The Government is planning on a second media handout “Support package” before the election. Mainstream media, like businesses everywhere in New Zealand, have lost a huge amount of revenue. However, mainstream media, unlike every other small or large business, are being given government money to help make up for that lost revenue.
They have been singled out as being essential to New Zealand’s democracy over and above every other business.
The BFD‘s advertising revenue has been hit hard just like every other online business’s. We will succeed or fail based on our subscription revenue. If our readers want us to survive and grow and provide more content then they will support us to do that and currently, despite the hard times, our subscription numbers are growing every day.
Mainstream media, on the other hand, are not allowed to fail. If they had to rely 100% on their audience to keep them afloat like The BFD does then they would go out of business. They have failed to adapt to the new reality of online news. They were too slow to change to an online subscription model. The exception to this is The Spinoff who are doing extremely well with over 10,000 paying members and whose example The BFD is determined to follow.
[…] some aspects, such as the regulation of online platforms, will likely be delayed.
Meanwhile, its public broadcasting shake-up is still “on ice” as it focuses on the wider media sector.
[…] A second package of support media support is being developed for the wider media sector.
In March, he announced media companies would get help worth $50 million to help them cope with a huge drop in income during the coronavirus crisis.
It is not surprising that the government is planning to bring in new online regulations soon after handing out the “Media Aid”. There is no such thing as a free lunch and they will want some measure of control over an industry that they will see more now than ever as state run.
My concern is that the upcoming “online regulation” will be aimed not at state-funded mainstream media but at audience funded media like The BFD. My fear is that it will be like Andrew Little’s proposed hate speech legislation, a Trojan horse for silencing opinions that the Government doesn’t like.
By all means, regulate mainstream media that take significant state ‘aid’ from the government, but completely independent New Media should be left alone.
It was the first stage of a two-stage plan to assist the media and would not be sufficient on its own to see the sector through a prolonged period of restrictions and reduced advertising, he said
[..] There are some longer term things we discussed around regulation of online platforms, which might take a bit longer,” Faafoi said.
I would give a lot to know what kind of “regulation of online platforms” Faafoi is referring to. This government is not a supporter of freedom of speech and any attempt at regulation of online platforms can only be viewed with trepidation.
The same people the Government had looking after public media would now look at the wider media sector changes, he said.
“Our focus had to change pretty swiftly from sorting out our own house with TVNZ and RNZ to looking after the sector as a whole.”
I have a message for Faafoi and it is very simple. New Media don’t want to be “looked after” by your government. New Media want to be left alone to do what they do best, which is delivering to their audience what they want and what they pay for without government money or government interference.
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