David Farrar: Which media the right don’t trust at all

The AUT Trust in Media survey had this graph [below]:

It shows many NZers who are on the right are allergic to Radio NZ, TVNZ, Stuff, The Spinoff and Three News. Those newsrooms could consider what they could do to change that.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing: - New Zealand's media trust is still in crisis

The annual AUT report on trust in New Zealand’s news media is out today, and the headlines reporting it are mostly positive. This is because trust is up. The decline has stopped, for now. Unsurprisingly, some media organisations are already taking a victory lap. Be sceptical.

Yes, there has been a genuine improvement. For the first time since the survey began in 2020, the number of New Zealanders who say they trust the news in general has risen: from 32% last year to 37%. Trust in the news people personally consume also edged up to 50%, from 45% in 2025. The improvement is real. But the context matters enormously, and it’s easy to lose sight of it amid the cheerful framing.

David Farrar: The silence of the media

Cameron Slater exclusively reported on allegations by long-time union leader Matt McCarten against Willie Jackson and his wife around bullying at the Manukau Urban Maori Authority. I blogged about this four days ago.

With the exception of The Platform, no media outlet has reported on the allegations. This is highly unusual. Even if you don’t think the allegations stack up, the fact a union leader is accusing a Labour MP of workplace bullying and locking a union out is newsworthy. You would expect the media would at least do a “He says, she says”.

JC: Is Goldsmith Out of Touch?

Paul Goldsmith’s recent comments on the taxpayer-owned entities Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand bear little relation to global movements within the media landscape. His aspirations for these two media outlets cannot possibly be realised unless certain undertakings are made, of which no reference was made in his remarks.

Graham Adams: NZ Herald struggles with how to gain readers’ trust

Manurewa Marae ‘scoop’ falls between clickbait and journalism.

Last week, NZME, the owners of the NZ Herald, announced 38 newsroom staff would be losing their jobs.

Most of those being dismissed were “production journalists”, which includes sub-editors. The Herald has undertaken culls of such employees several times over recent decades. Inevitably, the ensuing rash of grammatical and spelling mistakes in their publications, along with plain gobbledegook, means at least some of them will soon need to be rehired.

Cam Slater: Don’t Like Survey Results? No Matter – Rig Your Own

In New Zealand only one other group is as tone deaf as the politicians: the woke legacy media, who were so shell shocked at academic research in New Zealand showing that trust in media has fallen alarmingly that when the news first broke they blamed their lying audience.

Peter Williams: How can media survive?

In an industry never afraid to report on itself it’s no surprise that this Sunday’s (taxpayer funded) Q and A on TV1 is addressing the matter of how media can survive in 2024 and beyond, and probably what a future media landscape in New Zealand will look like.

I know this because I was one of the people interviewed for the story, along with founder of The Platform and my old Magic Talk colleague, Sean Plunket. No doubt others with some relevant experience will feature too.