Crux plans for 2026 - and thank you for 2025!

A Christmas Message from Peter Newport, Crux Managing Editor.

It’s still only year since Crux went into hibernation following the end of all Government support and continued financial challenges in the world of local news.

Our paid subscribers (we love you!) rescued us and we have done our best to reward your support.

But the work is only just starting. Here’s our headline plans for 2026 - including some undecided issues where you can let us know your thoughts on our Substack channel.

More revenue - more journalists. We will need to focus on generating more revenue so that we can do our job better across Queenstown, Wānaka and Cromwell. We already have the audience - one million monthly Facebook views, 45,000 unique readers and 400,000 monthly page views.
How will we do this? We are bringing onboard a sales and revenue team member to boost advertising, work with our local councils and better support paid subscriptions or memberships/donations.
Will we now accept QLDC and CODC council advertising? Yes - as we have two relatively new mayors (John Glover and Tamah Alley) both committed to greater transparency.
We need a bigger team. Crux will start to look at a more sustainable structure with a Publisher, Editor, journalists (freelance and full time) and a Community Advisory Board. Can you help? Let me know at [email protected]
Paywalled content or free content? We need revenue but find it hard to block important content from most of our readers. Less than 15% of our Substack subscribers are paying subscribers. Memberships (like a donation) are GST free - subscriptions (where money buys access to content) involve paying the IRD 15% of all money received. It’s an important decision for 2026.
A bigger audience could lead to more memberships/donations - and be a better business model than a traditional paywall. It’s not clear if the paywall model works in a small population/audience base. Current paid subscriptions only fund one journalist/editor at around half a market level salary - after legal/insurance costs and other overheads.
What happens if Crux does not grow? We will slowly start to be eroded by increasing costs, the lack of a funded succession plan and potential digital competitors. Print media will continue to decline due to cost pressures and an increasing audience migration to digital. We have seen evidence in other population centres that new digital platforms will not be focussed on journalism but on revenue generated from large scale advertising, “friendly” paid local council content and publishing media releases and PR content.
Does journalism matter? We believe it does - especially in smaller communities. Secrets and a lack of transparency reduce trust as well as producing wide-spread income inequality, lower productivity and social inequality. Secrecy also can be used to hide over-spending and a lack of efficiency - even corruption. A healthy community in our view can be measured by healthy, strong local media. Already in Australia, 27 local authorities exist in areas where there is no local newspaper or digital news platform - these are the news deserts that are becoming increasingly common all over the world.
News deserts are communities with little or no access to credible local news, often due to newspaper and mainstream media closures, leading to reduced civic engagement, increased misinformation, and weaker democracy, affecting rural areas, inner cities, and suburbs alike as economic pressures force local journalism to shrink. These areas suffer from a lack of coverage on local government, education and health, leaving residents reliant on unverified social media or distant news sources, with the effects seen globally including in New Zealand, the U.S. and Europe.
How urgent is the problem? New Zealand is down to around 800 journalists from over 4,000 just a decade or so ago. Journalism is a skilled profession and done properly it is tough, challenging but also (occasionally) rewarding. Because of our small size we could become the first western nation to see journalism become an actual extinction event. In fact - it’s already happening.

In spite of the challenges we love our work and want to see it continue. We’ll share the journey with you all. We are focussed on success and above all focussed on you - the community.

Thank you. Best Wishes for Xmas and the New Year.