Boggs confirmed to Media Insider that NZME was in discussions with AI firms, including Google, whose content licensing partnership with NZME expires at the end of 2026.
That multimillion-dollar, five-year deal was struck over the tech giant’s use of NZME content for its platforms.
Since then, a range of big tech firms, including Google, Microsoft, Meta and others, have started scraping news websites for content for their AI large language models.
“You use the word scraping, we say they are breaching our copyright,” Boggs said.
“You’ll know what’s happened in the past. It’s moved from big links to our sites, to make sure that our audience comes to us, versus now, they’re not even [being directed to news sites].”
He said audiences were reading news website content within the walls of AI platforms.
“You’ll be lucky to find a link from us. You can squint and maybe see it.”
NZME chief executive Michael Boggs says a number of big-tech firms are breaching the company’s copyright. Photo / Jason Dorday
Boggs said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith supported media firms’ push to negotiate commercial deals and to be recompensed for copyright.
On Ryan Bridge TODAY last week, former Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson said big tech firms were “getting away with … murder”.
“Good journos, like [those] in this newsroom, lose their jobs because of these guys stealing stories all the time, and they’re going, ‘Oh, what’s the point of it all?’”
Goldsmith told Ryan Bridge TODAY that it could be argued there was a breach of copyright, but that would need to be tested in court.
“That’s what copyright law is all about. Now, of course, that’s very difficult when you’re a small New Zealand company versus Meta, and so we’d expect conversations to be had about that,” Goldsmith said.
Boggs said several big tech firms were engaging with NZME “proactively”.
“A number aren’t quite as proactive, so we’re making sure we engage with them.
“Our key focus is on how we extend that Google relationship and actually build relationships with other organisations.”
Boggs also cited new legislation, passed in Australia last week, that placed responsibility on big tech to negotiate deals with media firms, or face a levy.
“All that’s going back into funding journalism,” Boggs said.
He did not want to say how many companies NZME was in talks with, but it was more than five.
“I think they do value the content that they’re receiving. They’ve obviously entered agreements with us five years ago, and with others, so we look forward to continuing those conversations.”
He expected to have a resolution with some by the end of the year. “Some will be easier and some will be harder … it is substantial amounts of money to support journalism overall.”
‘Pretty disappointing’
In March last year, outspoken NZME investor Roger Colman praised Boggs as a major board battle played out, saying he wanted to see the chief executive in a board seat alongside other directors.
Colman said at the time Boggs was “probably one of the best performers in Australasia, right at the moment” given how he had steered the company through tough economic times.
Roger Colman addresses the NZME shareholders meeting in 2024. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Colman’s view has cooled over the past 18 months.
At the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in April, Colman said: “I think the board has to start looking – this is now my opinion from the voices I hear – at CEO succession in due course.”
On an otherwise uneventful investor call on Tuesday morning, in which some analysts praised NZME for its financial results, Colman told Boggs the performance of the company’s property platform OneRoof was “pretty disappointing”.
Colman said most institutional investors who had come and gone from NZME over the past eight years were “in there for marketplace verticals”.
He said he believed it was time, for the benefit of shareholders and Boggs’ own shareholding in NZME, that the chief executive “give notice that you are resigning in due course”.
Colman pointed at the company’s share price performance in recent years, saying there had been no change.
He did not believe a chief financial officer should be appointed the chief executive and said the company needed someone to “make numbers, not count numbers”.
Boggs simply responded: “Thanks, Roger.”
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, NZME chairman Steven Joyce told Media Insider: “Shareholders are welcome to share their views at any time.
“The half-year results speak for themselves, and the board is pleased with the company’s performance, including that of Michael Boggs and his team.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.