He was chief executive of MediaWorks earlier in his career.

He starts his tenure at a challenging time for RNZ, which has faced political scrutiny from the coalition government and has struggled to maintain its audience against commercial competitor Newstalk ZB.

But he’s also stepping up at a crucial time given he will oversee the appointment of a new chief executive when outgoing boss Paul Thompson leaves in December.

Speaking to The Post from inside RNZ’s new studios above TVNZ in central Auckland, Impey acknowledged that he was not happy with RNZ’s ratings as they currently were.

“The current listenership to RNZ National is 492,000. We've set a goal of 520,000 to be achieved this year,” he said.

“If you consider that the programme appeals to people over the age of 50, who are the hardest to shift in terms of their listening habits, it is actually quite a challenging goal.”

Asked how RNZ might get younger listeners tuning in, Impey said: “I don't think you do, in terms of radio.”

While he described radio as a “cockroach” industry - in that it managed to survive despite the rapid advance of other technologies - he questioned why younger audiences would choose to listen to RNZ National.

“You're not expected to listen to RNZ National. How are we going to get you? Podcast strategy is one way.”

He continued: “I think there are different ways of reaching the audience. If we look at it from a taxpayer point of view, [we’ve] got to reach as many people as possible.”

The example that Impey used was that of a Pasifika family of eight living in South Auckland, where the parents both have three jobs.

“I struggle to find out what RNZ does for those people. How are we going to address it? They’re not going to listen to programs that appeal to 50 plus. What is the opportunity? Well, the primary one is podcasting. We've got to make sure that that is relevant and a real lesson in this space is [to] target quality.”

Impey, asked why he was the right person to lead RNZ’s board as it strives to improve audience, said: “I'm not sure I am the best person, but I was called by the minister to see if I would take on the role, and he made it very clear what their goals were around RNZ National’s performance, around trust, and around digital numbers.”

RNZ has recently made changes to its on-air programming in the face of declining ratings. Most prominently, it brought former TVNZ reporter and presenter John Campbell in as the new co-host of Morning Report, the network’s flagship breakfast show.

Impey said it would be “inappropriate” for the board to have a say on what presenters should front each show, believing that was the job of management.

However, he said he hoped Morning Report’s numbers would improve as a result of Campbell’s appointment. “If they don't, you then ask management to come up with a review plan,” said Impey, who confessed to having “become” a Morning Report listener due to his role with the network.

Not long after Campbell joined the network, the new Morning Report co-host faced criticism from ACT Party leader David Seymour - a shareholding minister of RNZ - who said that should have been 'out of the question' given 'the kinds of things' Campbell had previously written.

Seymour also took aim at RNZ more broadly for its general direction, particularly under outgoing chief executive Paul Thompson.

At the time, the then-board chair Jim Mather said RNZ's focus and purpose was to provide 'fair, accurate and independent' news and current affairs, 'not to accommodate political preference'.

Impey, who was a board member at the time, said he agreed with RNZ’s decision to release a public statement pushing back on Seymour’s remarks. He said it would have been wrong to have condemned the remarks in any stronger terms.

“One of the challenges in this space, and when you're dealing with political figures, is how far do you go? You've got to have an ongoing relationship. So, I thought the way we did it was classy and respectful. I thought it was good.”

The broader point is that some, Seymour included, perceive RNZ as a whole to have a left-wing bias.

Impey does not dispute that is how the network is seen but believed that presented an opportunity.

“The opportunity is to be able to gain trust from people who might be in the centre or who are looking for both sides of the argument [and] different analyses of the same argument,” he said.

Where Impey did see eye-to-eye with Seymour was around the proposed abolition of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, which he said had become redundant.

“Because of the development of social media … it's hard to justify its continued existence,” he said.

“You're able to go and set up - what's it called - Reality Check Radio, and you're able to go and say what you like. Is it any different from what someone says on Facebook? What's the difference? So, what's the point of seeking to regulate them? What's the point any more of having a government body?”

Impey believed an external media ombudsman could be established to help address complaints that individual organisations had been unable to answer, but that media companies should be able to self-regulate.

“In our case, because we're public media, we have got to be able to have a very transparent and open complaints process, so that again the public can trust if they put in a complaint that it's going to be dealt with properly.”

Impey said the search for a new chief executive was already under way, but he couldn’t say if anyone had been approached at this point.

“The intention is that, say, two of the two leading candidates will be interviewed by the board, who will make the ultimate decision [in] probably September-ish, I would think.”