NZ Media Shake-Up: Why New Zealand NFPs and charities must take notice of shock media moves

Journalism is a craft that unites.  

The events you are sent to almost every day can be hugely traumatic and you are often heading into the worst day of someone else’s life when you’re sent to an incident. 

It bonds those who do the job. We have a fellow respect for all past, present and future journalists for the service they have, are or will do in keeping the public informed.  

And this is the long-winded reason why the entire GTM team and I are devastated to see the news coming out of the New Zealand media landscape right now. 

For those catching up, one of TWO TV news broadcast channels recently announced their closure effective from June this year, which rocked the nation to know there would be only one TV news station they could pop on at 6pm every night to get their news. 

Then only last week, it was announced that the one TV station left is cutting close to 70 jobs and four major news programmes are getting the axe.  

We have clients who joke with us that there will be ‘nothing left’ in the next few months if we aren’t careful. 

Now in a democracy with Government-funded media platforms, we know this will never be the case. But as a NZ NFP or charity looking to use the outlets as a vessel for your messaging – less media means getting your pitch right has never been more critical.  

Less staff in newsrooms means less time to pull together the important stories of the day so having strongly packaged media stories to take direct to journalists will be a godsend for their unimaginably hectic days.  

I had a Newshub journalist only months ago tell me they were feeling the heat so much with the staff woes that having stories popped on a plate in front of them with all of the elements would be a saviour and a sure way to get in.  

So now is the time for NZ organisations to get their media strategy locked and loaded – their PR plan has been pushed out the window in the last couple weeks so it’s time to rethink and start again to make sure you get the cut through you want. 

Get clear on your communications objectives – find those compelling case studies who embody the issues that your organisation is solving and there is definitely still hope in landing a broadcast news spot and likely reach a larger audience than ever before.  

Not only that, although any media shake-ups are concerning it shows that globally, the way we consume news is changing from generation to generation. 

So don’t get left behind, diversify your media plan to strike a range of platforms, make it strong with all the right elements and the multi-faceted media landscape is still your playground in kicking your advocacy goals. 

ENDS