Mediawatch: RNZ flags changes to claw back listeners
RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
It's not news that RNZ National has been losing listeners in recent years.
It's been mostly downhill year-on-year since 2019 when over 616,000 people a week were tuning in.
This year it has dropped to below 470,000.
This week RNZ staff were told that efforts to shore that up have not worked so far - and now there's a new plan underway.
"We now need to take a different approach," RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson said.
RNZ is appointing a Chief Audio Officer to oversee it and targeting half a million RNZ National listeners by November next year - and another 20,000 one year later.
RNZ's target audience will now be "broadly 50-69, male and female" and RNZ National staff will be given data to "better tailor the station to their preferences," Thompson said.
"Growing the presence in Auckland" is also a key part of the new strategy.
RNZ is moving its Auckland operation into TVNZ's central Auckland premises later this year and now plans to host more radio and production roles there.
The new plan is in part influenced by a review carried out by former head of news Richard Sutherland, who left RNZ in July 2023.
"I asked him to be frank and robust, and that is what has been delivered," Thompson said when RNZ released it this week after Official Information Act requests.
Sutherland certainly has.
He warned that if people stop listening it "feeds the idea RNZ is sliding into irrelevance."
"Irrelevant stuff gets switched off," he added.
He said Auckland must be treated as "the strategic centre of gravity" rather than Wellington.
"While the capital remains politically important, the views and preferences of its residents are the tail wagging the RNZ national dog," he wrote.
Sutherland's good news for RNZ that he said it has "strengths that provide a foundation for renewal".
He cited credible news, trust, and recognition - and public service commercial-free content that's available on many platforms and shared with other media.
But he said there was a lack of understanding of the audience within RNZ National as well as a lack of cohesion and urgency.
After candid 'no notes' conversations with around 50 staff, he concluded there was "blameshifting" and "low ambition" among staff.
He also cited a widespread belief that live listening was a "sunset activity" - and that needed to be stamped out from the top at RNZ.
He concluded RNZ National was "trying to please everyone" but it should target people over 50, and primarily 50-69 year olds.
"Nuance can wait," Sutherland said, recognising that approach sounded blunt.
Sutherland also said - very bluntly - "some people should not be on air".
He didn't say who, but he did say RNZ needs one front-rank daytime host from outside urgently - and also an "urgent audit" of its on-air staff.
Sutherland's review says key RNZ National time slots should be refreshed "where existing presenters don't align with the target audience."
RNZ has told staff there will be "a strong focus on lifting on-air standards" and it is expanding presentation training and running more 'air checks' of the existing output.
While some of Sutherland's recommendations align with RNZ's new strategy, RNZ said it was "just one input". The yet-to-be appointed Chief Audio Officer will determine whether Sutherland's other urgings are actioned.
But not for nothing did RNZ pay $30,000 for what Thompson - also RNZ's editor-in-chief - described as "an actionable high-level blueprint to turn the station around".
RNZ's briefing to staff also said the plan is "not about reducing kaimahi numbers".
But it also said "every part of RNZ National needs to work for the available audience - and will be reviewed to ensure that is the case".
"This may mean that some programmes or shows are discontinued."
Sutherland's review recommended
Morning Report
and key staff should relocate fully to Auckland, something RNZ said was already underway.
On-air changes introduced to
Morning Report
this month include shorter news bulletins, more conversational treatments of sport, rural and business news, a weekly chief executive officer interview and sports discussion panel, and a head-to-head with opposing MPs every Wednesday.
The programme now features fewer recorded and live news interviews, though that varies depending on when news breaks and develops.
A sign of further things to come elsewhere on air under the new audio plan, perhaps.
Sutherland urged RNZ's top brass to ignore the criticism and opposition his sweeping changes would inevitably spark.
Mediawatch
asked to speak to Sutherland about his blunt review of his former employer. He deferred to Thompson who also declined.
Storm Day, Accenture Song's NZ Lead.
Photo:
supplied
More than ever, broadcasters seeking to retain or boost audiences need to give them what they want.
But what people expect is harder to gauge now that people can choose from public and commercial radio networks, commercial TV channels, social media platforms, and global video streaming giants like Netflix and Disney+.
Consultancy business Accenture Song has just released its second annual
Brand Experience Gap study
putting numbers on the gap between what 80 different New Zealand businesses promise - and what the punters reckon they deliver.
Out of six different sectors, media and entertainment companies recorded the biggest gap - 79 percent - in the survey of 1500 people.
"The gap is the difference between what a brand promises and what customers actually experience. When the gap is small customers feel valued and are more loyal. And when that gap is wide, trust erodes and people just walk away," Accenture Song's New Zealand lead Storm Day told
Mediawatch
.
The survey does not name specific media outlets or individual scores for them, but Day told
Mediawatch
it covered streaming services, pay TV, free-to-air broadcasters, online news publishers, and radio audio streaming providers.
"The sample is representative of all the major players in New Zealand," she said.
"The industry average across all sectors is sitting at 72 percent - so I'm afraid the media and the entertainment sector is our worst performing one. Seventy-nine percent say that media providers are not delivering on their promises, which is pretty scary."
Most surveys of trust in news and media are based on peoples' perceptions.
Respondents' disapproval of specific practices - such as oft-cited 'sensationalism' - seems to sour their opinion of the entire media.
Likewise, those who get news mixed in with other content via social media are much less likely to trust the news overall.
"I think that's always at play. Audiences don't always separate the ecosystem in the same way that the industry does," Day told
Mediawatch
.
"If they have a bad experience, whether it's with a regulated newsroom or a global online platform, it really does colour how they view the whole sector. It means that regulated media can't rely on standards alone.
"To protect their reputation, they have to keep proving value and trust through the experience they deliver every day.
"That's why it's even more important that we actually deliver on trust and think about the customer, not just standards or regulations."
Day said regularly refreshing content, offering high quality exclusive content, and ease of access across devices were things people cited for securing their loyalty.
A higher number of people said they were getting high quality stuff from our media companies. But the survey also recorded an 81 percent gap in belief that media outlets report with fairness and impartiality.
"The biggest gap was people feeling valued and recognised, which tells us that audiences feel quite anonymous and not engaged. Trust was also really fragile. There was an 84 percent gap around acting with honesty, integrity, and keeping promises.
"For an industry built on credibility, that's a major risk. But it's also a place where decisive action can make a big difference. Things like clickbait and transparency are really key things to address."
Could big changes at RNZ end up widening the 'brand experience' gap?
"Purpose... is a great way to galvanise a business reset. Secondly, so is moving beyond just delivering content to actually genuinely recognising audiences. You can use technology in service of that... to genuinely personalise what we're putting out there and actively engage with people.
"AI can be used to personalise content and discovery - and flag relevant content and programming. And for local broadcasters especially, making your contribution to New Zealand really visible. Telling people what you're doing and how you're doing it... needs to work hand in hand to build that trust and connection with people."
Dr Merja Myllylahti and Dr Greg Treadwell from the AUT's Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy.
Photo:
RNZ / Jeremy Ansell
Does the Accenture Song survey show the media's reputation rises and falls together - and no one outlet could buck the trend on its own anyway?
"I think this sector has had a really tough year. Economic climate as well has a massive influence on the gap. When people are kind of under stress, they really are much more selective about where they spend their money, where they spend their time."
But this week, the authors of the
most comprehensive survey of trust in New Zealand media
said it shows news media can't simply blame 'bad times' and general cynicism for slumping results.
"News isn't just another institution like the state, a corporation or a non-profit organisation," said Greg Treadwell and Merja Myllylahti from Auckland University of Technology's Centre for Journalism, Media And Democracy.
"We found the trajectories of trust levels for other social institutions - governments, business, NGOs - showed clear links to each other as they rose and fell, more or less in sync, over time.
"Trust in news however, has been in its own lane. A fall in trust in government and politics, in other words, is not a predictor of a fall in trust in news," they wrote
in The Conversation
.
"Survey respondents tell us they perceive the news to be politically biased (both left and right), and because too much seems to be opinion masquerading as news.
"It seems the trust problems democracies have with their news services need to be addressed on their own terms, not as part of an overall picture."
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