RNZ's Thompson defends staying on as staff face job cuts

Lisa Owen questions her own chief executive about incorrect financial information and why he remains the right person to lead the broadcaster.

Channel: RNZ Story of November 11, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of RNZ's most watched videos since yesterday, with 2,412 views.

RNZ CEO Paul Thompson questioned on budget blowout, job cuts | Checkpoint

Paul Thompson says he has taken responsibility for RNZ's financial situation, but intends to stay and lead the organisation forward. In a brief street interview for Checkpoint, Lisa Owen presses him on what that responsibility means when staff are losing their jobs.

Approached in the rain outside an RNZ building, the chief executive says: "As we said yesterday, we were relying on incorrect information."

Owen asks why he failed to recognise the financial trouble, then challenges his decision to remain: "Why are you the right person to do that? Why don't you leave now?"

Thompson says he has a job to do to move the organisation forward. He attributes the job cuts to its underlying funding position, citing a government-set reduction of around NZ$6 million a year.

The exchange adds the chief executive's response to the financial questions examined in RNZ's earlier interview with its board chair, as we reported here. When Owen presses whether an accounting error is behind the cuts, Thompson offers no further explanation in the clip. He warns people to take care near the doorway, thanks the reporter and heads inside.

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RNZ's Thompson defends staying on as staff face job cuts The full story on Trari: https://trari.com/en/story/rnznewzealand-33882/

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The numbers

The Checkpoint exchange drew about 2,400 views since yesterday, the most among RNZ's uploads from the past two days.

subscribers

254,000

▲ 1,000 in the last 7 days

total views

153,412,472

views per day

49,328

typical day: 202,606

the video

views

4,314

likes

46

comments

79

days online

2

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

The Sydney Morning Herald…

271,000

The Globe and Mail

267,000

RTÉ News

257,000

RNZ

254,000

Washington Week PBS

248,000

Royal Exclusive

244,000

As of November 11, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.