Newshub collapses, and two of the most important news brands at TVNZ follow a week later. Duncan Greive assesses what we lose, and the miserable response of our leaders.

What we know is this. At TVNZ today meetings were held with teams that produce Sunday, Fair Go, Re: News and the midday and late night news bulletins. They were told that TVNZ is proposing that Sunday, Fair Go and those bulletins will cease from May, while Re: News will lose its entire leadership team. Let’s survey what that means.

• We lose Sunday. It’s the country’s flagship current affairs programme – longform, often investigative work which ranks among the most important journalism we produce.
• We lose Fair Go, a show that epitomises this country and acts as a pop culture consumer watchdog.
• The live ability to respond to unfolding events shrinks drastically
• The leadership of Re: News goes too, and with it the opportunity to learn from a small, agile, digital-first team that had much to teach the parent which incubated it.

It has, understandably, hit the fabled TVNZ newsroom incredibly hard. A friend texted me this morning: “Everyone is asking ‘what does TVNZ stand for?’ What is its purpose?’” That’s a fair question to ask. I spoke to an ex-TVNZ staffer who said “You used to write ‘TV is dead’ – it wasn’t true then – but we just saw it get its face blown off.” This is the combined load of the loss of Newshub in its entirety last week, and the decimation of its most hallowed teams at TVNZ.

When trying to weigh the loss, I keep thinking about Kristin Hall’s story for Sunday about the motels in Rotorua. It was vivid, beautifully shot, courageous journalism which exposed a beloved charity founder as behaving appallingly towards the very people he was meant to serve. I wrote at the time about what it uncovered “allegations of Black Power members working, of guards having sexual relations with vulnerable tenants. Of a pregnant woman in labour being tossed from her sister’s unit to go through the early stages of childbirth in her car, only to lose the baby two weeks later.” Not everything Sunday did was this impactful, but sometimes it was. 

There is enormous public good in having this man’s behaviour exposed. If you’re a bad actor in New Zealand, you should be thrilled right now. Rest easy – we’re getting rid of our investigative TV reporters. 

This shows the pure ignorance at the heart of the shrugging response of our prime minister – there is not a demand problem, simply a revenue problem for media. What he is saying here shouldn’t be missed – the “leave it to the market” idea was not considered acceptable for Air NZ, the airline he once ran. It has repeatedly been bailed out by the government, because it was considered unacceptable for a country to lack a national carrier. We are staring down the loss of almost 20% of the country’s news media jobs in a little over a week – but this is not considered important enough for any kind of intervention. News – the chief way we find out what is happening in our country – is fine to just vanish.

That the job losses at TVNZ arrive a week after the elimination of Newshub makes them land even harder, in part because they spell the end for TV current affairs for mass audiences. This work, its scope, its impact – this is what TV is about. If you have to cut 10% of your staff, this seems like the last place you’d look. Not just because of its vital role in scrutinising our society, but because it still rates incredibly well.

Last November, for example, Sunday drew 470,000 viewers, making it the third-most popular show on television. Fair Go was no slouch either, drawing 420,000 of its own. Ratings are revenue in television – making the decision more inscrutable. And as far as innovation goes – it wasn’t only older linear audiences it impacted. An episode cut for YouTube has over 100,000 views, proving that digital audiences are moved by this work too.

Fair Go was a wholly different type of show, one which for decades had taken an investigative approach to consumer rights, making it a kind of people’s small claims court. It too is wildly popular, and had a similarly spectral influence on business and government. The conclusion to a Fair Go story was very frequently a resolution in the complainants favour, and companies large and small changed their procedures and posture as a result. Again, if you’re ripping people off – open a beer – your chance of getting shamed on national TV just plummeted.

And how about Re: News, a youth brand that prospered in recent years, netting an extraordinary 11 Voyager nominations in 2023. It had cohered into a differentiated and vibrant identity, making content for younger audiences which took TVNZ’s brand and values and made them sing in new formats. It represented an investment in the future, and hope. 

While it survives, it does so without its leader or visionary editor – and with them goes any serious belief that this could teach the wider newsroom about the ways of digital first. Of innovation, as our politicians keep preaching, as if it never occurred to those working in news media. This is not the first time TVNZ has blinked on a promising youth-focused project. Not even the first time in the past year.

In a statement, TVNZ CEO Jodie O’Donnell said: “We remain committed to delivering the most trusted and watched news and current affairs for New Zealand audiences, and what that looks like will change as we shift to a digital-first model.” It’s hard to see how trust will be increased through this, nor audiences retained with the loss of two of its highest-performing brands. And the shift to a digital-first model will be difficult to maintain without the leadership of your digital-first youth brand.

To be fair to TVNZ, its accounts are dire. It is spending more than its making, and has no reasonable expectation of that changing in the immediate term. There are no good cuts. But surely of the 250+ staff which remain in the news department, the 6pm bulletin might have been retained without quite so many to assemble it? Ex-TVNZ sources suggest it retains an unimaginable power within the organisation – it appears that gravity has meant its staffing has been protected at the expense of some other teams.

So here we are. A week on from the wholesale loss of Newshub, we contemplate the loss of the most powerful investigative journalism, consumer protection and youth focused news on its rival. It makes me think we’re not a serious country. We have courts, hospitals, schools, cops… but we increasingly lack for news.

Where does that leave TVNZ? It looked like it was a vibrant place for local and international content, held together with a spine of news and current affairs. Now it looks like a sales operation where everything else is just inventory.

I know this is not true. From young grads to senior leadership, the people I know at TVNZ are among the most committed and passionate people in the New Zealand media. They’re number one, they take that seriously, but not for granted. Those who survived today’s cuts are aching for their colleagues. And the company’s board and leadership will be hurting too. Still, this feels like the wrong move at the wrong time, that it says something fundamental about its priorities as an organisation. 

The only faint hope is that when combined with the complete elimination of Newshub, that it forces a response from the government, or its agencies. Based on what we’ve seen so far, that seems increasingly unlikely. Instead, let’s just chalk this up as another win for the bad guys. There’s a few hundred less looking for you now.

The long-running investigative news show will come to a close in May, bringing to an end more than two decades of high impact stories.

It’s been confirmed that TVNZ’s news show Sunday will end in May, making the end of primetime investigative journalism on our screens. 

“As their meeting has concluded I can confirm that a proposal has been presented which could result in the cancellation of Sunday,” said a spokesperson for the national broadcaster. “As other meetings are ongoing, I cannot comment further at this stage.”

It’s been reported that Sunday, along with Fair Go and TVNZ’s late night news bulletin, will be pulled off the air in just two months time – earlier than the expected end of Newshub – and staff were told of the news today during closed doors meetings. Dozens of journalists and producers are set to lose their jobs. The fate of the youth-oriented Re: News platform remains to be seen, but it is anticipated that job losses will come from there as well. 

Fair Go is an institution, but it’s the end of Sunday that hurts the most in a quickly dissolving media landscape. While other shows have come and gone – like Three’s short-lived 3rd Degree – Sunday has been a current affairs fixture on free to air since 2002. Over the years, it has ensured that important and otherwise unreported stories were given airtime. 

Former prime minister Helen Clark called the news “disgraceful”, Labour leader Chris Hipkins urged action from the government, while journalists from other outlets have expressed shock and upset at the move.

It’s no secret that long form journalism is expensive and time consuming, but Sunday’s impact has consistently permeated far beyond its evening weekend time-slot.

Here are just a few highlights from two decades of TVNZ’s Sunday. 

The golden mile

Described by The Spinoff’s Duncan Greive as a “bombshell” piece of investigative journalism “so powerful it bends the entire news agenda to address it”.

This 2022 investigation by Kristin Hall took an unprecedented look at the state of homelessness along the main stretch of Rotorua. It showed how the country’s homelessness crisis had reached a critical boiling point through the use of motels as emergency accommodation. 

As noted by Greive at the time, the investigation, which ran for about 30 minutes, was almost more of a short documentary than a segment from a current affairs show. 

But perhaps most crucially, the story didn’t just air on a Sunday nights and then vanish. It generated multiple follow-up reports from across all major news networks, and prompted government intervention. A month later, every Rotorua mayoral hopeful, most prominently the eventual winner Tania Tapsell, focused their campaigns heavily on the issue of homelessness as a result of this investigation. 

The Gaza Strip in 2002

Sunday’s first ever story of its first ever episode – and the first time a New Zealand crew had been allowed into the Gaza Strip.

The award-winning story looked at Palestinian suicide bombers and the families left behind after terror attacks. “This was the start of a journey which would take us to the occupied Bank and Gaza in search of answers as to why someone… could be driven to turn herself into a human bomb,” said former Sunday reporter Cameron Bennett. This story might be 22 years old but it’s still particularly relevant today.

Reflecting on his time with the programme, including as host, in 2022, Bennett said: “I feel very fortunate to have been part of that golden era. The Sunday lens was wide.”

Agenda-setting access to Gloriavale

Everyone knows about Gloriavale now, but in 2007 it was far more of a mystery. “Everywhere we turned we were gob-smacked by the bizarre way of life,” said reporter Janet McIntyre, reflecting on her time reporting at the commune. “Mass prayer rituals, women consigned to silence and subservience, large families living in cramped quarters, young children in regimented work programmes.”

Sunday gained exclusive access to the shady leader of the cult, Hopeful Christian, and McIntyre said she was shocked he chose to sit down with her. McIntyre described having to wear a full-length dress in order to be allowed in, and recalled being labelled a “prostitute” for wearing make-up in the commune.

In the years since, the treatment of those living at Gloriavale has been more widely scrutinised, with serious allegations levelled at those in positions of power.

The 2019 Christchurch terrorist attack

A show like Sunday usually involves months of intense planning before an investigation can go to air. But in 2019, days after the terror attack on two Christchurch mosques, Sunday’s team went to air with a show pulled together in two days.

“That night we gave Kiwis a raw, intense snapshot of what had happened in the chaotic hours following the terrorist attack,” reporter Jehan Casinader, who had been sent to cover the events in Christchurch, said. 

“Sunday isn’t just about facts – we put real people at the centre of our stories and help them to connect with the audience. The terrorist attack was a once-in-a-decade story that will leave a mark on us for years to come.”

The Rainbow Warrior bomber

In 2015, John Hudson scored an exclusive interview with Jean-Luc Kister, the man who planted the bombs that sank the Rainbow Warrior 30 years earlier.

“Many times I think about these things because, for me, I have an innocent death on my hands,” Kister said during the interview, in which he also described the operation as a failure. ”For us it was just like using boxing gloves in order to crush a mosquito. It was a disproportionate operation, but we had to obey the order, we were soldiers.”

Reflecting on his time with Kister, Hudson said: “He told me he had been involved in many special operations over the years but sinking the Rainbow Warrior was the only one he truly regretted… Jean-Luc was impressive – softly spoken with steely blue eyes and in 2015, still active in the French military.”

Lake Alice Hospital 

A three-part investigation into the Lake Alice psychiatric facility and Dr Selwyn Leeks who subjected child patients at the hospital to electric shock therapy without anaesthetic as punishment. This 2007 story, which involved hidden camera interviews with Dr Leeks, would help raise awareness of serious abuse at the facility.

It would take until just this year for survivors to receive an apology.

An unprecedented visit to North Korea

Few people, let alone journalists, ever have the opportunity to step foot in North Korea. But, in 2018, the Sunday team visited. 

“It took 18 months for Sunday producer Louisa Cleave, cameraman Martin Anderson and me to gain the necessary permissions to travel there to film a group of NZ birdwatchers tracking down migratory godwits,” recalled journalist Mark Crysell for Sunday’s 20th anniversary programme.

It may not have been as agenda-setting as some of the other historic Sunday pieces, but the fact alone of being able to visit North Korea with a full crew is worth remembering. “When we finally arrived, it felt like we’d been sealed inside a Tupperware container,” Cyrsell said. “We were filming in some of the most sensitive and remote parts of a country that is considered a rogue nuclear state, places where no foreigner had ever been.”

The final Paul Holmes interview

A powerful argument for longform interviewing on television. It’s so rare these days to see time being devoted to a one-on-one interview with a single subject, at least in New Zealand. In 2013, two weeks before he died, Sir Paul Holmes was awarded a knighthood and granted his last ever interview to Sunday reporter Janet McIntyre. 

A full 20 minutes was dedicated to the wide-ranging interview, where Holmes was brutally honest in answering probing questions about his controversial career. Maybe it’s just because I’m a media geek, but I distinctly remember watching this interview as a teen in awe.

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