Te Māngai Pāho Chief executive Larry Parr. Photo: Supplied/Te Māngai Pāho
Māori Media is in for a shakeup with funding agency Te Māngai Pāho resurrecting the idea of a "national hub" for Māori news.
The Minister in charge the last time the idea was floated in 2020 said there could still be opportunities in a centralised news service, as long as it didn't compromise the ability of Māori to tell their own stories.
Former Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta told RNZ the 'Māori Media Sector Shift' which culminated in a report released in 2020, had a number of drivers including future proofing Māori media for the digital age.
The proposal generated pushback from the industry at the time and Mahuta said while there was opportunity in bringing the idea back, it was not so simple.
Funding agency Te Māngai Pāho. Photo: Supplied
"I don't think it's as simple as saying 'it wasn't accepted then but it should be accepted now', there are competing pressures around who's funding Māori media and therefore the system has to adjust accordingly."
This time the idea is being proposed by funding agency Te Māngai Pāho, which released its latest Request for Proposals (RFP), outlining how Māori news and current affairs producers can apply for funding.
Te Māngai Pāho Chief Executive Larry Parr (Ngāti Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga) said it was time to have a look at the Māori News and Current Affairs space to make sure they got the best outcomes for te reo Māori from the money being spent.
In 2022, Te Māngai Pāho was allocated $5m of funding for three years to expand Māori regional news providers - that funding expires in June 2026.
The RFP outlines that "the potential reduction of funding beyond 2026 requires us to transition to a much more collaborative model to ensure the sustainability of the news and current affairs eco-system."
"It is going to be transformational... Our funding is under pressure and we need to be making moves to demonstrate that we are using the money well, and I think that out of this we will get some really good results," Parr said.
National hub for Māori News
Te Māngai Pāho has set aside $2 million to support the establishment of a national hub for Māori news content.
Its core function would be to provide centralised storage of news items from regional news providers and manage access rights to approved platforms and publishers.
"This time around we're still funding Māori news content, we're still funding Māori current affairs content, but we are also funding a national hub.
"Where, hopefully, all of the news and current affairs content that we fund will end up, and then publishers can access that content and publish it on their platforms as they wish," Parr said.
The regional capacity of Māori news had been developed and now it was time to take that to the next level, he said.
Currently regional providers like Aukaha in Waikato and Rotorua, Pūkaea in the Bay of Plenty and Tahu News in the South Island share content with Te Ao Māori News and Te Karere.
Former Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Mahuta said regional providers like iwi radio stations had shown they could generate news within their regions that were not only popular, but were being conveyed on many different platforms.
"It's about our stories being told in our way because it's relevant to what we see as important in our society. Often mainstream news does not capture that."
There were opportunities that fell off having a centralised news service, she said.
"Well I hope that a centralised hub news service for Māori news doesn't mean that people have to compromise the ability to tell their own stories. The whole idea of having a Māori news service is that it is setting the tempo and the pace of the stories that are important to Māori communities."
Parr said he wasn't sure the idea of a centralised news hub had been "seriously contemplated" before, including when the Māori Media Sector Shift was proposed.
"There was an excess of mana motuhake in the atmosphere, the hubs were focussed on trying to acquire the best kaimahi... that's the sort of competition that I allude to when I saw there is an excess of competition and we didn't incentivise collaboration as much as might have," he said.
Parr said the current model encouraged competition leading to "too much energy wasted" on trying to be the best Māori news programme.
Current Affairs
Te Māngai Pāho has $3 million on the table for Māori current affairs content. That's split between $1.8 million for fluent te reo content and $1.2 million for "receptive content" which is 30 to 70 percent in te reo.
Parr said a lot would depend on the quality proposals, but Te Māngai Pāho reserved the right to spend more or less than the funding indicated.
If they were faced with a challenging choice between two good proposals, they could decide to fund them both, he said.
"The biggest pressure is going to come on the fact that we are going to preference a fluent te reo Māori current affairs strand, and that will take funding from other areas I suspect."
Applications for the RFP close on the 27th of August, with decisions announced in September.
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