Democracy depends on an informed public. People need to know what their government is doing, what problems their country faces, and what different solutions involve — before they can participate meaningfully in decisions about how they are governed. The media — journalism, broadcasting, digital platforms — is the primary mechanism through which that information reaches most people.
In New Zealand that mechanism is under serious strain. The journalism workforce has roughly halved since 2006. Major newsrooms have closed. Trust in news has fallen sharply. Social media platforms have become primary sources of information for millions of New Zealanders, with no obligation to accuracy or context. And the business model that funded journalism for a century — advertising revenue flowing to newspapers and broadcasters — has largely collapsed.
Understanding how media and information shape public understanding in New Zealand means understanding both how the system is supposed to work, how it is changing, and what is at stake if it continues to decline.
How the Media Landscape Is Structured
New Zealand's media landscape includes public broadcasters, commercial media companies, digital-native outlets, community media, and Māori media.
Public broadcasting Radio New Zealand — RNZ — is the publicly funded national broadcaster, operating AM, FM and digital radio networks plus a significant online news operation. It receives government funding and is required to provide independent, impartial journalism in the public interest. RNZ has consistently ranked among the most trusted news sources in New Zealand and is the closest equivalent to the BBC in the New Zealand context.
TVNZ — Television New Zealand — is a state-owned enterprise operating TV One and TV2. Unlike RNZ it is commercially funded through advertising and expected to operate commercially, which creates tension between its public broadcasting mandate and its commercial imperatives. A proposed merger between TVNZ and RNZ — which would have created a single public media entity — was announced by the previous government and then abandoned after significant spending on planning work, representing one of the more expensive policy reversals in New Zealand media history.
Whakaata Māori — Māori Television — is a publicly funded broadcaster providing Māori-language and Māori-focused content. It has shown notably growing trust among New Zealand audiences in recent years.
Commercial media The commercial media landscape is dominated by two main companies. NZME owns the New Zealand Herald — the country's largest newspaper — Newstalk ZB, and various regional newspapers and radio stations. Stuff — formerly Fairfax New Zealand — owns a network of newspapers and websites including The Dominion Post, The Press, and Stuff.co.nz. Allied Press, primarily based in Otago and Southland, publishes the Otago Daily Times — consistently one of New Zealand's most trusted news brands — and various regional papers.
Warner Bros Discovery operated Three and Newshub — one of New Zealand's two main commercial television news operations — until 2024, when it closed Newshub entirely, ending its news operation and making TVNZ the only significant commercial television news broadcaster.
Digital-native outlets Newsroom, The Spinoff, BusinessDesk, and the National Business Review are among a cohort of digital-native journalism outlets that have grown in significance as traditional media has contracted. These outlets have found varying models for sustainability — subscription, membership, public funding, and commercial revenue.
Māori and community media Alongside Whakaata Māori, a network of iwi radio stations provides local and Māori-language broadcasting across the country. Waatea News, E Tangata, and other Māori-focused outlets contribute important perspectives that mainstream media does not always provide. Community newspapers and local digital publications continue in many towns and regions, though their numbers have declined significantly.
The Economic Crisis in Journalism
New Zealand's journalism sector is in the middle of a structural economic crisis that has been building for two decades and accelerated sharply in 2024.
The underlying cause is straightforward. Advertising revenue — which funded journalism for most of the twentieth century — has migrated from newspapers and broadcasters to global digital platforms, primarily Google and Meta. Google Search and Facebook have become the dominant venues for the advertising that once supported local news organizations. That revenue does not return to journalism — it flows to technology companies based overseas.
The consequences have been severe and compound:
The number of journalist occupations in New Zealand fell from over 4,000 in 2006 to around 2,000 by the 2018 census. Following the wave of cuts in 2024 — including the closure of Newshub, major cuts at TVNZ, job losses at NZME and Stuff — the total was estimated at approximately 1,400. This is fewer than the number of journalists employed by the New York Times alone.
Newshub — one of New Zealand's two main television news operations — closed entirely in mid-2024. Approximately 300 journalists and production staff lost their jobs. TVNZ's staffing fell from around 735 in 2023 to fewer than 600 by early 2025, with flagship programmes including Sunday, Fair Go, and midday and late news bulletins axed. NZME closed 14 community newspapers. Stuff closed its Taupō Times.
The concept of news deserts — communities with no resident journalist and no local news coverage — has emerged as a real concern. In places where a local reporter once held councils, courts, and businesses to account, there is now silence. When no one is watching, things happen that never get reported.
RNZ — historically insulated from commercial pressure by its public funding — has not been immune. Government funding was reduced over the forward estimates from 2024, leading RNZ to call for voluntary redundancies and propose editorial and broadcasting cuts.
The proposed Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill — legislation that would have required major digital platforms to negotiate payment to news publishers for the use of their content — was placed on hold in 2024, leaving New Zealand behind Australia where similar legislation has produced real results for news publishers.
The Trust Crisis
Trust in New Zealand news media has declined dramatically. In 2020, 53 percent of New Zealanders said they trusted most news most of the time. By 2025 that figure had fallen to 32 percent — a drop of more than 20 percentage points in five years.
This is a striking and alarming trend. The AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy Research Centre's annual Trust in News reports — produced in collaboration with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford — have tracked this decline since 2020 and their findings carry significant weight.
The good news, such as it is, is that by 2025 the decline appeared to be stabilizing. Trust in general news fell only one percentage point between 2024 and 2025 — a significant slowing after the sharp drops of earlier years. Trust in individual New Zealand news brands actually improved in 2025, with RNZ ranked as the most trusted news brand, followed by the Otago Daily Times, and TVNZ and NBR in third place. Whakaata Māori showed particularly strong recovery in trust.
But stabilizing at 32 percent general trust means that roughly two in every three New Zealanders do not trust most of what they read and watch. That is a fragile foundation for an informed democracy.
The reasons for declining trust are multiple and contested. Misinformation proliferating on social media has created an environment where distinguishing reliable from unreliable information requires active effort that many people do not make or do not know how to make. Perceptions of media bias — from all parts of the political spectrum — have driven distrust, though what different people mean by bias varies enormously. The pandemic generated significant distrust in institutional authority including media. And the genuine failures and errors of journalism — when they occur — receive disproportionate attention compared to the daily work of reliable reporting.
News avoidance has grown alongside declining trust. One third of New Zealanders described themselves as worn out by the amount of news in 2025. Three quarters of New Zealanders said they avoided the news at least sometimes in 2024. New Zealand has among the highest rates of news avoidance of any country measured.
Where New Zealanders Get Their Information
The platforms through which New Zealanders consume news have shifted dramatically over the past decade and continue to shift.
Television — primarily TVNZ — remains the largest single source of news. But the dominance of television is declining as audiences, particularly younger ones, migrate to digital platforms.
Facebook has become the second most important source of news for New Zealanders despite declining trustworthiness — a telling combination. People use it not because they trust it but because it is where they spend time and where news finds them rather than requiring them to seek it out.
YouTube has grown significantly as a news source. Instagram and TikTok — particularly TikTok for younger audiences — have become sources of news for growing numbers of New Zealanders. These platforms are designed for engagement rather than accuracy. Content that provokes strong emotional responses — outrage, fear, excitement — spreads further and faster than balanced, careful analysis. The incentives built into these platforms do not reward journalism.
Around 24 percent of New Zealanders paid for at least some digital news in 2024 — placing New Zealand third internationally behind Norway and Sweden in news subscription rates. This reflects genuine engagement with quality journalism but also reveals the challenge: those most willing to pay for quality news are largely those already engaged and informed, while the broader information environment remains dominated by free platforms with limited standards.
Misinformation and Disinformation
The same digital environment that has eroded journalism's economic base has created ideal conditions for misinformation — false or misleading information — and disinformation — information deliberately intended to deceive.
Social media platforms algorithmically amplify content that generates engagement. False information — particularly information that triggers fear, anger, or tribal identity — often spreads more widely and quickly than accurate reporting. This is not a bug in the platforms — it is a feature of engagement-maximizing design. The result is an information environment in which rumour, conspiracy theory, and deliberate falsehood can circulate at scale before any corrective information reaches the same audience.
New Zealand has not been immune to these dynamics. During the Covid-19 pandemic, significant misinformation about vaccines and public health measures circulated on New Zealand social media, contributing to public confusion and, in some cases, to the occupation of Parliament grounds in early 2022. The influence of overseas political and conspiracy narratives — particularly from the United States — has become increasingly visible in New Zealand's online discourse.
AI-generated content is an emerging dimension of the same problem. Sixty percent of New Zealanders in 2025 said they were uncomfortable with news mainly produced by AI with some human oversight. The capacity to generate plausible-sounding false content at scale — including fake quotes, fake events, and fake images — represents a significant new challenge for the information environment.
New Zealand has limited regulatory tools for addressing misinformation. Broadcasting standards — which require accuracy, balance, and fairness — apply to television and radio broadcasters and content derived from them. The New Zealand Media Council's principles apply to members. But the vast majority of content circulating on social media and in online spaces operates outside any standards framework. Platforms governed by US law face minimal requirements in New Zealand.
The Role of Media in Democracy
Journalism performs several functions essential to democratic society that are not provided by any other institution.
It investigates and exposes — finding out what governments, corporations, and powerful individuals are doing and reporting it to the public. Without this function, accountability for the exercise of power diminishes.
It explains and contextualizes — helping people understand complex issues in ways that allow them to form views and make decisions. Tax policy, health system reform, climate change — these are genuinely complex topics that require explanation, not just announcement.
It provides a shared information commons — a set of facts that most people accept as real and that provides a foundation for public debate. Without shared information, debate becomes impossible and people retreat into information bubbles that confirm existing beliefs.
It amplifies voices that would not otherwise be heard — holding space for communities and perspectives that formal power structures overlook.
When these functions are not performed — because the journalism workforce is too small, because trust is too low, because the economic model is broken — the information environment deteriorates in ways that affect the quality of democratic decision-making. Communities that lose their local journalists lose their ability to hold local power to account. Policy debates conducted without reliable shared information become more polarized and less productive.
Media Regulation and Standards
New Zealand has a layered system of media regulation and standards.
The Broadcasting Standards Authority — the BSA — oversees broadcasting standards for television and radio, including accuracy, balance, fairness, and good taste and decency. It receives and rules on complaints. In recent years complaints about accuracy and balance have become the dominant category, reflecting the shift in public concern toward the quality of news rather than content standards.
The New Zealand Media Council sets standards for print and online news, receiving complaints about accuracy, fairness, and privacy.
Press freedom is well protected in New Zealand. The World Press Freedom Index ranked New Zealand 16th in 2025 — a high ranking though down from 5th in 2016. Libel laws follow the English model. There are no licensing of journalists and no prior restraint on publication except in limited circumstances.
The significant gap in the regulatory landscape is online platforms. Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms that now serve as major news sources for New Zealanders operate outside New Zealand's broadcasting and media standards frameworks. They are governed primarily by their own community standards, which vary and are inconsistently enforced, and by US law.
What Is at Stake
The convergence of declining journalism resources, falling trust, and a digital information environment without adequate standards creates genuine risks for New Zealand's democracy and social cohesion.
Communities without local journalists lose the mechanism through which local governments, councils, courts, and businesses are held to account. Power exercised without scrutiny tends to be exercised less carefully. This is not theoretical — it is documented in countries and regions where news deserts have developed.
Public understanding of complex issues depends on sustained journalism. Housing policy, health reform, climate response, economic management — these are not issues that social media posts explain well. They require explanation, context, and sustained coverage over time. As the journalism workforce shrinks, the depth and quality of that coverage diminish.
Shared information is a precondition for functional political debate. When different people operate from entirely different sets of facts — a reality increasingly enabled by algorithmically curated information bubbles — debate becomes more difficult and more polarized. Social cohesion depends on some common understanding of reality.
Where Things Are Heading
New Zealand's media landscape will continue to change. The question is whether the change produces a sustainable information ecosystem that serves democracy or a continued decline toward news deserts, falling trust, and an information environment dominated by platforms without adequate standards.
The signals in 2025 were mixed. Trust in individual news brands improved — suggesting that high-quality journalism still builds credibility. The rate of trust decline slowed — suggesting the nadir may be approaching. Audiences expressed strong demand for local news — suggesting the desire for quality information persists even as consumption habits shift.
But the structural economic pressures have not been resolved. Advertising revenue continues to flow to global platforms rather than to journalism. The journalism workforce remains far smaller than it was a generation ago. News deserts are emerging in communities that previously had local coverage.
Responses being considered or trialed include media regulation that requires digital platforms to fund local journalism, direct government funding for public interest journalism, subscription models, philanthropy, and community ownership. None of these alone is sufficient. Sustaining a journalism ecosystem adequate to New Zealand's democratic needs will likely require a combination — and sustained political commitment that has not yet materialized at the scale the problem demands.
Quick Q&A
What are the most trusted news sources in New Zealand? The 2025 Trust in News report ranked RNZ as the most trusted news brand, followed by the Otago Daily Times in second place, and TVNZ and NBR tied in third. Whakaata Māori, Iwi Radio, and The Spinoff showed the strongest recovery in trust from the previous year.
Why has trust in news fallen so sharply? Multiple overlapping factors — misinformation circulating on social media creating generalized distrust, perceptions of media bias from across the political spectrum, genuine failures in journalism, the influence of overseas political narratives that are skeptical of institutional authority, and the pandemic period which generated distrust in institutional information more broadly.
What is a news desert? A community — typically a region or town — where there is no resident journalist covering local affairs. Without local journalism, local councils, courts, and businesses operate without the scrutiny that journalism provides. News deserts have become a growing concern in New Zealand as community newspapers have closed and local journalism positions have been cut.
What is the Broadcasting Standards Authority? The government agency responsible for overseeing broadcasting standards in New Zealand. It receives and rules on complaints about accuracy, balance, fairness, and decency in television and radio broadcasting. In recent years accuracy and balance complaints have become the dominant category. Most online content does not fall within its jurisdiction.
Can social media platforms be required to fund New Zealand journalism? The government has been considering a Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill that would require major platforms to negotiate payment to news publishers. This was placed on hold in 2024. Australia has implemented similar legislation with real results. The question of how to ensure that the economic value platforms derive from journalism flows back to support journalism is one of the central policy debates in media.
Key Takeaway
The media and information environment is how most New Zealanders come to understand what is happening in their country and the world. A healthy democracy requires a journalism sector capable of investigating, explaining, and holding power to account — and a public that can distinguish reliable information from misinformation. Both are under serious strain in New Zealand. The journalism workforce has roughly halved since 2006. Trust in news has fallen to 32 percent. Social media platforms that optimize for engagement rather than accuracy have become the primary news sources for millions of people. These are not trivial problems. They are structural challenges to the information foundation that democracy depends on.
Keep Exploring
NZ's Building Blocks → What RNZ is and how it is funded → What the Broadcasting Standards Authority does → What the New Zealand Media Council does → How the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill works → What press freedom means and how it is protected
NZ: How It Works → How Government Works in New Zealand → How Parliament Works in New Zealand → How Inequality Works in New Zealand → How Technology Is Changing New Zealand
Sources
AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy Research Centre — Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand 2025
AUT — Trust in News Report 2025
Science Media Centre — Trust in Media Stabilizing, Report Shows, April 2025
Wikipedia — Mass Media in New Zealand
RNZ — Media Under the Sinking Lid in 2024
RNZ — Cuts and Closures in New Zealand's News Media Industry
NZ Herald — Media Insider: News Deserts Emerging in New Zealand
The Spinoff — Trust in News Media: Why Standards Still Matter, October 2025
The Spinoff — How Many Journalism Jobs Are Left in Aotearoa?
Democracy Project — What's to Blame for the Public's Plummeting Trust in the Media?