Digital disruption or disaster?

If the news media is left to sink or swim, who will hold the powerful to account?

- PETER GRIFFIN

You just have to browse the Facebook comments sections to get a sense of what many Kiwis think of the crisis engulfing Three and TVNZ, where hundreds of journalists are set to lose their jobs. The reactions fall into a few categories: "I don't watch TV news anyway", "go woke, go broke", "the media lied to us during the pandemic", "I get my news online anyway" and "Don't axe Fair Go!"

I'm a news junkie so I still sit down to watch the 6pm bulletin, flicking between 1News and Newshub. Those flagship news shows still attract audiences of hundreds of thousands of people.

But there's clearly a growing cohort who may only ever see a 1News report as a clip on YouTube or X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. That sees them straddle the "I get my news online anyway" category too. There are, and will continue to be, numerous local and international news outlets serving current affairs coverage online, freely available and behind paywalls.