ThreeNews keeps on keeping on

Newsroom

a day ago

Comment: Twelve months is a long time in the TV industry, and it must seem extra long for the small group of former Newshub reporters hired by Stuff to work on the new version of 3 News.
While they were always going to be the backbone of Stuff's TV news operation they have ended up doing pretty much the whole thing – just with a lot less resources than they previously had.
When Stuff took over 6pm, its chief executive Sinead Boucher promised TV3's owner, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that it would benefit from Stuff's expertise.
'We have a proven track record of modernising, changing and being at the edge of what you can do with our own organisation, and we're hungry to bring some of that innovation and freshness to Warner Bros.' she said.
A year on, the opposite seems to have happened. There is no discernible innovation or freshness (apart from some younger reporters) and the breadth of coverage once provided by Newshub has been diminished.
Stuff has failed to harness its major advantage of having more reporters in more locations than any other local media company.
With some exceptions – political reporter Glenn McConnell being one – Stuff reporters either haven't measured up or haven't been available to fill the holes left by the decision to recruit just a handful of Newshub reporters, producers, camera crews and editors.
This is hardly a surprise to anyone in the media world, apart from possibly Stuff's management. In a multimedia environment, producing quality reports for a 6pm TV bulletin still demands a particular skill set.
The small group of experienced Newshub reporters have responded valiantly by lengthening their reports. The duration of many items has increased, possibly even doubled, to fill the 6pm to 7pm hour.
During the week the news team has still been able to produce a reasonable first break (the 12 to 15 minutes before the first commercial) but after that, the offering thins. Irrelevant international content often gets a run to fill space that would have previously been devoted to second-tier, but still important, local stories.
The weekends are particularly weak. It seems only one or two TV reporters are rostered to cover the whole country.
Recently, the Nelson/Tasman floods were covered remotely by the Auckland-based weekend reporter. He did a passable job with poor-quality footage (presumably from Stuff's Nelson Daily Mail) and some interviews done over Zoom. In this particular 6pm bulletin it appeared that not one ThreeNews reporter went to the actual scene of a story.
Over time, this absence, this lack of firsthand observation by a reporter must erode trust in the brand.
By contrast, 1News did have reporters on location in Nelson and other news events that weekend.
When WBD decided to stem its mounting losses and contract out the 6pm bulletin to Stuff there was speculation TVNZ would take the opportunity to cut costs out of 1News given it was no longer facing the same competitive threat.
It seems not to have done that – well, not to the extent it could have.
Politically, that was probably a smart move. That fact it provides a full and comprehensive news service gives TVNZ a strong argument for remaining in public ownership. Act and lobby groups like the Taxpayers' Union periodically call for it to be sold, but Media Minister Paul Goldsmith, who often opines about retaining trust in news being one of his top priorities, is unlikely to be swayed while privately owned media continues to decline.
1News at Six has clearly benefited from WBD's decision to go with a cut-price Stuff product. While the number of people watching linear TV is steadily declining, the numbers watching 1News have increased over the past 12 months. Some of the increase must have come from defecting Newshub/ThreeNews viewers.
The number of people streaming 1News has also jumped but remains small compared to the numbers still watching the broadcast every night.
Some experienced journalists at ThreeNews privately express surprise that TVNZ hasn't gone after its audience more aggressively given its advantage in firepower. They take pride in the resilience shown by the ex Newshub staffers and their ability to operate on a low budget.
On the other hand, TVNZ can afford to take its time. It knows that when a significant story, like a major natural disaster, happens it will have the numbers and the money to overwhelm ThreeNews.
Next year's election will also be a test for ThreeNews/WBD/Stuff. Will they jointly mount a leaders' debate and other political debates? How will they cover election night?
TVNZ will be desperate to show the Government, and all political parties, that it has a vital role to play in the country's democracy and ThreeNews will struggle to match it.
Maybe then Stuff will bring out that innovation and freshness it promised a year ago.