Newsroom changes mean TVNZ staff ‘net loss’

"There is going to need to be a level of partnering and working together." TVNZ chief executive Kevin Kenrick

Television New Zealand plans to reduce the number of news editors and producers it employs and encourage some of its reporters to move to the provinces to cut costs.

Chief executive Kevin Kenrick questioned whether there would be space for more than one free-toair television broadcaster, appearing to raise the possibility of collaboration or even a merger with TV3 owner MediaWorks down the track.

About 230 of TVNZ’s 670 staff work in news and current affairs.

Kenrick said the proposed newsroom restructure, outlined to staff yesterday afternoon, would result in job losses overall.

A source said 20 jobs were expected to go, but Kenrick said it was premature to give numbers.

‘‘We are probably another two or three weeks away from really firming up what that looks like.’’

TVNZ presenters would not be affected by this particular stage of the restructuring, he said.

It is part of a wider redesign of the business that Kenrick has said is needed to ‘‘fundamentally lower’’ TVNZ’s costs to reflect the declining advertising market.

The restructure would involve ‘‘a centralisation on one side and a decentralisation on the other’’, making news processing more efficient while increasing TVNZ’s news-gathering reach, he said.

The ‘‘technical side’’ of TVNZ’s news operation would be centralised in Auckland to remove duplication.

But some reporters currently based in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin could be offered positions in places such as Queenstown, the Bay of Plenty, Northland and Hawke’s Bay.

TVNZ could then look externally to see if it needed to fill any vacant gaps, he said.

‘‘What we are looking at is how much time we spend travelling to these other locations to capture stories. We think we could probably double the number of locations that we gather stories directly from.’’

Kenrick said it was a coincidence that details of TVNZ’s restructure were starting to emerge shortly after the Commerce Commission rejected the proposed merger of Sky Television and Vodafone New Zealand.

The competition watchdog is due to rule next month on whether publishers Fairfax New Zealand and NZME should be allowed to merge their businesses.

The publishers say a merger is necessary to help them counter competition from overseas internet giants, which Kenrick said was also TVNZ’s major challenge.

Asked to comment on whether he could envisage a merger with similar goals between TVNZ and MediaWorks, Kenrick said his personal belief was that local media companies would need to work together ‘‘in some shape or form’’.

That was to have sufficient scale to ‘‘compete effectively with the global players’’.

‘‘Whether that is ‘commercial deals, mergers or takeovers’ is probably less critical than the fact there is going to need to be a level of partnering and working together,’’ he said.

‘‘The really interesting thing for us and everyone else to work out is what the position of the Commerce Commission is, to understand what potential opportunities are in scope.’’