Nau mai, haere mai.

You’re reading this just three days after the final episode of TVNZ’s Sunday show screened, bringing to a close the era of long-form current affairs television in this country. One night later, the consumer affairs programme Fair Go signed off for the last time, too.

Meanwhile, Newshub’s entire operation will cease broadcasting in early July. Digital news platform Stuff has moved to pick up the pieces and produce a nightly news bulletin, but it’s unlikely many jobs will be saved. Most recently, the Wairoa Star newspaper in Hawke’s Bay has been forced to shut after a century serving its local community.

It’s an understatement to say the news media in New Zealand is under intense pressure. Cuts and downsizing have been happening, less dramatically perhaps, in most newsrooms for years now, with dwindling budgets and resources an ever-present threat.

For all that, the New Zealand media still do an admirable job, and have adapted to trying circumstances with innovative content sharing agreements and subscription models. These days, The Conversation is increasingly a part of this news ecosystem, delivering its own unique brand of evidence-led analysis and fact-based journalism, complementing the output of our colleagues elsewhere.

All of which is by way of asking you to support what we do – and by extension, responsible media in general. By working with universities and their experts, we can give away our journalism for free to readers and republishers – no paywalls, no subscriptions. Instead, we rely on the generosity of readers to help fund our not-for-profit newsroom.

In the past year we’ve published hundreds of articles, read by hundreds of thousands, on topics as varied as they are fascinating, from shifting rural politics and cosmic rays in ancient rocks, to Māori atheism and Barbie-mania. Today’s top stories show how we are building on this, week after week.

You can help us keep doing what we do – and keep growing – by supporting our annual fundraising campaign here. Every bit helps, so thank you. And until next week, mā te wā.