Stories by Colin Peacock

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch’s weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about more moves between broadcasters, more new podcasts - but fewer Prime Ministerial press…

North Island daily and community papers are set to lose some reporters and news editors - including Hawkes Bay Today, just crowned ‘Newspaper of the Year’ for its vital emergency reporting of Cyclone…

Recent surveys have said our trust in media’s falling fast, and made plenty of headlines. But lately new surveys say our trust in the media isn’t plummeting. The latest one is part of a pitch to…

The media minister says a proposed law to get Google and Facebook pay for local news is not dead, but this week a Parliamentary committee and its government MPs did not support it. The government’s…

These are tough times for media - even those dedicated to covering big businesses and industries. After more than 20 years publishing health news and employing expert journalists, Barbara Fountain has…

A plan to update the system for regulating our media content has been running under the radar for years. Some agencies that do the job now have backed the move to one single body, but this week the…

These days governments roll out pre-Budget announcements almost daily for weeks in the run-up. It gives their selected plans more exposure at a time of their choosing - but it also attracts greater…

Local newspapers are under pressure and some places have already lost their local news outlets. The Wairoa Star closed last week, but journalists want to keep going. A bid to re-start the Star online…

TVNZ has been told it failed to fulfil obligations to its journalists when it decided to cut dozens of jobs and close news and current affairs shows. The future of journalists and top-rating…

New Zealand news media face "extinction within a few years" without urgent changes to media companies, and the laws and agencies that govern them. That’s the stark warning of a new report…

Midweek Mediawatch: Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about an MP taken to task about his knowledge of the arts  - and a TV producer taking on a funding agency in court. Also: a new political poll…

While TV news and current affairs shows are becoming an endangered species here, they seem to be still going strong in Australia where broadcasters back the shows with big budgets. But intense…

Melissa Lee has been replaced as Minister of Media and Communications after just seven months in the role in which she promised new policy to address the media’s acute problems. Paul Goldsmith now…

As another report shows another decline in New Zealanders' trust in the news, two editors sat down with Mediawatch to discuss the findings and what could be done to turn things around.

This week’s deal to outsource Newshub’s 6pm TV news to Stuff is a bold move for an company that’s never been a broadcaster. Both parties say it’s the way of the digital future, but it will provide a…

Warner Bros. Discovery has done a deal with Stuff to provide news to replace Newshub. It will keep news on TV channel Three from July 6 and help Three retain some viewers. It also means important…

End of TV news as we know it? TVNZ cuts back and Newshub closes down. Newshub's news boss responds; the minister plays for time; a former minister fights back

This week our two biggest TV broadcasters confirmed plans to cut news programmes by midyear - and the jobs of a significant proportion of this country’s journalists. Many observers said this had been…

Breaches of the broadcasting standard for discrimination and denigration are rare in news media - but hosts on just one network have now done it three times in the past four years. 

TVNZ has confirmed Fair Go - on air for 47 years - and news shows Midday and Tonight will cease next month. The future of Sunday will be confirmed tomorrow. Meanwhile a decision on alternatives to a…

The latest annual survey of New Zealanders’ trust in news media has recorded another sharp drop. It also finds more people avoid the news- but more people say they’re still interested in it and…

A review of the Cyclone Gabrielle response found the emergency management response was not fit for purpose - and not good for media providing critical 'real time' coverage of the disaster. But one…

Controversial comments on co-governance, confusing criticism of the media earned the NZ First’s leader a week’s-worth of headlines and airtime - as well as the unauthorised use of an old English punk…

The future of TV news and current affairs is in the balance at our two biggest  TV broadcasters - both desperate to cut costs as their revenue falls. The government says it’s now preparing policy to…

Midweek Mediawatch - Mediawatch’s weekly catch-up with Nights. Colin Peacock talks to Emile Donovan about a manic Monday afternoon of news - cricket, Oscars, terror in the skies . . . and the…