MediaRoom: Huge audiences for news sites and TV channels; Plus: The cleanout at MediaWorks radio
Another year, another Level 4 lockdown and another surge in audiences for news outlets - with many seeing demand for news on Covid-19 grow exponentially at times over the past three weeks.
MediaRoom surveyed the major news sites to assess how strong the public appetite for Covid and lockdown news has been this year, after historic levels of interest in the March-May and August months in 2020.
The results were not surprising, given the accelerated threat this time of the Delta variant and with the team of five million mostly at home for the three weeks before this Wednesday in either Level 4 or 3 lockdowns, and now Auckland remaining in the highest level of restriction. People with more time are going online for news updates more often, and for longer.
The New Lynn Countdown terror attack has also prompted high viewership and readership.
The two big free-to-air television broadcasters report their on-air viewing for the daily 1 pm briefings and the 6 pm news has been consistently high.
1News, which traditionally gains the most at times of historic news events, has seen live viewership on television, livestreaming online, plus on-demand viewing for the 1 pm programmes sustained over the three weeks.
"Much like other news sites, we’re seeing an increase in the number of people coming to 1news.co.nz," a TVNZ spokesperson said.
"Live streaming of the 1pm press conferences is a huge driver of this. It follows the trend we’re also seeing on TV Channels and TVNZ OnDemand too. 1 News at Six is reaching nearly a million viewers each night and 1 News at Six and the 1 News Specials (aka the daily press conference) were the second and third most streamed programmes OnDemand last week."
The 1News.co.nz site had its peak day on August 30, with 629,224 unique users, exceeded once this year, on March 5 with 647,007 users when Auckland was in alert level 3.
At TV3's Newshub, which has also gone live for the daily 1 pm updates on air and online, audiences have lifted substantially.
Daily unique visitors to newshub.co.nz are up an average of 32 percent from the beginning of lockdown in the current Covid-19 outbreak until Wednesday, versus the three weeks before lockdown.
Newshub's top day was the first day of the lockdown, August 18, with unique visitors up 70 percent vs the daily average of the previous three weeks.
Newshub director of news Sarah Bristow said “News about Covid-19 fundamentally affects New Zealanders’ lives and livelihoods. Considering the amount of misinformation out there, it’s no surprise Kiwis are seeking out credible and trusted sources for these vital facts.”
The two biggest news websites, Stuff and nzherald.co.nz, have seen huge audience interest throughout. Stuff is up an average of 25 percent on its already mass Kiwi audience since the lockdown, from an average daily audience of 3.2m sessions in the weeks beforehand to 4.3m with New Zealanders in their homes.
Stuff had such a large peak audience on August 20, two days after the Delta lockdown, that it has been publishing advertisements showing how many New Zealanders have turned to the site. The ad, headlined "Stuff's getting real" revealed the Stuff audience hitting 5.5 million sessions on that day. The company said its audience is generally at its highest between 1-2 pm each day in line with the daily Covid-19 government briefings, and it claims the site is the country's number one destination for online Covid updates.
At nzherald.co.nz, "the number of daily website sessions has been consistently above 3 million in the week since the lockdown started - with more than 3.7 million sessions on both Wednesday and Friday August 18 and 20, and total page views on each of those days of more than 11 million. In addition, the NZH had 1.4 million App launches on the first lockdown day, Wednesday August 18, a 127 percent increase compared to July’s average."
The site, which for the past year has held the number one audience nationally on the Nielsen monthly uniques survey ahead of the previously dominant Stuff (which had pulled out of that survey and also from using Facebook to distribute its content) also saw big audience spikes at 1pm.
NZME's managing editor Shayne Currie said: "Our journalists are working around the clock to bring New Zealanders trusted and reliable information - we know the media plays a critical role in not only asking hard questions of those in authority, but also explaining sometimes complex issues and providing understanding of the pandemic and the country's response."
RNZ, which in 2020 saw its radio and online audiences at record levels only to give up some of the on-air audience in the period ahead of this renewed lockdown, achieved its third biggest month of the past two years online in August. Head of digital Megan Whelan said: "We’re reaching 1.13 million users a week – down a little on 2020, and up more than 40 percent since 2019.
"And that’s just our website. Our app is seeing huge growth, people are finding us on social media, and thanks to the dozens of content partnerships we have, as other media also see their traffic grow, RNZ’s trusted journalism is read, listened or watched by more people every day.”
“In times of need, we know people turn to RNZ. According to AUT's research centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy, RNZ is New Zealand’s most trusted news brand and earlier this year was ranked first equal for trustworthiness of Covid-19 reporting", said Whelan.
Newsroom's audience has also grown substantially, with August the highest month for this site since May last year, up two-thirds on 2021 averages, and the highest daily readership in August peaking at nearly 400 percent of standard days pre-lockdown.
Before New Zealanders' news consumption rose so greatly under lockdown the July Nielsen unique monthly audience ratings confirmed nzherald.co.nz in first place, with Stuff, despite its absence from the mighty audience driver that is Facebook, hanging in relatively closely. (Both sites are down on audiences above or around the two million mark achieved at times over the past few years)
The audiences were:
nzherald.co.nz - 1.86 million
stuff.co.nz - 1.78 million
Newshub - 883,000
RNZ - 877,000
TVNZ News - 699,000
Interestingly, during the lockdown, Stuff has returned to posting its content on Facebook - saying it felt it was important that credible Covid news was made available on the global platform - so it is possible it could see a return of its Facebook boost when the August audience numbers are released next week, or from September if that takes time to filter through.
- TM
----
Peter Williams magically disappears from Magic Talk
MediaWorks continues its cleanout of hosts on its talkback radio station – Magic Talk.
The media release sent out by Mediaworks showed the company’s execs have retained their sense of humour despite the tough times they’ve been going through.
Most of the 500-word release was taken up with announcing appointments. Former Newstalk ZB general manager, Dallas Gurney comes in as Director of News and Talk, Ryan Bridge moves into Duncan Garner’s old job co-hosting AM and Newshub journalist Lloyd Burr takes over Bridge’s drive time slot. The new arrivals were quoted as either “excited” or “stoked” to be joining Mediaworks at such an “exciting time”.
Then comes the comical twist. In two paragraphs at the bottom of the release, and in less than 90 words, it is revealed that host Peter Williams is gone – effective immediately. Newsrooms (if there were people in them) would’ve had a good laugh. Apart from governments dropping some bad news on Friday afternoons, few organisations these days try to bury the lead in this way.
Of course, Williams headlined the coverage with immediate effect. Talkback fans of Williams labelled the station ‘woke’ and the management ‘weak’. With John Banks, Sean Plunkett, Peter Williams gone and Duncan Garner stepping away from AM, Magic Talk now has a benign look to it. The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) is unlikely to be kept busy by a line-up of Bridge, Leah Panapa, Danny Watson and Burr. Bridge has stirred the pot a few times but the format and editorial processes of the Discovery-run TV programme will keep him in check.
This new bunch of presenters should smooth the waters at Magic while MediaWorks recovers from its recent sexual harassment and ‘boys club’ debacle. Management had little choice but to embark on a clean out. Another blunder or a moment of bad judgment by a talkback host and the risk of fallout damaging the company’s revenue would be real. The new line-up though, is unlikely to improve the ratings of Magic – a brand clearly on borrowed time.
The job of reinventing MediaWorks’ talk offering will sit with the trio of CEO Cam Wallace, Director of Content Leon Wratt and new man, Dallas Gurney. Mostly, it will be Gurney. The former manager of Newstalk ZB is returning to the radio game after six years working in branded content and advertising. His last role was running a crisis consultancy called Serious.
The Serious website says it has trained “hundreds of senior executives to be crisis fit” and is there “to help you rebuild your brand out the other side.” Rebuilding his new employer’s talkback brand will be a serious test of Gurney’s skills.
- MJ
