Very fair point. Talk is cheap…
NZ news orgs willingly put content on social media as that’s increasingly where viewers are especially young viewers
They know if they don’t - they be left behind
That’s exactly the case NuStraya. Developers own the Flower Street site with bulldozers at the ready the second the lease runs out in 2025.
Do I recall Jacinda Ardern had some kind of media reform on the agenda, but Hipkins canned it when he became PM to refocus on the bread and butter issues around cost of living etc?
Believe that was the proposed TVNZ-RNZ merger, yes.
Patrick Gower, for the first time (ever), appeared on TVNZ this morning, speaking on Newshub’s closure.
Well they’re damned if they do, and damned if they don’t…
I reckon news orgs the world over need to be creative about this. Why not buy some digital advertising screens around the big cities, and show headlines on them?
LBC in the UK (think Newstalk ZB with British accents) does this and it’s very effective (though admittedly their owners are also an outdoor advertising company… a bit like MediaWorks! God, what a missed opportunity…)
If memory serves, Today FM was doing this before they shut down on OOH advertising (with Mediaworks assets obvioisly).
It was saying a hook line eg. “Mark and Leah are talking has NZ gone woke enough…join the discussion”. Or something similar.
I’ve noticed TVNZ cricket do similar this summer online, with updated scores and highlights incorporated into web sidebar ads.
See, I think the problem is that Today were using clickbait lines… in real life! That doesn’t work. It barely works online! No, I’m thinking put up actual news headlines, like this:
You’ll see the ‘global’ wordmark at the top of the screen - they own both the ad space and the radio station, so it’s obviously much easier for them… but there’s nothing stopping other news orgs doing the same. They’d just have to get the credit card out - but I think it’s a gamble worth trying.
Now that is absolute genius. More of this, please.
This sort of thing has been happening for some time, if it was more effective we’d see more of it - and clearly didn’t help TODAY fm in NZ.
Channel 7
News / Daily Telegraph
Flash did some great mobile ones when they launched.
When Junkee was owned by oOh! they used to stick catchy headlines on billboards too (can’t find any examples, but these give you an idea)

Have also seen digital billboards here in Brisbane for 9 News where it promotes a feature story for the 6pm news, but can’t find any pictures.
Good photos, thanks for putting them up. I will say, most of these are basically just slightly tailored adverts for 7 News/9 News/whatever.
What I’m thinking is more along the lines of boards actually showing headlines that change throughout the day. No regurgitating clickbait from the websites - I’m talking actual headlines, almost like a real life news ticker.* You sometimes see things like this at train stations or airports.
Might be something of a loss leader, but it would at least promote the news orgs/raise mindshare.
*and on that note I once saw exactly that… at a McDonald’s, of all places!
Yeah, but then the punters still have to tune in… and they don’t seem to want to.
Well it’s just one part of a multi-faceted strategy () - ideally you’d also go big on the podcasts, website, etc… i know everyone hates this phrase, myself included, but digital-first.
[The Hui] - which livestreams on ThreeNow and airs on both Three and Whakaata Māori later in the week - has NZ On Air funding secured through to the end of 2024 and Newshub’s owner Warner Bros Discovery NZ said it would continue to provide studio support to The Hui until then.
This is interesting. I’ll be extremely surprised if it continues on Three - never mind from their studios - come 2025. Maybe TV1 or Whakaata Māori could pick it up? Or maybe a web show…
NZHerald is reporting that one of the top Murdoch execs has arrived in NZ to meet with Prime Minister Luxon. What could this mean do you think?
Exactly. That is why for decades most countries had legislation limiting foreign ownership of major television channels. If a company contributes nothing to the local creative industry then it contributes nothing at all, however much profit it makes for it’s shareholders.
Hopefully very little!
God help you all if the Murdoch’s find their way in.
Social media giants attract vast amounts of attention. They offer news publisher vasts amounts of traffic as a result of that.
Publishers make no money from their posts because Facebook doesn’t need them. The audience stays with Facebook even if news goes away - as has been proven in Canada.
If the audience doesn’t worth your product and will accept cheap fluff in substitute, then that’s a fundamental issue with how the public values your work.
If the public doesn’t value the news in commercial terms, then that’s not Facebook’s fault.
News UK has partnered with a local TV operator which has extended the TalkTV brand’s reach. News Australia could be reportedly considering a comparable venture in New Zealand, where Sky News Australia might assume control of Newshub or leverage its staff to restart news operations under the News, Talk, or Sky News banners which could entail producing bulletins for Three and Sky Open under terms akin to those presently governing Newshub’s operations.