This morning, Wednesday January 22, NZME employees working for radio station Newstalk ZB and print publication the NZ Herald held a meeting around editorial changes which would see around 40 jobs lost. The NZME restructure, its biggest in a decade, NZME editor-in-chief Murray Kirkness said was needed to improve profitability, while also reorganising its newsroom to ensure it reflects continually changing audience demands.
NZME will additionally focus more on video news and journalism and other content that resonates with audiences, particularly subscribers.
As such two vacancies in ZB news would not be filled. A month ago NZME also confirmed it would be closing 14 of its community newspapers. Five of those continue on as independent publications, after they were bought by staff.
In Australia, after Southern Cross Media Group Limited (SCA) decided against a proposed offer from Australian Community Media (ACM) in June 2024, for SCA to acquire certain of their assets to bolster their strategy and position, and then more than 30 editorial jobs being cut in the September alongside a new publishing model, ACM has now told the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) that another nine staff from the print production team will be made redundant.
The MEAA fears that as a result several ACM mastheads, including the Newcastle Herald, Western Advocate and Canberra Times, could be reduced to Saturday-only printed editions.
MEAA acting Chief Executive Adam Portelli called on ACM to consult with its editorial staff about the implications of such a decision on the quality of news:
“AI in Australia is still unregulated, and given Australians want strong laws to manage AI risks, any move by ACM to do this would be out of touch with community expectations.”
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.