In a candid interview, the outgoing New Zealand head of Warner Bros Discovery reflects on two months of upheaval and the Newshub closure, the company’s financial performance, and the importance of empathetic leadership in a crisis. He’s also taken a swipe at what he calls TVNZ’s “bizarre” approach to industry
Media Insider: Outgoing Warner Bros Discovery boss Glen Kyne on the Newshub closure, empathetic leadership and TVNZ’s ‘poor actor’ attitude
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Warner Bros Discovery's Glen Kyne and Stuff's Sinead Boucher announce their new 6pm news deal. Photo / Michael Craig
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Kyne will step down as Warner Bros Discovery head of networks (New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the Pacific Islands) on July 5 - the same day as Newshub closes and the day before a new 6pm bulletin, produced by Stuff, launches on Three.
Asked how he thought TVNZ might respond to the new bulletin, Kyne said: “They will no doubt look to run down - as best they can - anything that we do on that front and try and prioritise their product. And of course, as a competitor, you’d expect them to do that.
“I would just hope that you finally start to see a change in the TVNZ mindset and willingness to collaborate with the sector.”
He said TVNZ had been a “closed organisation” and a “poor actor” in terms of collaborating with WBD in an industry facing challenging economic conditions.
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“We’ve tried multiple times. Multiple times we’ve gone in there and had conversations - probably provoked by previous ministers or previous boards to go, ‘Hey, have a conversation and see what you could do together’. We’ve gone and had conversations with them and [there has been] literally zero follow-up.”
He cites, as an example, a phone call he made to TVNZ in early 2022, offering the same security assistance for a TVNZ journalist that - through its global network - Warner Bros Discovery had organised for its European correspondent Lisette Reymer to cover the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The offer, he says, went unanswered.
He didn’t know why TVNZ had not collaborated more. “I just find it bizarre.”
Warner Bros Discovery has been especially angry about the way TVNZ quickly rejected the idea of a shared news service in February, as a way to cut costs for both businesses.
TVNZ chair Alastair Carruthers and new CEO Jodi O’Donnell attended a meeting with Kyne and RNZ CEO Paul Thompson - TVNZ’s board rejected the idea the next day.
Kyne acknowledges that Warner Bros Discovery did not have a detailed business plan - “it was just an idea” - but one that he believed TVNZ could and should have explored further with itself and RNZ.
“When we explained the issues that were impacting the sector, there was no disagreement. We said, look, here’s an idea and if you think it’s worth following up, let’s have a conversation and put some brains together and see if we can figure it out. But we never got to that.”
He is, he says, “still lost for words, really”.
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“I think they probably thought in a very short-term sense that our loss was their gain ... that’s a behaviour that we’ve seen out of TVNZ forever.”
Kyne believes a shared news service would have given Newshub “a chance”, although he accepts this is hypothetical and impossible to know.
In a response yesterday, TVNZ said the proposal put to it by Warner Bros Discovery was “vague” and included only high-level details on potential timelines and how it might work.
“What Glen did confirm at the meeting was that WBD was not in a position to invest in the shared service,” said a spokeswoman.
“While it would have been a no-risk model for WBD, a global organisation worth US$19 billion, the proposal would have put significant risk and cost on our business at a time when we are facing our own cost challenges.”
The TVNZ spokeswoman said the company was “open and willing” to collaborate within the media sector, and there were several examples of how the company did this, today and historically.
“However, we are also mandated by law to be a commercial organisation and any shared proposals need to make commercial sense for us to be able to pursue them.
“Since being appointed in her role, Jodi has clearly said she is open to collaboration. We agree that the industry can do more in this space.”
Kyne says that with another $70 million in advertising revenue forecast to fall out of the broadcast TV market this year, he’s seen the scope of TVNZ’s cost-savings so far and believes the state broadcaster will be facing even more cuts.
He was “very surprised” the company was axing Sunday.
To remove one of its most viewed shows of the week was “interesting”.
“Sunday night is still a formidable night on broadcast television,” Kyne said.
“To then hear them comment publicly that it was a profitable show ... it was slightly beguiling to understand what they were doing.”
The TVNZ spokeswoman said yesterday: “The profitability of Sunday has declined year on year, and it was not projected to be profitable next year. Sunday is also a brand that is geared towards linear TV and we need to evolve how we bring current affairs to audiences as we shift to a digital-first model.”
In its responses, TVNZ did not directly address Kyne’s belief that the state broadcaster would have to cut more costs.
Kyne says he’s never criticised TVNZ for the quality of its content, or its output. “It’s been good.”
His business has always rued the day in 2013 it lost Home and Away to TVNZ, and with it, the strongest show it’s ever had to lead into the 6pm news hour.
Now, TVNZ enjoys the likes of Home and Away and - on TVNZ 1 - The Chase as a ratings beast for that time of day.
“Yeah, I wish I had it,” says Kyne of the Bradley Walsh-hosted quiz show.
Kyne describes February 28 as a “horrible” day.
He was tearful as he outlined a proposal for widespread cuts, including axing the entire Newshub newsroom and brand. Several weeks later the proposal was confirmed - almost 300 jobs are being cut.
Then, last week, Kyne announced he was out himself.
He says it was his own decision - “my call, 100 per cent” - and one he had landed on after the difficult work had been done: the cutbacks had been confirmed and a new deal with Stuff had been inked.
“The ideal scenario is you get to pick when the timing is right; you don’t want it forced on you.”
His boss, Warner Bros Discovery Asia-Pacific president James Gibbons, had been incredibly respectful and supportive, he said, and head of content and BVOD (broadcast video on demand) Juliet Peterson was ready to step up to take the new-look business forward.
Kyne, who has been in the role for four years, said the company’s New Zealand financial results to be reported this month would highlight the huge economic challenges that the business had been facing.
The bottom-line loss would be worse than the $35 million deficit in 2022, he said.
However, the reshaped business would be in a better position and on a “path to” profitability.
Numbers aside, Kyne has been determined to ensure the human element has been his biggest priority over the past two months.
He’s proud of the way the company and its people have handled the process, wrapping their collective arms around each other.
He says he’s always believed in being an authentic leader. That was on display on February 28.
“I was upset on that day. I didn’t think I was going to be the CEO who was proposing to close down the newsroom, particularly given the love I’ve got for journalism and news, and our people.”
He said there would always be a level of sadness about having to close Newshub but also comfort in the way people had handled themselves.
“I think that we were incredibly honest, caring and empathetic with our people as we worked through it.
“As you’re aware, the subcommittee [a team of senior journalists striving to save a pared-back service] was putting proposals to us - we shared everything with them to give them every opportunity to understand where the business was at and how they could potentially contribute.
“I’m proud of that. I’m proud of our team and just the empathy with which they held on to everyone.”
Various people have also described him as having a calming influence.
“I think that there is a calming - I’m not sure if that’s exactly the right language - but a calming when you accept the circumstances of what you’ve got and you genuinely accept that.
“The calmness with which you’re able to then execute against it and therefore bring calm to others because you’ve just accepted that you’re not fighting internally the decision.”
He said Stuff had won the pitch for the 6pm news bulletin over others - including NZME, a bid led by Newsroom’s Mark Jennings, and an internal staff team - because of its long-term view on how a news service could play out in a future, streaming and digital world. Cost, he said, “wasn’t the main factor at all”.
The new 6pm bulletin - likely to be called Three News - will start on Saturday, July 6. Stuff is expected to announce some of its names for the bulletin as early as today - it is widely expected Samantha Hayes will be named the main newsreader after Mike McRoberts previously announced he was stepping away.
At the moment, Newshub Live at 6 generates an audience of around 200,000 people each night. I ask Kyne if he expects the number to stay at that level.
“We don’t know is the real answer at the moment.
“When we built in the modelling, we built a variance below that and above that, of what the tolerances could be.
“And we’re reflecting that back in our agreement with Stuff to make sure that there are performance measures to make sure it’s fit for purpose.”
He said the two companies were also setting up governance structures to keep a close eye on ratings.
“There’s a lot of subtlety around that news bulletin, very small things that most viewers wouldn’t see or notice, but that can make a big difference to how a viewer stays through that hour - the organisation of stories, what comes after a break, when do we trigger the break?
“So many little broadcasting kind of know-how things.
“We’ve got to make sure we’ve got a very good dialogue with them going on about that all the time.”
Returning to one of his key points, Kyne believes the New Zealand media industry needs to realise who its real competitors are.
“I think the days of thinking that we can compete against one another and survive at a local level are gone,” he said.
“The threat for WBD is not TVNZ. The threat for TVNZ is not WBD. Same with NZME - the threat is not Stuff.
“We’ve got a local media ecosystem that’s already subscale because we’re a small country and the local element of it is getting smaller. The reason it’s getting smaller is because of all of the digital automation happening on the Google, Facebook side of it.”
There was a systemic failure in that a legacy advertising industry was collapsing.
“Everyone has to put their swords down and kind of go, ‘How do we work together?’”
As for Kyne, a father of two teenage children, he says he has no immediate plans other than having a break.
A media industry role may or may not feature in the future - he isn’t at the point of knowing or deciding.
In the short term, he is considering travel and perhaps some executive education overseas.
“I haven’t been able to put a lot of time and energy into thinking about what a break looks like,” he says.
“I’ve done a lot of travel for work. That’s exhausting and what we’ve been going through has been exhausting.
“I just need to have a break and get to know my wife again.
“Hopefully, she still loves me.”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
