Minister of Media and Communications Paul Goldsmith says coming up with solutions will "take a little bit of time". Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The media industry is "under pressure", Paul Goldsmith says as he takes up the role of Minister of Media and Communications.
Melissa Lee has been replaced after just seven months in the role in which she promised new policy to address the media's acute problems.
It is a tricky job that some predecessors have cited as a reason for resigning - or even quitting politics altogether.
"I wouldn't say the system is broken," Goldsmith told Morning Report.
But for a democracy to run successfully, it was important to have a "functioning, sustainable media".
He said in a constrained economic environment, the government could not pay for everything, but it could make changes to make things easier for media companies.
One way would be making legislative changes.
"Part of the solution is to try and level the playing field as best we can between what you might describe as traditional providers and the streamers," Goldsmith said.
In his second day on the job he would not say exactly how it would do that.
"You've got some real challenges with the massive power that the big streaming companies have, and the impact that that's having on revenue," he said.
He would be talking to key players and form his own opinions.
"It'll take a little bit of time but I'm conscious of the fact that there's some urgency in in some matters that we've got to deal with."
The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, which would make social media companies like Meta and Google pay New Zealand media companies to use their content online, went before select committee in February. Its response is expected in May.
Lee had previously said she did not support the bill, introduced by the Labour government, "in its current form".
In the past decade, there had been a dramatic change in the way people consumed news and how revenue was generated, he said.
Lee had done her "very best" in the role, Goldsmith said.
She held the media portfolio for the National Party since 2017.
She was under pressure and faced repeated questions about what the government would do about the closure of Newshub.
Lee's removal from Cabinet was a "recognition that there is a lower workload" and did not mean she would not return to Cabinet at a later date, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had said.
"The prime minister has asked me to do the job and I'm going to do the best I can which is identify the challenges that we've got and plot a path forward," Goldsmith said.
"The coalition is working very well at the moment and I'm going to carry on in that vein," he said.
Government must introduce levy on global platforms - media commentator
The media industry is hoping Goldsmith will do more than Lee in the role.
"We as an industry are hoping that he can bring a much more acute focus to the role. Lee just didn't seem to be interested and didn't seem to want to discuss the issues, certainly not publicly anyway," Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings told Morning Report..
He said Lee possibly had good ideas, but had trouble presenting them to Cabinet.
"The media is in trouble on a whole number of fronts. And if you look at the problems in the industry, they are different for print, free-to-air television, radio, and digital sites.
"So it is quite hard to come up with a solution that can work across all of those sections of the media."
He agreed with Luxon the media landscape was complex and said Lee had underperformed.
But it was worrying Luxon was saying there were not many levers available to Goldsmith, Jennings said.
"It is suggesting that they may not be able to do much. I think there are a lot of levers available to them - it's whether they are prepared to pull on them."
He said countries overseas had measures and subsidies to support the media.
"We need a levy on the global platforms because they are taking 90 percent of the digital advertising dollars. That makes media in this country unsustainable.
"That's a lever that has to be pulled."
If not, there would be a continual drain of journalists out of New Zealand's media industry.
He doubted a TVNZ-RNZ merger would come up again.
"We need more diversity, more new services in this country, not less. And not one monolithic one, that's for sure."
