{"id":579584,"date":"2026-08-25T06:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579584\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T06:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T06:36:10","slug":"media-insider-nzme-chief-executive-michael-boggs-targets-big-tech-firms-for-new-ai-content-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579584\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Insider: NZME chief executive Michael Boggs targets big tech firms for new AI content deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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. <\/p>\n

That multimillion-dollar, five-year deal was struck over the tech giant\u2019s use of NZME content for its platforms. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou use the word scraping, we say they are breaching our copyright,\u201d Boggs said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll know what\u2019s happened in the past. It\u2019s moved from big links to our sites, to make sure that our audience comes to us, versus now, they\u2019re not even [being directed to news sites].\u201d<\/p>\n

He said audiences were reading news website content within the walls of AI platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll be lucky to find a link from us. You can squint and maybe see it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"NZMENZME chief executive Michael\u00a0Boggs says a number of big-tech firms are breaching the company’s copyright. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n

Boggs said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith supported media firms\u2019 push to negotiate commercial deals and to be recompensed for copyright.<\/p>\n

On Ryan Bridge TODAY last week,<\/a> former Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson said big tech firms were \u201cgetting away with … murder\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood journos, like [those] in this newsroom, lose their jobs because of these guys stealing stories all the time, and they\u2019re going, \u2018Oh, what\u2019s the point of it all?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what copyright law is all about. Now, of course, that\u2019s very difficult when you\u2019re a small New Zealand company versus Meta, and so we\u2019d expect conversations to be had about that,\u201d Goldsmith said.<\/p>\n

Boggs said several big tech firms were engaging with NZME \u201cproactively\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cA number aren\u2019t quite as proactive, so we\u2019re making sure we engage with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur key focus is on how we extend that Google relationship and actually build relationships with other organisations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll that\u2019s going back into funding journalism,\u201d Boggs said.<\/p>\n

He did not want to say how many companies NZME was in talks with, but it was more than five.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they do value the content that they\u2019re receiving. They\u2019ve obviously entered agreements with us five years ago, and with others, so we look forward to continuing those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expected to have a resolution with some by the end of the year. \u201cSome will be easier and some will be harder … it is substantial amounts of money to support journalism overall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Pretty disappointing\u2019<\/p>\n

In March last year, outspoken NZME investor Roger Colman praised Boggs<\/a> as a major board battle played out, saying he wanted to see the chief executive in a board seat alongside other directors.<\/p>\n

Colman said at the time Boggs was \u201cprobably one of the best performers in Australasia, right at the moment\u201d given how he had steered the company through tough economic times.<\/p>\n

\"RogerRoger Colman addresses the NZME shareholders meeting in 2024. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray<\/p>\n

Colman\u2019s view has cooled over the past 18 months. <\/p>\n

At the company\u2019s annual shareholders\u2019 meeting in April, Colman said: \u201cI think the board has to start looking \u2013 this is now my opinion from the voices I hear \u2013 at CEO succession in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s property platform OneRoof was \u201cpretty disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Colman said most institutional investors who had come and gone from NZME over the past eight years were \u201cin there for marketplace verticals\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he believed it was time, for the benefit of shareholders and Boggs\u2019 own shareholding in NZME, that the chief executive \u201cgive notice that you are resigning in due course\u201d.<\/p>\n

Colman pointed at the company\u2019s share price performance in recent years, saying there had been no change.<\/p>\n

He did not believe a chief financial officer should be appointed the chief executive and said the company needed someone to \u201cmake numbers, not count numbers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Boggs simply responded: \u201cThanks, Roger.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, NZME chairman Steven Joyce told Media Insider: \u201cShareholders are welcome to share their views at any time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe half-year results speak for themselves, and the board is pleased with the company\u2019s performance, including that of Michael Boggs and his team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Boggs confirmed to Media Insider that NZME was in discussions with AI firms, including Google, whose content licensing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[74,365,363,364,8834,123696,3043,37462,3937,9539,868,99524,2837,3938,25337,2082,2936,5933,1073,5494,117,111,139,69,26263,164523,26264,8220,370,145,1865,6382],"class_list":["post-579584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-after","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-big","tag-boggs","tag-call","tag-chairman","tag-chief","tag-content","tag-deals","tag-defended","tag-during","tag-executive","tag-firms","tag-for","tag-insider","tag-investor","tag-media","tag-michael","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzme","tag-outspoken","tag-shareholder","tag-targets","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-today","tag-took"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579584","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=579584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}