NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business / Companies / Media and marketing

RNZ's attack advertising campaign on rival media cost more than $100,000

NZ Herald
13 May, 2020 05:28 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson. Photo / File

Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson. Photo / File

A controversial ad campaign that drew stinging criticism from commercial media competitors cost its makers RNZ more than $100,000.

The figures were released to Stuff under the Official Information Act and show the state-owned broadcaster spent $107,550 on the "We've got news for you" campaign, which rolled out mostly across Auckland and in social media feeds a month before lockdown.

The campaign was seen as rubbing salt in the wound of declining journalism models, including taking aim at advertising revenue gathering and the New Zealand Herald's Premium initiative, to harness online subscribers through a paywall.

"If you think you have to pay for premium content, we've got news for you," one ad read.

"If it seems like you can't avoid ads online, we've got news for you," read another.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

READ MORE:
• Radio New Zealand sounding less like us by the minute
• Govt to consider replacing RNZ, TVNZ with new public broadcaster
• John Drinnan: Maori TV: $10.6m, RNZ: Zero
• Nats break-in: Business next door also had laptops stolen

The ads noted RNZ did not ask for subscriptions or carry ads, which irked those in commercial media who pointed out that RNZ readers and listeners did pay for its journalism through taxes.

Shayne Currie, managing editor of NZME, owners of the NZ Herald and Newstalk called the ads an attack on the paywall NZME launched last May to fund premium journalism.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's disappointing and disingenuous for taxpayer-funded Radio New Zealand to somehow suggest New Zealanders are not paying for RNZ journalism or journalists," he said.

New Zealand Herald writer Simon Wilson wrote on Twitter that "all news is paid for".

"By advertising, by the cost of the paper at the newsagent, by subscription, by sponsors or, ahem, by taxes. We pay for every second of your news, and for your advertising promotions," he said.

Stuff's chief executive Sinead Boucher told the National Business Review at the time the tone of the campaign was "appalling – to not just promote RNZ's own work but instead to actively undermine other news organisations, who are not state-funded and who slog it out every day".

Discover more

New Zealand

Revealed: How Facebook, Google really track you - and what you can do

03 Mar 04:00 PM
Business

Aussie to make Facebook and Google pay for news content

19 Apr 06:52 PM
New Zealand|politics

Govt considering making Google and Facebook pay for NZ journalism

20 Apr 03:30 AM
Opinion

Social media giants must be made to pay

20 Apr 08:32 PM

The ads, on the backs of buses, roadside billboards, on Facebook and even in podcasts, were cast as undermining RNZ's efforts to help its commercial media counterparts survive.

The irony of New Zealand taxpayers funding advertising on Facebook that aimed to drive readers away from commercial media was a double blow, given Facebook and Google's stranglehold on advertising is contributing to the demise of mainstream media.

"Using taxpayer funding to advertise on Facebook is wrong-headed and counter to supporting that plurality of media voices ... especially when the domestic media here would have provided them greater reach than they're paying a global platform with a questionable moral compass for," Stuff's editorial director Mark Stevens told The Spinoff.

An RNZ spokesperson told RNZ's Mediawatch in early March it uses Facebook to maximise reach to target audiences.

New Zealand Herald managing editor Shayne Currie was one of several who was disappointed with an RNZ ad campaign that has now been revealed as costing over $100,000. Photo / Michael Craig
New Zealand Herald managing editor Shayne Currie was one of several who was disappointed with an RNZ ad campaign that has now been revealed as costing over $100,000. Photo / Michael Craig

RNZ head of audience engagement, Stephen Smith, told Mediawatch the broadcaster had in the past only made modest efforts to communicate what it had to offer and suggested that might be why other media did not support RNZ's efforts to engage with New Zealanders.

"In addition to making great content we have an obligation to let the public know of its availability, where to access it on digital platforms and that it has benefits we believe that the public value such as strong and in-depth journalism, no advertising or advertorial content and no requirement to pay a subscription to gain access and use," he told Mediawatch.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Some of the slogans used in the campaign communicate those benefits."

A spokesperson for RNZ told Stuff today the campaign wasn't intended to grow market share at the expense of other outlets.

"RNZ has a small budget for marketing its services in order to reach as many New Zealanders as possible.

"The intent of the campaign was not to gain market share for RNZ at the expense of print publications but instead to raise RNZ's profile with people who are not aware of the publicly-funded services we provide," they said.

The spokesperson said the campaign had ended.

Just weeks ago in lockdown commercial media heads told Parliament's Epidemic Response Committee they were battling the ongoing bleeding of their ad revenue to Facebook and Google.

The same day Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government would continue to advertise with Google and Facebook because that's where New Zealanders are.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Media and marketing

Markets with Madison

'Look mom, I made it to Times Square!': How Kiwi brand-tracking company celebrated a major milestone

Business

Entrepreneur Bowen Pan on why he returned to NZ

Watch
Business

Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Media and marketing

'Look mom, I made it to Times Square!': How Kiwi brand-tracking company celebrated a major milestone
Markets with Madison

'Look mom, I made it to Times Square!': How Kiwi brand-tracking company celebrated a major milestone

The co-founders reveal the software start-up's global growth figures.

10 Jul 07:00 PM
Entrepreneur Bowen Pan on why he returned to NZ
Business

Entrepreneur Bowen Pan on why he returned to NZ

Watch
05 Jul 12:00 AM
Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back
Business

Silicon Valley to NZ: Kiwi Facebook Marketplace inventor is back home to give back

05 Jul 12:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP