On both sides of the Tasman, there are massive shifts on the horizon in the news and production industries, with a raft of closures and cancellations already hitting in New Zealand and mystery surrounding the next moves of one of the world’s biggest media empires.

In a sign of just how tough things are in Aotearoa, The Block NZ has been cancelled ahead of its upcoming season and the pre-renovation, unfinished properties put on the market.

It’s telling that even a reality show that delivers the audience a play-by-play drama of people competing to win at housing cannot survive.

The tough real estate market saw The Block NZ’s 2022 competitors earn just about nothing at auction, while last year’s season was postponed. 

That didn’t put the show in a good position when it came time for Warner Bros Discovery to restructure.

“When we announced our business restructure earlier this year, we indicated that Warner Bros Discovery would no longer make fully funded local shows, which includes The Block NZ,” a spokesperson said.

The announcement is the latest blow to an industry that has been taking the hits lately. 

On top of cancelling its former ratings winner, Warner Bros Discovery recently announced its entire Newshub operation — one of New Zealand’s biggest sources of news across television and online platforms — would also cease.

Warner Bros Discovery has also announced its breakfast show, the New Zealand version of The Project and the entire Newshub digital website will close. 

A version of the Newshub news bulletin looks set to survive after being picked up by online outlet Stuff, but it will be much smaller, with more than 200 people from the Channel Three operation still likely to lose their jobs. 

At the same time, publicly owned broadcaster TVNZ has slashed its programming. 

Nearly 70 people will lose their jobs there, with the country’s only long-form investigative program airing its last episode on May 12.

These changes come at a difficult time for New Zealand.

A smaller local production industry means fewer opportunities for New Zealanders to see themselves and their stories on their own screens.

And while the media cuts add to the pile of mounting job losses in the country, they also mean a significant percentage of the news industry will be lost.

That’s fewer journalists who will be at work while a new government makes cuts to the public service, tables legislation that would give ministers executive power to approve major projects despite environmental concerns, and is being accused of reigniting race relations.

Former journalist, editor and now media industry commentator and lecturer at Auckland University of Technology Dr Greg Treadwell said the Newshub change and the program losses at TVNZ were “taking the heart out” of television journalism in New Zealand.

“It feels like we’re back in the 1970s, really,” he said. 

Murdoch’s next moves  

When Warner Bros Discovery gathered its Newshub staff for a meeting and told them it would close, there were other media heavyweights in town.

On a Wednesday morning in early April, Sky News Australia boss Paul Whittaker was photographed in a Wellington hotel.

At the same time, staff at Newshub were told by management the last evening news bulletin as they knew it would go to air on July 5.

Hours later, the TVNZ cuts were announced too.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his then-media and communications minister were criticised for not having much to say at the time. 

But the New Zealand Herald would later report media had been on the official agenda that day. 

The Herald reported confirmation from the prime minister’s office that Luxon and his minister met with Whittaker.

Sky News Australia has a foreign correspondent in New Zealand, but News Corp does not currently have much of a presence there. 

Industry watchers are wondering if that is about to change.

“Journalism is on an open market, fine, but we have been told for many years Murdoch approaches business and journalism through his political power,” Dr Treadwell said.

“And to find, not Murdoch himself, but somebody very close to the man himself, in private secret meetings with our prime minister and minister of broadcasting in the very week that Newshub collapses is deeply concerning.”

Dr Treadwell called it a “worrying coincidence”. 

“I think this might sound some alarms for media in New Zealand when there is a really desperate situation, I think companies like [the] Murdochs’ are very experienced and well positioned in taking advantage of those situations,” he said.   

Sky News Australia has since launched a short-form news program called NZ Edition, hosted by its Wellington correspondent.

It is still an open question what a move into New Zealand would look like and how big that investment might be.

And while News Corp and Prime Minister Luxon did not respond to the ABC’s requests for comment, there is further evidence change across the Murdoch empire is imminent.

Australian News Corp staff are bracing for a difficult week ahead with most of their biggest bosses in town, including News Corp chair Lachlan Murdoch. 

It is expected the leadership team will announce a massive restructure to its Australian newspaper business, or if we translate that, job cuts. 

As is the trend when media organisations confront the digital media transformation challenge, there is a chance that announcement will be about doing much more with much less. 

The future of news and local production

Making renovation shows, covering a breaking story and backing a long-form investigation are all very expensive things to do and sometimes in the end, it’s hard to predict how people will connect with them. 

But for all the ways audiences have changed, there are some things that still ring true.

There will always be power in story and for there to be stories on the internet, there still need to be storytellers on the ground. 

A Newshub bulletin is going to survive as a smaller version of itself because digital news outlet Stuff swooped in with a deal to run it.

What that looks like will be made apparent when this new experiment launches on July 6.

And what the News Corp shift looks like will likely be made apparent soon too. 

In recent years, the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal have opened offices in Australia.

Yes, there are interesting stories to tell across our states and territories.

But perhaps the biggest brands in media have put their people in this region because it is now undeniably relevant to global affairs.

Ideally, there would be a wealth of Australian, Kiwi and Pasifika journalists around to cover and contextualise that.