The Piano hosted an expert panel to discuss the state of media in Aotearoa, with the strong audience turnout demonstrating how increasingly topical this discourse is. Facilitated by Conan Gray, Journalism lecturer at UC with twenty years of journalism experience, the panel included Paul Thompson, CEO of Radio NZ; Miriyana Alexander, who launched Herald Premium for NZME; Toby Manhire, editor of The Spinoff; and Kamala Hayman, editor of The Press.
Conan got the ball rolling by getting each of the panellist’s take on their highs and lows of the year. Manhire felt that the year in The Spinoff had been volatile, in keeping with the wider media landscape. However, there was an exciting launch of a platform product of news videos targeted towards 18–24-year-olds. Manhire felt that the relatively small size of The Spinoff could be an asset, making them nimble and thus quite optimistic for the future.
Miriyana remarked that whilst changes in the media were both positive and negative, either way they were going to be constant. The need for innovation was something Aotearoa was more than capable of meeting, given our competitive and vibrant media landscape of this country. As a judge of this year’s NZ Voyager Media Awards, she was blown away by the calibre of the nominations and felt this was crucial to celebrate.
Paul, as CEO of a government funded organisation, stressed the responsibility of RNZ to continually innovate ways to communicate to a range of groups across the motu. He echoed Miriyana in reminding us not to take journalism for granted, and that journalists had a duty to work for trust.
Kamala mentioned the results of an AUT survey, finding that trust in media is declining. That said, The Press readers were increasing - somewhat unsurprising as under Kamala’s leadership The Press won Newspaper of the Year four times. She commented on the successful decision to separate The Press from the Stuff website. It highlighted the importance of local journalism and the ongoing demand for it.
Next the panel discussed how their respective organisations had navigated balancing linear and digital coverage, and whether they felt that had been successful. Kamala spoke how their print readership had remained strong, despite predictions otherwise. Miriyana mentioned that the top four newspapers still boast eight hundred thousand readers between them, so there was still a need to focus on them despite the increasing relevance of digital formats.
Toby raised the point that while the readership of print newspapers was still high, the circulation had decreased rapidly in recent years. He spoke of the increasing necessity for paywalls for quality journalism. Miriyana remarked that after a couple of years of planning Herald premium, it was heartening to see their audience valuing quality journalism, and she was pleased that printed subscribers could also access this digital feature. Kamala raised that it was unfortunate to see advertising not flowing to free news. Furthermore, about two billion of the total three billion expenditure on advertising was going offshore to companies such as Google and Meta. She predicted more newspapers would close, yet the engagement with weekend printed newspapers was high.
Paul remarked that while it was tempting to think about online platforms, RNZ needed to consider the needs of their overall audience along with digital demand. They were obliged to keep traditional formats but also continually innovate - especially for younger people who are less engaged with traditional forms of media. He also worried of a split between the well-informed subscribers of paid journalism and large parts of Aotearoa who can’t afford access. This demonstrates a need for a range of community-minded media, provided by organisations such as RNZ.
This struggle for balance begs the question - are we approaching the end of mass media? Advertising has been disrupted significantly by the economic climate, reducing the number of journalism roles and potentially lowering the quality of some media sources. The panel stipulated that media outlets can no longer be everything to everyone - they need to divide and find a niche. There was talk of the potential AI might have to carve up content to different interest groups, as it was difficult for big publishers to be all things to all people.
Toby spoke of The Spinoff’s commercial and membership elements that prompt readers to donate, similar to The Guardian. Unfortunately, one can only ask for donations every so often, and these messages don’t reach a mass audience. In days gone by, there was the shared experience of watching the 6pm news, which is a very democratic idea, as it is far less polarising than the adversarial approach of algorithms. Paul mentioned RNZ’s wire servicing pool, which allows other companies to licence their content. He was pleased that content partners could access RNZ reporting more easily via an online platform.
Conan then asked why there was such a decline in trust in the media, both in Aotearoa and across the globe. Kamala posed that the declining trust was due to some people just ‘eating up the algorithm’. This contributed to a reduced ability to be okay with conflicting views and listening to other voices. Although the amount of information we can access is ever-increasing, so is fragmentation. She also raised that it can be difficult to explain why quality news outlets are quality, i.e. someone consuming news from an unreliable source may have difficulty being convinced to source their information somewhere more reputable. Miriyana said some people were frustrated with the proportion of ‘opinion’ pieces in news publications and stipulated these pieces must be clearly marked. She also said the rise of the attention economy stemming from social media meant that users received trusted content and conspiracy within a single scroll. She also called for the media to be transparent and tell people what they do. She mentioned examples of googling an event in the US wherein all the top results came from government departments instead of the media. This shows just how important critical thinking is to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Next to be discussed was the panel’s take on AI, firstly how the AI summary pulls from websites that receive no benefit or traffic. Toby said clicks have dropped as much as 40% for some outlets since. Miriyana spoke of the need to tell the audience about innovation, observing the Herald should have advertised the functions of the Herald app in more detail. Paul mentioned that the extent to which AI had impacted a news story could be impossible to tell, and that he can’t envisage anyone feasibly regulating that influence in Aotearoa. He wanted RNZ to be less about asking for trust, instead simply being trustworthy. This could be achieved by being transparent about mistakes and thoroughly training journalists. Additionally, independent reviews may increase trust, such as of RNZ’s Gaza coverage, which produced a programme of improvement, particularly around those who RNZ seeks for comment.
Ultimately, the state of Aotearoa’s media remains difficult to predict, but the knowledge of the panel certainly shed light on some of the toughest questions facing the media today.
Catherine
He Hononga | Connection, Ground floor, Tūranga
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