{"id":128289,"date":"2025-11-10T18:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T18:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128289\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T18:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T18:51:08","slug":"is-the-criticism-of-radio-nz-national-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/128289\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the criticism of Radio NZ National fair?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n In April, Radio New Zealand marked 100 years of the national public radio service by launching scholarships to help future journalists train and \u2013 in a nod to how much audience preferences have changed \u2013 a podcast series. At the same time, its flagship programme on RNZ National, Morning Report,
\n celebrated turning 50. But what may have been a vintage year for the country\u2019s public service broadcaster quickly turned sour, and the performance and audience-share of RNZ National is now under fierce scrutiny.\n <\/p>\n

After a long-sought budget boost in 2023, the government cut RNZ\u2019s budget this year by 7%; belt-tightening of the same magnitude is promised for the next three years.<\/p>\n

One of the casualties of RNZ\u2019s drive to reduce costs is Tahi.fm, its much-vaunted effort to grow a younger audience. The youth platform was closed on November 6 after its music and culture mix failed to attract listeners. Its axing is part of a series of cuts to RNZ National, including the scrapping of shows such as Sunday Sampler and the At the Movies film review segment. Veteran arts producer Mark Amery has lost his co-hosting role on Culture 101 as the Sunday afternoon show downsizes.<\/p>\n

The air of upheaval now extends to RNZ National\u2019s flagship Morning Report programme, with Corin Dann leaving his co-hosting role to replace the retiring Gyles Beckford as business editor.<\/p>\n

\"CorinCorin Dann is leaving Morning Report, but staying with RNZ. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Dann\u2019s departure has fuelled much media speculation \u2013 should his replacement be in the capital or in Auckland, where RNZ apparently needs to shore up its dwindling audience? Would the choice of a more provocative or right-leaning host stem the drift of people who regard the station, particularly Morning Report, as too left wing, or too politics obsessed?<\/p>\n

Dann\u2019s departure follows rival media gloating over the latest radio ratings survey, released in August by ratings firm GfK. Newstalk ZB led the field with a cumulative weekly audience aged 10-plus of 620,000. RNZ National, with 475,000, trailed commercial networks The Breeze, The Edge, More FM and ZM. What the rivals didn\u2019t mention was that RNZ National had actually gained listeners since the equivalent 2024 survey, whereas all but More FM had lost numbers. Its audience is nevertheless well shy of its 2021 Covid-era peak of 607,000.<\/p>\n

The GfK rankings came hard on the heels of a much-trumpeted report on RNZ by former head of news Richard Sutherland, commissioned by its chief executive, Paul Thompson. Thompson\u2019s brief was \u201cwrite me a succinct report analysing the live listening decline on RNZ National, assessing the current performance of the station, its strengths and weaknesses, and proposing an actionable high-level blueprint to turn the station around. At a bare minimum, that would entail addressing audience decline and achieving cume [weekly cumulative listeners] of 500,000-plus in 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 12,000-word report is a cracking read, opening with the following sentence, full of drama and foreboding: \u201cThe recommendations are blunt by necessity; they reflect the seriousness of the station\u2019s current trajectory.\u201d Sutherland went on to create a sense of crisis, approaching disaster and terrible voices grating on the ears of the nation. The subtext: If you don\u2019t devote the next 12 months to fixing RNZ National, don\u2019t say I didn\u2019t warn you.<\/p>\n

\"ToughTough talk: CEO Paul Thompson, who commissioned the review by former head
\nof news Richard Sutherland, right, says the shift in audience behaviour is not going to slow down. Photos \/ NZME \/ RNZ<\/p>\n

The report identified many possible factors contributing to RNZ National\u2019s ratings slide since Covid: the station is insufficiently Auckland focused, the tone and quality of content is not consistent, some voices aren\u2019t good enough, some newsreaders aren\u2019t up to snuff, some presenters aren\u2019t delivering, it\u2019s not entertaining enough, staff don\u2019t understand who the audience is and too many people are working from home.<\/p>\n

Recommendations included at least one high-profile hire \u201cto signal ambition\u201d; the station should target a primary demographic of people aged 50-69; Morning Report and its presenters should be relocated to Auckland; an urgent audit of on-air staff was needed with more training for presenters and a strong focus on lifting on-air standards; slots should be refreshed \u201cwhere existing presenters don\u2019t align with the needs and preferences of the target audience\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sutherland described the belief that radio is a \u201csunset industry\u201d as the most worrying theme from his interviews with dozens of staff across all levels of the organisation. \u201cStamping out this belief will require significant involvement from the board, the chief executive, and the executive team,\u201d Sutherland wrote.<\/p>\n

What he didn\u2019t write was that, if staff see live radio as a sunset industry, it might be because the chief executive has been telling them that for more than a decade. In a speech shortly after taking over as RNZ CEO in 2013, Thompson said: \u201cOur preferred method of content delivery \u2013 radio \u2013 is in long-term decline.\u201d He went on: \u201cYou will note that I do not use the word radio once when talking about what we will look like in future.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if Thompson was downbeat about radio in 2014, he isn\u2019t any more. Asked by the Listener if he thinks live radio is a sunset industry, he says: \u201cIf it is a sunset, it\u2019s a long and glorious one that will outlast me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of the speculation around RNZ National are two key questions: is live radio in terminal decline? And, if it isn\u2019t, why do so many at the organisation believe it is?<\/p>\n

NZ On Air\u2019s 2024 \u201cWhere are the Audiences?\u201d survey shows the proportion of New Zealanders listening to live radio each day has declined from 67% in 2014 to 42% last year. <\/p>\n

In September 2023, The Spinoff founder Duncan Greive described as \u201cshocking\u201d the statistic that almost as many people were then using Spotify every day as listening to the radio. <\/p>\n

What these numbers mean is open to interpretation. GfK headlined the press release about its latest survey, \u201cRadio continues to deliver stable audience and outstanding outcomes for advertisers\u201d.<\/p>\n

NZME\u2019s Mike Hosking agrees. In the wake of the Sutherland report, he told his Newstalk ZB breakfast audience he was \u201csurprised and saddened\u201d to hear RNZ staff believe radio is dying. \u201cRadio is robust,\u201d he said, \u201cand, comparatively speaking, thriving.\u201d<\/p>\n

To say the report made an impact is an understatement. In his Media Insider column, former NZ Herald editor Shayne Currie called it \u201cscathing\u201d. The Spinoff described it as \u201cblistering\u201d and a \u201cbombshell\u201d. RNZ\u2019s own media watcher Colin Peacock described it as \u201cstinging\u201d. Hosking told his audience: \u201c\u2026 the place is shot. It needs a bomb and some genuine talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until relatively recently, the fortunes of RNZ and RNZ National were essentially the same thing. The organisation was driven by, and focused on, the needs of the station. But as anyone who has watched the country\u2019s media landscape dissolving before their eyes during the past decade knows, things ain\u2019t what they used to be.<\/p>\n

Under Thompson, RNZ has developed its online presence considerably, through its website, podcasts, \u201cVideo\u201d and \u201cLife\u201d platforms, and a YouTube site targeting youth audiences, which boasts 229,000 subscribers. Another thrust has been content sharing with other media organisations including NZME, Stuff and Newsroom. Thompson says RNZ now reaches 83% of New Zealanders aged 18+; when he took the reins in 2014, it reached about 20%. \u201cWhile radio listening is slowly falling, it remains an essential part of the media landscape and of RNZ\u2019s DNA, he said in August.<\/p>\n

\"GuyonGuyon Espiner will take over RNZ’s Midday Report show in January. Photo \/ Cole Eastham-Farrelly<\/p>\n

In a \u201cwhere to from here\u201d piece posted on RNZ\u2019s website to mark its 100th anniversary, Thompson talked of the media\u2019s decline and audiences\u2019 loss of trust in core institutions including the media. The solutions he identified then are similar to those he\u2019s offered since the Sutherland report: providing \u201chigh-quality, trusted news, audio and video\u201d; \u201cwe will be increasingly digital while continuing to do great broadcasting\u201d; \u201cwe will train our talented staff who will reflect the diverse nation we represent\u201d. He now adds, \u201cTalking to people in every region as much as possible\u201d and being \u201crelevant to younger people as well as the older audiences who\u2019ve traditionally been with us.\u201d <\/p>\n

RNZ is developing a new audio plan to \u201cimprove audience engagement\u201d on RNZ National \u201cwhile also doing more to connect with listeners through podcasting and digital audio platforms\u201d.<\/p>\n

Changes are already evident. Guyon Espiner, an experienced and trusted broadcaster with wide name recognition, is set to take over Midday Report from January. Morning Report has introduced head-to-head discussions with opposing MPs, a weekly chat with a business leader, a sports discussion panel \u2013 all features associated with the Mike Hosking Breakfast show. According to RNZ\u2019s weekly Media\u00adwatch programme, some listeners have complained about a change in tone, with presenters indulging in more chit-chat in a drive to be engaging.<\/p>\n

Peter Thompson, associate professor in media and communication at Victoria University of Wellington, tells a story about Paul Thompson coming to talk to a class of his media students about a year after its youth-oriented online magazine, The Wireless, started. He asked how many of the students had heard of The Wireless. Nobody\u2019s hand went up. \u201cThe look on his face,\u201d Peter Thompson says. \u201cIt was like: \u2018Oh my god\u2019.\u201d The Wireless closed in 2018 after five years.<\/p>\n

Peter Thompson says while RNZ has found it a real struggle to attract the under-25 audience, any media organisation that isn\u2019t traditionally youth focused would find it difficult.<\/p>\n

The decision to re-target RNZ National towards a demographic of 50-69 year olds is not without risk, he says. \u201cThey\u2019ve got to be a little careful because if they go and focus only on that 60, 70-plus demographic, they\u2019re not going to be around for 20 years or so \u2013 not all of them. It may not be a demographic they can sustain for that long before they need to refocus and think, \u2018Well, what do the current 40s and 50s want?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Thompson has also adopted other Sutherland recommendations: promoting Pip Keane, a former Holmes and Campbell Live executive producer who joined RNZ in 2015, to the new position of chief audio officer and instigating a big increase in voice training for presenters. There are plans to grow the Auckland presence, but Thompson has stopped short of freighting the Morning Report team north. He aims to boost RNZ National listener numbers to 500,000 by November next year and 520,000 by November 2027.<\/p>\n

\"RNZRNZ chief audio officer Pip Keane. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n

According to research by Verian, RNZ today reaches roughly three million New Zealanders aged 18+ each month. But only 31% of them are accessing RNZ content through live radio; 35% get it through rnz.co.nz or the RNZ app, 44% through social media, and 76% through one of the 40 media organisations RNZ shares content with.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether radio as a whole is delivering shocking declines or outstanding outcomes, RNZ National is reaching fewer people than its rivals, and its rivals have noticed. So has its shareholder. Neither appears to have been convinced \u2013 or assuaged \u2013 by arguments about trust and non-radio audience reach.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Minister for Media and Communications Paul Goldsmith told Shayne Currie, \u201cYes, you can have an app which a lot of people read and engage with and use the material that RNZ is developing, but they should never lose sight of the fact that the core business is having live radio and doing that well in a competitive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by the Listener if he feels political pressure, Thompson says no. \u201cI certainly know that our shareholder wants us to work hard at our audio relevance and also our trust, but that\u2019s through the formal way they set expectations for us. And we\u2019re independent and we have that legislation, so we kind of calibrate that and respond appropriately. So, I haven\u2019t felt it\u2019s been political pressure, but it is useful to have clear expectations set by the crown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he says it\u2019s necessary to adapt to meet audiences\u2019 needs, he\u2019s come to acknowledge the importance of \u201ctraditional services\u201d and the things people rely on RNZ for. He says he isn\u2019t backing away from the challenge and has both a gut instinct and good data that the shift in audience behaviour is not going to slow down.<\/p>\n

\"BroadcastingBroadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith: “RNZ should never lose sight of the fact that the core business is having live radio and doing that well in a competitive environment.\u201d Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

RNZ staff say morale inside the Wellington office in particular is low. Staff members were uniformly wary of speaking on the record for this article, but one insider described the Wellington newsroom post-Sutherland\u2019s report as looking like it had been hit by a bomb.<\/p>\n

Thompson says employee engagement is tracked carefully at RNZ and 90% of staff say they are proud to work there. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt when you go through times of change, there\u2019ll always be some uncertainty for some people. I don\u2019t have any data on that, but when we do our engagement surveys, which are really robust methodologies, we\u2019ll certainly track that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did he anticipate the Sutherland report being quite so robust? Did he realise it would land in the lap of a delighted Shayne Currie at NZME, owner of a stable of commercial radio stations including Newstalk ZB as well as the NZ Herald? Currie was soon telling Ryan Bridge on the Herald\u2019s video channel that if RNZ didn\u2019t fix its problems in six to 12 months, executives and board members were likely to be sacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cRadio \u2018remains an essential part of the media landscape and RNZ\u2019s DNA\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Thompson<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scrutiny\u2019s been challenging,\u201d Thompson says, \u201cbut I did go into it with my eyes wide open. But what it says to me is that you\u2019re getting a lot of interest and you have a choice of getting frank advice and knowing it\u2019s going to be open but being up for that \u2013 and it does take some courage \u2013 or being a shrinking violet and perhaps not challenging yourself and your people and our board as much as I needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he wasn\u2019t surprised by the tone of the report. \u201cThat\u2019s Richard\u2019s style,\u201d he says. Advice to a CEO \u201chas to be really frank. So I got what I expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the review is just one input into RNZ\u2019s decision-making process. \u201cRichard\u2019s advice is Richard\u2019s advice. And it\u2019s useful and it\u2019s challenging, but it\u2019s not gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other inputs he identifies include audience data from GfK, RNZ\u2019s own \u201cvalue indices\u201d (\u201cour very rich three-times-a-year deep dive into perceptions and value\u201d), and bespoke research into what audiences want from presenters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get a lot of direct audience feedback. Our text machine and our email feedback is very intense and very full and it provides colour. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we have people in the organisation with programming and audience experience who provide their view, and I\u2019ve got a really robust and challenging board. So that\u2019s the kind of broad span of data we\u2019re looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeterPeter Thompson, from Victoria University, says RNZ isn’t failing. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

After the bang that accompanied the coverage of Sutherland\u2019s review, a quieter article appeared, telling a different story. Written by Victoria University\u2019s Peter Thompson, it was published on The Conversation website and headlined, \u201cA \u2018scathing\u2019 report on RNZ\u2019s performance obscures the good news\u201d. <\/p>\n

He pointed to the research showing 80% of New Zealanders engage with its content every month. He also pointed to the 2025 AUT Trust in News Survey, showing RNZ to be the most trusted news brand in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this,\u201d he wrote, \u201csupports the narrative of a failing legacy operator that has lost its way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the article attracted far less rival media coverage than was the case with the August ratings survey and the Sutherland review. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I was telling the story about RNZ in a way their commercial rivals didn\u2019t like,\u201d says Peter Thompson.<\/p>\n

He says the narrative in recent reporting has been, \u201cWhat\u2019s happened with RNZ? It\u2019s losing ratings, it\u2019s being beaten by Newstalk ZB. What\u2019s gone wrong? They\u2019re doing a terrible job.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that narrative, he says, is simply not true. \u201cIt\u2019s the most trusted medium for news in Aotearoa New Zealand, and it reaches probably the most people. So why isn\u2019t that the headline? And I think there\u2019s some news media that might need to ask themselves that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"RNZRNZ is not commercial radio; its performance is measured against its charter. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Commercial radio is all about the ratings. Bigger ratings means more ad revenue, which means more money to pay drawcards such as Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking, which equals happy days.<\/p>\n

RNZ is also chasing ratings. The company has set clear and specific targets to grow its audience for RNZ National to 520,000 by November 2027. In the latest GfK radio survey, listenership, at 475,800, was up from 467,700 on the previous year but down from 489,600 in 2023.<\/p>\n

But RNZ is not commercial radio; it doesn\u2019t sell ads. RNZ\u2019s performance is measured against its charter, a document containing roughly 1000 words, none of which are \u201cratings\u201d nor even near-synonyms for it. Its purpose, as outlined in the charter, is fourfold: to serve the public interest, help to exercise freedom of thought and expression, foster a sense of national identity by contributing to tolerance and understanding, and provide reliable, independent and freely accessible news and information. RNZ National is also the country\u2019s designated civil defence radio broadcaster.<\/p>\n

The charter lists 15 ways RNZ should deliver on its purpose, including \u201cfoster critical thought\u201d, be \u201cchallenging, innovative, and engaging\u201d, \u201cprovide awareness of the world and of New Zealand\u2019s place in it\u201d, \u201ccontribute towards intellectual and spiritual development\u201d, and so on. Only one of these could be said to be related to ratings, and even then only tangentially: \u201cprovide programmes which balance special interest with those of wide appeal, recognising the interests of all age groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thompson describes delivering on the charter as \u201ca big, meaty challenge\u201d but also motivating. It\u2019s not something RNZ\u2019s rivals and leading critics have in their job descriptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are different. We are unique. We have to do our best to be there for all citizens, to deliver as best we can across all those different charter measures. But if you really boil it down, are we getting to a wide and growing group of New Zealanders in a way that\u2019s relevant to them? Yes. Is trust in RNZ growing? Yes. Do we lead the market in trust? Yes. Do a growing number of people think it\u2019s important to have a public media organisation? Yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about chasing any single audience number. It\u2019s about being trusted and being valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of Richard Sutherland\u2019s review of RNZ National, Thompson has hammered his focus on the charter in interview after interview: charter this, charter that. You can\u2019t fault him for trying. But charters are boring and complex and difficult to parse. Analyses of RNZ\u2019s performance against the charter don\u2019t make for great headlines.<\/p>\n

Much more appealing and entertaining and likely to give your audience what they want is a nice straightforward number showing you\u2019re winning and the losers are losing \u2013 shot, in need of a bomb and some genuine talent. Happy days indeed.<\/p>\n

Save<\/a>Share this article<\/p>\n

Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.<\/p>\n

Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In April, Radio New Zealand marked 100 years of the national public radio service by launching scholarships to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[54170,2991,88975,1558,9516,7573,6186,1887,3054,156,6963,84045,61463,3273,305,5838,185,88972,4479,22643,1304,5969,157,3556,111,139,69,1118,6777,3800,88973,9527,3109,29058,4965,1560,4514,28244,21674,1963,2552,88974,223,2044,11685,19054,25809,8238,27627,6923,379,1530,80],"class_list":["post-128289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-april","tag-audience","tag-audienceshare","tag-been","tag-broadcaster","tag-celebrated","tag-changed","tag-countrys","tag-criticism","tag-entertainment","tag-fair","tag-fierce","tag-flagship","tag-future","tag-have","tag-help","tag-is","tag-journalists","tag-launching","tag-marked","tag-morning","tag-much","tag-music","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-performance","tag-podcast","tag-preferences","tag-programme","tag-public","tag-quickly","tag-radio","tag-report","tag-same","tag-scholarships","tag-scrutiny","tag-series","tag-service","tag-sour","tag-the","tag-time","tag-train","tag-turned","tag-turning","tag-under","tag-vintage","tag-what","tag-year","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}