New Zealand media outlet facing closure gets lifeline from its rival

Country’s largest news publisher to produce Newshub’s daily bulletins, take over its website

- Ong Hui Fang

A New Zealand media outlet that had announced drastic cuts to its news operations due to economic woes has been thrown a lifeline by an industry competitor that will save its news bulletins and website.

On April 10, Warner Bros Discovery confirmed it would close down its New Zealand newsroom, Newshub, including its website, the morning television show and the 6pm news bulletin, resulting in the loss of nearly 300 jobs.

The same day, state-owned television network TVNZ announced its own set of news bulletins and current affairs programme cuts and job losses, prompting alarm over the state of New Zealand's media industry.

But on April 16, New Zealand's largest news publisher Stuff which owns the most number of newspapers in the country and runs its largest news website - announced that it had struck a deal with Warner Bros Discovery to produce its daily bulletins.

In addition, Stuff will take over the Newshub website, albeit with a new name.

While Newshub's newsroom will still close, some of its journalists could move to Stuff to work on the news bulletins.

The two companies said in a joint statement that the new-look, Stuff-made news bulletin at 6pm will commence on July 6, a day after the final Newshub bulletin is broadcast. While the bulletin will be of one hour's duration from Monday through Friday, it will be 30 minutes on the weekend.

Stuff's owner and publisher Sinead Boucher said in the statement that her company's proposal to Warner Bros Discovery was to "deliver high-quality news now and a news product for the future".

"We were deeply aware of the dampening effect the Newshub closure would have on media plurality, and we're very pleased that New Zealanders will be able to have a choice about what news they watch at 6pm," Warner Bros Discovery's senior vice-president Glen Kyne said.