1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,519 Speaker 1: TVs is One News website is set to be cut 2 00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:05,559 Speaker 1: from February next year as part of the state broadcasters 3 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:08,560 Speaker 1: news proposal to head a thirty million dollar savings target. 4 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: Staff have also been told there's a proposal to consolidate 5 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 1: some business areas to align with its new strategy, et cetera, 6 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:17,520 Speaker 1: et cetera. Dunk and Grieve spin off founder and media 7 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:22,000 Speaker 1: commentator joins us this morning, Dunk and good morning. Good 8 00:00:22,040 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: to have you on the show. Tell me what happens 9 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 1: to the website. How important is the website to one News? 10 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,239 Speaker 2: I mean, it's a Brital thing to say, but I 11 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:34,760 Speaker 2: don't think it's particularly important to One News. You know, 12 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:39,159 Speaker 2: the core business of them has always been built around 13 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 2: that six pm bulletin, which still has such a large audience, 14 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,840 Speaker 2: and the news room is rightly or wrongly driven around 15 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 2: creating video the news. So the one News website never 16 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 2: got the scale of audience to compete with the bigger 17 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 2: of text driven websites, and as a result, it's it's 18 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 2: always set a bit off the side of my opinion. 19 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 1: You can tell me that costs thirty million dollars to 20 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,639 Speaker 1: run the website, right, So where else are the saving 21 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:08,480 Speaker 1: is going to come from. 22 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:13,319 Speaker 2: I mean, that's a really good point, you know. I'd 23 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 2: say there's probably maybe a couple of million, maybe a 24 00:01:17,240 --> 00:01:21,400 Speaker 2: bit more in savings associated the website across you know, 25 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 2: the editors, writers, specialized journalists, development and so on. But 26 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 2: thirty million dollars is just an enormous sum for an 27 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 2: or slight TV. It represents roughly ten percent of revenues. 28 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 2: But remember they've got a lot of money that goes 29 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 2: straight out the door on buying overseas content or local production. 30 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 2: So if they're looking to find that within the house, 31 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:49,520 Speaker 2: you know, suddenly that starts to look like a very 32 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:52,919 Speaker 2: large proportion of their spend and a lot more staff 33 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 2: than just a website. 34 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: This idea of putting video content on their news video 35 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:01,960 Speaker 1: content on there, it sounds like a good one to me. 36 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: They'll be competing with I guess the likes of YouTube. 37 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 1: Maybe it's more of a local flavor. Do you think 38 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:07,559 Speaker 1: it could work. 39 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 2: I think it could work. I don't think it's guaranteed 40 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 2: by any means. It's unfortunate in a way that TVMs plus, 41 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:19,480 Speaker 2: which you know, in its predecessor of TV in said 42 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 2: or demand, has been running for the second of ten years, 43 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:25,799 Speaker 2: and news has never felt like a priority for it 44 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 2: not certainly not the way it does on the linear stream. 45 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:33,360 Speaker 2: So they're coming from behind to an extent. But even 46 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:35,080 Speaker 2: if you go and look at the app now, you 47 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,560 Speaker 2: know they've got this new John Campbell true crime series 48 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:42,560 Speaker 2: prominently place. You can now access individual clips of the 49 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 2: news from the home page. You know, it's it's a 50 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:50,280 Speaker 2: bit of a sort of stop gap compared to what 51 00:02:50,320 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 2: a fully kind of you know, realized vision of news 52 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 2: within TV and Z plus would look like. But it's 53 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:57,840 Speaker 2: a start, and that's clearly where they're going to put 54 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,800 Speaker 2: all the energy now into the digitation when news offering. 55 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 1: It does sound like it, doesn't it. Hey, this aut report, 56 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,480 Speaker 1: I know we've only just sent it to you this 57 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:07,280 Speaker 1: morning and it's only just come out, but it's it's 58 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: essentially saying that the funding that was given to the 59 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: media during the COVID pandemic, you know, the Public Interest 60 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,839 Speaker 1: Journalism Fund, et cetera, had some unintended negative consequences, which 61 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:21,519 Speaker 1: I'm I kind of thought was obvious, but they're saying, 62 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: you know, it didn't stop the redundancies. It was paid 63 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:27,080 Speaker 1: at a time where private companies were paying dividends and 64 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: making profits, and it also led to perception problems. You 65 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:32,359 Speaker 1: think it's valid. 66 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 2: Not really. I mean like I sort of looked at 67 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 2: the study when it arrived yesterday and I was like, yeah, 68 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:43,080 Speaker 2: a lot of it's captain obvious and essentially duplicative of 69 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 2: a U two researcher already exists around the sort of 70 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 2: trust issue. But the idea that you that it went 71 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 2: to private companies that are paying dividends, you know, if 72 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 2: if the government's kind of participation in new means that 73 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 2: private companty to stop paying dividends that it can only 74 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,560 Speaker 2: anticipate in basically not for profit, so therefore only are 75 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 2: and Z, So that just seems like a weird thing 76 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,960 Speaker 2: to single out. And the whole structure of the PIGF 77 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 2: was here is some money for you to do something 78 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 2: new that you wouldn't ordinarily do, which meant that it 79 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:25,280 Speaker 2: was kind of cost neutral. But it did its job 80 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:27,960 Speaker 2: on that front. But unfortunately, because of the timing of 81 00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:30,240 Speaker 2: it and because of you know, the sort of world canvas, 82 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 2: you know, ways that it approached particular areas, it led 83 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 2: to a perception of politicization. But again, this is all 84 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:41,839 Speaker 2: sort of quite well known, so I didn't really see 85 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 2: what the function of that research was. 86 00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: I've got to study something, don't they aut. 87 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,400 Speaker 2: Well, the thing that's interesting right is like we have 88 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:53,800 Speaker 2: these journalism schools kind of creating journalists, but we also 89 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 2: have an industry that is, you know, where this time 90 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 2: in February of next year, we'll have two fewer of 91 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 2: our five biggest news sites, you know, And so what 92 00:05:05,640 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 2: is the pipeline for, Like, why are we educating journalists 93 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:11,160 Speaker 2: because right now it looks like this is an industry 94 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 2: that is running to shut down. So, you know, it's 95 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 2: weird that they're doing these kind of semi esoteric research 96 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 2: projects when the big question is why are we training 97 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 2: people at all? 98 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:24,040 Speaker 1: Don't agree with a great start to your morning. Thank 99 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:25,920 Speaker 1: you very much for your time. It's been our founder 100 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,760 Speaker 1: and media commentator on one News and the State of 101 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:31,840 Speaker 1: the Media more genuinely. For more from News Talks EDB 102 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,320 Speaker 1: listen live on air or online, and keep our shows 103 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:38,679 Speaker 1: with you wherever you go with our podcasts on IAR Radio.