RNZ boss Paul Thompson sets out how it could spend its $26 million budget boost

Monday, 8 May 2023

RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson discusses its big budget boost.

RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson admits to being “a bit disappointed” the Government decided to shelve its proposed merger with TVNZ.

But he says he is excited that some of the funding the Government had earmarked for the new public media entity will be redirected to RNZ to boost its own operations.

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson announced last month that RNZ’s annual funding would increase by just under $26 million a year, or about 54%, over the next four years.

Jackson has since walked back a statement – which Thompson said had come as a bit of a surprise –that $12m of the annual increase would be used to fund a “new digital platform”.

“It's clear that what the ministers are looking for us to do is to innovate around digital content,” Thompson says.

But he says the extra funding wouldn’t be enough money to build a new streaming platform.

RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson describes the extra funding as a “once in a generation” opportunity.

Nor would there be any purpose in RNZ ploughing its resources into areas where the media sector is currently strong, for example by trying to replicate Stuff or the New Zealand Herald’s online platforms, he suggests.

There won’t be any big splurge, he signals.

“This is almost a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to set RNZ up for the future and we need to be able to make sure that we're using every dollar very thoughtfully.

“We can't make a mistake of pushing all of that new funding into new operational expenditure, because we have big capital development needs.”

RNZ’s offices in Wellington are up to scratch, but others need work, chief executive Paul Thompson says.

Jackson’s office would not immediately release a letter of expectation that he sent to RNZ last month outlining his expectations for the funding, and National Party broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee says not much information has been provided about what she said seemed an “astronomical increase”.

But instead of anything very shiny and new, Thompson says RNZ will need a chunk of the funding to strengthen its existing technology, improve its offices and “just make sure that we have enough people and resourcing capability to deliver our existing charter”.

RNZ hasn't been in a position to make sure that the working environment for its staff is adequate, he admits.

It has had some water-tightness issues at its office in Auckland and would need to decide on its options before that lease is up in a couple of years, he says.

“We need to have a good hard think about whether that building can be repurposed to be a better place for our people to work, and if that's not the case, then we're going to have to potentially look at finding another home.

National Party broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee describes RNZ’s funding increase as “astronomical”, but says it needs more information to make a call on whether it is good value.

“Then through our regional centres, we have buildings that need a ‘bit of love’ and investment to get them up to a good base standard to make sure that they're a good, safe, positive place for our people to work.”

Another big portion of the funding will be applied to building new audiences and “connecting with people who don't connect with us at the moment”, he says.

Audiences with which RNZ is not strong at the moment include New Zealanders of Asian descent, Pacific audiences, youth and regional New Zealand, “so there's quite a lot of work in that bucket”, he says.

But there is no single, big ambitious plan in the wings to capture the ears of the nation’s youth.

“It's a really tough nut to crack, and we have to be realistic about that,” Thompson says.

“I suspect the opportunity around younger audiences is going to be more collaborative than RNZ ‘piling into it’.

“I think it's probably a case of lots of really, small initiatives, trying some things, and actually hiring younger people to do that work rather than expecting younger people to relate to content produced by other generations.”

Already more than half of the interactions that RNZ has with audiences are through media platforms other than its own and Thompson says he hopes it can build on its policy of “radically sharing” its content.

Thompson says if he had one concern about the debate over the public media merger it was that it exposed some “binary views” that what made public media stronger made the rest of the media weaker.

“I think we've got more in common. If you think about how we need to think about our journalism in new ways to build more public trust, that's an industry issue, it's not an RNZ issue or a TVNZ issue or a Stuff issue,” he says.

“If you look at our work force planning, we just don't have enough new people coming through representing the current demographics of New Zealand; these are wider issues.

“Countries with strong public media systems tend to have strong media systems and tend to have strong levels of trust, not only in the media – all media – but also in their democracy. There's an opportunity for New Zealand, I think.”

Thompson wouldn’t say whether he could put his hat in the ring to succeed Simon Power who is due to step down as chief executive of TVNZ at the end of June, saying he had “no comment to make on any role apart from the one I’m doing now and I’m focused on doing the best job I can as we reinvigorate RNZ”.