Subj : Paddy Gower calls on Stuff, NZME to help save Newshub To : All From : News Date : Thu Apr 11 2024 12:04 pm Paddy Gower is calling for Stuff, NZME, or Sky to strike a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to save Newshub's 6pm news bulletin. It comes after the broadcaster's announcement yesterday that TV3's morning show AM, Newshub Live at 6pm, and the Newshub website would cease to exist after July 5. Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Gower said he and a group of senior journalists presented Warner Bros. Discovery with a counter proposal to save the 6pm news bulletin. He said the proposal included cutting his own job, but meant there was a way to continue the bulletin after July 5. "It [the counter proposal] looked like the 6pm bulletin, which has been there since 1989, we'd lose a lot of the other programmes, but 6pm, we believed, was where the game is at, there's still an audience there, there's still money there, and we knew that Warner Brothers Discovery would like to continue it if they could find a way." Gower said they offered "a really cut down version" of the newsroom but it wasn't enough. "We took that back to them and said here is a way of saving the 6pm bulletin and saving the cash and the audience we make there, it wasn't enough. "But that doesn't mean that there isn't a chance for someone potentially outside Newshub to come up with this kind of idea and effectively contract it back to Warner Brothers Discovery and that's what I'm asking for today, for Warner Brothers Discovery and perhaps an outside media company [like] NZME or Stuff or some kind of entrepreneur person to get in and do a deal and save the 6pm news bulletin on Three." TVNZ job cuts a 'failure of leadership' - Michael Wood Job cuts at TVNZ are a result of failed leadership, according to E tu negotiation specialist Michael Wood. It was announced yesterday that TVNZ's long-form current affairs show Sunday is being cancelled. On Tuesday, the state broadcaster also confirmed the Midday and Tonight news bulletins were also being axed. The television broadcast of long-running consumer affairs show Fair Go is also ending, but there is a new proposal for the brand to live on, with a new team proposed within the news and current affairs division. Wood said the union is set to launch legal action against TVNZ for the way it has followed certain processes with staff. "Broadly speaking, TVNZ has an agreement with its staff through the union which says that TVNZ will involve staff from the beginning of any change process and not just ask them to respond at the end when the company's decided what direction it wants to go in. "We don't believe that the company has followed that process and we are seeking relief in that respect." Labour, National react to media industry woes National's Chris Bishop said some of the issues within the media landscape are beyond government control and said some views are "not realistic". "Melissa [Lee] is working through what the Government could or might be able to do and looking at the media landscape, but some of these forces are beyond government." He listed the rise of diverse viewing through social media and new platforms as a driving force behind this shift in news consumption. "The old terrestrial TV model is declining, and that's the market doing that, the way in which people view and consume news. "There's this view that government can kind of put their hand up and stop and make everything better, that's actually not realistic. So we just have to look at the whole landscape." Labour's Kieran McAnulty said it's "unlikely" that any government would have been able to save Newshub. Firstly I just wanted to acknowledge this is awful news for all those affected and their families, and I don't want to continue without acknowledging that," he said. He said the Government could have fast-tracked a bill in front of select committee that would force large overseas tech giants to pay for the New Zealand media used on their sites. "That would have sent a pretty big signal, not just on what's in the Bill, but to those advertisers who are now worried about putting money into a platform that is declining." He added the Government needs to send a clear message that it is "backing media" with certainty and confidence. "We're seeing silence and some pretty heartless comments from the minister when this news first came out, that's not going to fill anyone with confidence," McAnulty said. Bishop said Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee comes from a journalistic background and is "really hurting" the same way others in media are. --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Windows/64) * Origin: S.W.A.T.S BBS Telnet swatsbbs.ddns.net:2323 (63:10/102) .