New regional news network seeks reporters and backers

This week ads for a new start-up appeared seeking reporters in the regions - and offering salaries reporters only get in the big cities these days. What is Regional News Network? How does it plan to set up the sort of regional coverage big news outlets have struggled to maintain in recent years?This week ads for a new start-up appeared seeking reporters in the regions - and offering salaries reporters only get in the big cities these days. What is Regional News Network? How does it plan to set up the sort of regional coverage big news outlets have struggled to maintain in recent years?When the government recently boosted RNZ's budget, Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson said $3.3 million was set aside "to make National Radio 'national' again because some of the regional services have been restricted or limited." These days RNZ only has full-time reporters in a handful of places outside its Auckland and Wellington headquarters, or smaller bureaux in Christchurch and Hamilton. Other news media outlets cutting back in the regions prompted the publicly-funded Local Democracy Reporting service in 2019. LDR is run by RNZ and covers the cost of reporters in local newsrooms around the country which might otherwise struggle to employ enough journalists to cover significant local and civic stuff.Since 2020, it has been funded via the Public Interest Journalism Fund (PIJF), a three-year initiative which announced its final grants of public money this week. Among them was funding for journalists' jobs in Waikato, Marlborough, Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, Tai Rāwhiti, Otago and some local Auckland communities. But with PIJF now out of time and money, the long-term future of those roles is in doubt. This week, adverts appeared online seeking expressions of interest from reporters in regional New Zealand for a new news network - and advertising salaries reporters might expect only in the big towns and cities. "Pay rates for senior journalists will be in the $90,000 - $120,000 range while juniors will be paid $50,000 - $70,000," ads for Regional News Network said - along with an employee share scheme, a company car and other benefits.But the RNN name is not yet familiar to the journalists it is seeking.RNN is a start-up that is just starting up but has plans to cover 17 locations with a senior and a junior journalist in each, with a head office in Queenstown, and a technical and commercial HQ in Auckland. None of the 17 locations they have in mind are metropolitan. The idea is to create a national network sharing news from under-reported regions. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details