The future of DTNZ

Dear readers and supporters,

I sincerely thank you all for your support in 2024.

I would also like to thank those authors and writers who generously gave their permission for DTNZ to publish their work, and for those who contact us with messages of support.

2024 was a wild year, news-wise, and 2025 looks to be no different, judging by the first few days of January.

DTNZ’s readership continues to grow each month, peaking in December 2024 at 120,000, for a total annual readership for 2024 of close to 1.5 million. These are conservative figures as the three analytics services we use all give different numbers! – although the trends across all three are unmistakable.

In addition to New Zealand, a growing number of readers are accessing the site from Western Europe, Australia and the USA.

We are still well down on the heady days of late 2021/early 2022 in terms of readership numbers, but one must put these figures in the context of continuing and severe Big Tech censorship which has targeted the website since around February/March 2022. Even today, even on ‘free speech platform’ X, our posts (even on mundane non-controversial topics) are sometimes flagged as ‘Inappropriate Content’ when retweeted.

Despite this the numbers and trends over 2024, and into the beginning of 2025, are encouraging.

The future of DTNZ

Last November we reached our three year milestone. An excellent foundation has been laid by all of you who read, share and contribute to DTNZ.

It is important now for the website to take the next step in its development.

There is an opportunity for all of us, readers and independent media, to change and influence the media landscape in New Zealand even further.

We all know the legacy media is facing a multitude of issues.

The root cause of its problems come down to one core factor, in my opinion: They are ‘For Profit’ entities that solely exist to make their shareholders money. As we have seen over the last few years, the interests of those deep-pocketed, often foreign-based shareholders and their related corporations, often does not coincide with the facts, or the interests of New Zealand.

While profit is not as much of a factor for state-owned media, the tax-payer funded platforms will always be ideologically captured by whatever the prevailing legacy media narrative is.

The key factor in DTNZ being able to take the next step is funding.

As the website grows in size and readership, so do the costs. Apart from a small window of three months back in early 2022 when we were accepting donations*, I have funded the costs out of my own pocket.

Additionally, DTNZ is banned from all the major online advertising networks. Although a significant amount of income has been lost as a result, I have come to see this as a blessing in disguise due to the prevalence of ‘triggered cancel culture’, which has forced us to explore ways of being self-sufficient in terms of ad systems. Even if accepted onto a traditional ad network, there is a risk of being cancelled at any moment.

Late last year the development of an internal system for serving ads on DTNZ was completed. A small number of ads are currently in this system.

As we do not track or store user/visitor information or behaviour, the ads are not ‘targeted’ and will be served on a purely random basis.

The number, size and position of ad slots on DTNZ will not change from what you see today. Ads will be static and non-obtrusive to maximise reader experience and economise server resources – no annoying video ‘pop ups’, ‘pop unders’ or animated ads.

Ad packages will be sold direct to kiwi businesses at very reasonable rates. Information about this will be provided at a later date.

The ability to donate will be re-introduced, with the maximum donation amount set at $5 only. I know there are many of you out there who would like to donate more than $5, but please, $5 is sufficient if a small percentage of readers donate each month. Also, the cost of living crisis is far from over (it’s getting worse in my opinion), with a pound of butter costing nearly $10 in the supermarket these days.

The website will continue to use affiliate links in promoted content material.

The domain name ‘dailytelegraph.co.nz’, which I own, will be transferred to a company.

The enterprise will be run on a strictly not-for-profit basis, with excess funds either re-invested to fund more journalism, kept in reserve to cover unforeseen costs or developments, or donated to charity or other independent media platforms (or a combination of these).

Full transparency will be provided with the publishing on DTNZ of half-yearly income and expenditure reports and annual accounts.

In an ideal world sufficient revenue will be generated to fund, in time:

• The costs of hosting the website
• Server and cybersecurity infrastructure to handle growth
• Subscriptions (ie. cybersecurity, stock photos and video etc)
• 1 x fulltime journalist
• Freelance journalist(s)
• 1 x freelance video creator
• Contributions to authors – to be clear, no author has ever asked for payment but I would like to try and give something back.

The company form is the cheapest and fastest way to get the ball rolling. Details of it will be provided in due course.

The ultimate goal is to have the website under the ownership and direction of an appropriate entity or company made up of like-minded people, to deliver independent news to kiwis on a completely not-for-profit and transparent funding basis. Advice will need to be taken at the time on the most suitable organisational structure.

All transfers of the domain name ownership, from me to the company, and from the company to any successor entity, will be at a price of zero dollars ($0) – cheaper than Stuff!

The bloated and greed-driven ‘for-profit’ newsrooms and ownership models of the legacy media need to be buried once and for all, and with the help of kiwis from all walks of life, in supporting our advertisers, reading and sharing our stories, as well as those of other independent media and voices, we can achieve that goal.

The future of trusted media is in small independently owned teams of journalists, creators and IT specialists who come together to pursue, and publish, the truth.

None of the above in any way affects the daily operations of DTNZ in the meantime. I believe it is important that readers know the direction in which DTNZ is going, and to keep you updated and informed on the developments as they take place.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Malcolm Dreaneen
Editor

* A small number of readers have nevertheless continued to donate, and for that we are truly grateful.