The Public Interest Journalism Fund (PIJF) Interim Report 2021-2023 - Te Puna Whakatongarewa has now been completed and is available on our website.
The report, which has been collated by the NZ On Air Journalism team, covers PIJF-allocated funding across 26 months – from May 2021 to June 2023 – and comes after the allocation phase of the PIJF came to a close at the end of June 2023.
Over the period of the fund, there were more than 166 million total views of PIJF-funded content and, in just the past few days, we surpassed 80,000 pieces of total content.
It’s important to note that while allocation of the $55m PIJF was completed at the end of June, the outputs of the funding will continue through until early 2026. This PIJF Interim Report is designed to catalogue the establishment of the fund and discuss its outputs from January 2021 until June 2023. It does not assess the overall success of the fund given there is still content to be delivered.
As a globally unique initiative, the PIJF has provided valuable insights. This report aims to share those insights, with the hope of assisting Aotearoa New Zealand and other countries facing the challenge of mitigating the global decline in public interest journalism.
You can find the report here.
Journalism Funding
As the PIJF is now closed, we no longer have funding specifically for journalism and our focus on journalism funding during this post-PIJF transition period is limited. For Round Rua, we will prioritise returning journalism projects that have the backing of a local platform with a substantial audience reach. Funding for roles and for projects that are print or text-based won’t be eligible for funding as they fall outside NZ On Air’s usual remit.
If you have any questions or wish to discuss a new journalism application, please contact Gabriel Thomas at gabrielt@nzonair.govt.nz