Good afternoon, and welcome to New Zealand Media and Entertainment's annual shareholders meeting. My name is Barbara Chapman, and I'm the Chairman of the NZME board. We are very pleased to welcome you as online participants through our virtual meeting platform provided by our share registrar, Link Market Services. Shareholders can vote and ask questions online. I'll provide you with further instructions on that as we progress through the meeting. If you encounter any issues, please refer to the virtual annual meeting online portal guide, or you can phone the helpline on 0800 200 220. I would encourage you to send through your questions as soon as you can. This will allow us to answer these questions at the appropriate time of the meeting.
To ask a question, you will need to click "Ask a question" within the online meeting platform, select the item of business, type in your question, and click Submit. Before we formally begin, I would like to introduce you to my fellow NZME board members. Starting on my far left are board members Guy Horrocks, Carol Campbell, David Gibson, and Sussan Turner. We also have members of the executive team in attendance. They are Michael Boggs, Allison Whitney, and Shayne Currie. Our legal advisors, Bell Gully, and our auditors, PwC, are also with us today. The company secretary has confirmed to me that the notice of meeting has been sent to shareholders and other persons entitled to receive it, and I have been advised that we have a quorum present. On that basis, I'm pleased to formally declare the meeting open.
Proxies have been appointed for the purposes of this meeting in respect of approximately 60,326 and 611 shares, representing 30.53% of the total number of shares on issue. My fellow directors and I intend to vote all discretionary proxies we have received in favor of the resolutions as set out in the notice of meeting. The financial statements for the twelve-month period to 31 December 2021, together with the auditor's report, are set out in the company's annual report, which has previously been distributed to shareholders. We will address any questions on the financial statements in the general business section at the end of this meeting. There will also be a recording of today's meeting made available on our website at nzme.co.nz following the conclusion of the meeting.
Following my opening address, we will hear from NZME's CEO, Michael Boggs. We will then proceed to voting on the resolutions as set out in the notice of meeting you will have received. We are proceeding on the basis that the notice of meeting has been read. Voting on all resolutions will be conducted by way of poll. We will then discuss the matter raised for discussion by shareholders. Finally, we will turn to the general business section of the meeting. Welcome, everybody, and thanks for attending the New Zealand Media and Entertainment's annual shareholder meeting for 2022. It's a shame to once again not be able to hold this meeting in person, and I look forward to when we can get back to some sort of normality and have our ASM together. I'm optimistic that that will be in the not-so-distant future.
NZME operates within the context of the business environment around us. When looking at the state of our economy in New Zealand, we have experienced, and we continue to experience, a number of challenges. As we all know, New Zealand experienced another difficult year in 2021 with COVID-19 re-emerging in August, resulting in full lockdowns and border restrictions between regions across the country. This caused the effective isolation of our largest city, Auckland. Omicron is still very much in the community. Supply chains remain disrupted. Inflation is rising. Interest rates are rising. The employment market, particularly with our borders having been closed for so long, is extremely tight, putting upward pressure on wage rates. However, despite these major challenges, NZME was able to achieve tremendous results.
Today in my address, I'll be taking shareholders through some of NZME's high-level results from the 2021 financial year, providing an update on our strategic priorities and NZME's guiding principles, as well as some insight on our commitment to sustainability. Following that, I'll share with you some details of our capital management plan and how we are tracking in this respect before I pass on to Michael Boggs for his Chief Executive address. Despite the challenges of 2021, our financial results were solid. Overall operating revenue was up 5% on 2020, which included a 13% recovery in advertising revenue. A 37% growth in digital revenue across the business was testament to NZME's focus on digital transformation and expansion of its digital platform offering. NZME's statutory net profit was up 138%, partly due to the sale of GrabOne.
Operating net profit after tax was up 6% on the prior year. The increase in our share price, combined with dividends, resulted in a total shareholder return for the year of 103%. Michael will provide further information on financial results and an outlook for 2022 in his address. Having a defined strategy with clear priorities and opportunities, and maintaining a tight focus on what is going to help shift the dial shaped the financial result. Alongside that, we must also acknowledge the hard work and commitment of our people and our customers in what has been a very challenging and uncertain trading and operating environment for our success over the past 12 months. NZME is committed to delivering shareholder value by focusing on our guiding principles, our key strategic priorities, and achieving the 2023 targets we've set for the business.
Late in 2020, we shared our guiding principles that would be applied to each of NZME's strategic initiatives. These guiding principles remain a steady focus in all areas of the business, driving results and ensuring our 2023 key targets are met. They are customer first. We remain focused on putting our customers first and adding true value, enhancing their experiences, and being indispensable. Win with quality. We remain committed to setting the bar high to ensure our premium quality focus is applied to everything we do. Digital acceleration. We aim to deliver a world-class digital business, driving the growth of digital content via our news platforms, including NZ Herald Premium, growing digital audio through iHeartRadio, and expanding and improving digital platforms such as OneRoof. Audience expansion. Growing audiences across NZME's multiple brands. Being a top performer.
We will continue to set new standards and benchmarks to ensure top performance across all areas of the business. In Michael's address, he will speak in more detail about NZME's three strategic priorities and provide an update on how the business is tracking under each of those pillars. The business strategic focus continues to be on being New Zealand's leading audio company, The New Zealand Herald to be New Zealand's herald, and OneRoof to be New Zealand's complete property destination. Underlying NZME's strong business performance in 2021 was our focus on these three strategic priorities underpinned by our clear guiding principles. The business' transformation and performance was recognized publicly this year with NZME recognized at the 2022 Deloitte Top 200 Awards, taking out the prize for most improved performance.
This was a fantastic achievement and testament to all the hard work done to drive the performance of our business forward in another challenging year. Furthermore, off the back of the Deloitte Top 200 win, NZME's news team celebrated the latest Nielsen readership results, confirming NZME as New Zealand's go-to news destination with 2.7 million Kiwis keeping up with the news via our multiple platforms. NZME's sustainability program is aligned to the guidelines set out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As a business, NZME is committed to protecting the craft of journalism and broadcasting to keep Kiwis in-the-know. To do this requires a commitment to sustainable practices and the well-being of our community, people, and environment. NZME is focused on connecting and empowering our communities.
In 2021, with Kiwis once again impacted by COVID, keeping Kiwis in-the-know was more important than ever before, keeping them connected and safe during the pandemic. The Ninety Percent Project was a bold initiative driven by the New Zealand Herald that was hugely successful, driving a call to action to see 90% of the eligible New Zealand population immunized by Christmas last year. To honor our sustainability commitment, we also need to provide a workplace that fosters innovation, engagement, and inclusion. NZME's Diversity and Inclusion Committee has been instrumental in driving a number of events and training programs to help foster this. We are striving for diversity at board, executive, and people leader levels, and continue to make progress in this area. We take our responsibility to the environment seriously, and we continue to review the actual and potential impact of our business practices on our environment.
We're committed to demonstrating leadership in this area, including using our many platforms to inform and raise awareness of environmental issues. An example of this is Our Green Future, a content hub shared across NZME's lifestyle brands and The New Zealand Herald, both online and in print. This content hub brings together sustainability content created by NZME's leading lifestyle brands and amplifies these important messages through various NZME channels. Three years ago, NZME was in a very different financial position with a net debt position of about NZD 100 million, leading the board and management to place a strong focus on reducing that debt through a strategic capital management plan. Thanks to disciplined management, we can now report a much stronger balance sheet and significantly improved financial performance.
This allowed for a return to dividend payments during the year, with dividends totaling NZD 0.08 per share paid in relation to 2021. At the end of March, NZME signed a letter of intent with Google, which sets out terms for NZME to supply news content for Google's news showcase and other news products and projects. Discussions with Meta, the owner of Facebook, are also continuing. In January, we announced that we had completed our acquisition of business and economic news service BusinessDesk, which along with New Zealand Herald Premium, sees NZME further building on its digital growth, providing comprehensive and trusted business news to its customer and business customers. On April 4, we commenced an on-market share buyback program for an aggregated purchase price of up to NZD 30 million, which may run up to December 16 this year.
Along with our progress on debt reduction, our market buyback program provides us with an opportunity to return value back to our shareholders while remaining in a strong position to make future capital investments that align with our strategic priorities and put NZME in an excellent position for future growth. Although this year has been another challenging one for NZME, the board has been pleased with the progress that has been made and the financial position the business is in. We have enjoyed the ongoing engagement we have with our investor community, and we hope this ongoing engagement allows shareholders to gain a deep understanding of our strategy and focus and our ongoing commitment to creating shareholder value. We also hope it's provided shareholders with an opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions.
We welcome all feedback from our investor community, and we will continue to provide you with opportunities to engage with the board and executive directly. This will include at our annual investor day later in the year. I'd like to take the time to thank the board for their leadership and commitment throughout the year. We all bring very different backgrounds, skill sets, and experience to the board table, which I think is a great strength, and it's been a pleasure to work together over the past year. Thank you also for your support of me as Chairman. Before closing, I'd like to mention the item in NZME's notice of meeting regarding a matter raised by shareholders who are members of the New Zealand Free Speech Union. This matter will be discussed further on in the meeting following our formal resolutions.
On a final note, on behalf of the NZME board, I'd like to acknowledge and thank Michael and the executive team for all their hard work in another challenging year. A big thanks also to everyone at NZME, our customers, partners, and shareholders for your commitment and ongoing support. I'll now pass on to Michael to deliver his Chief Executive address.
Kia ora koutou [Foreign language]. Thank you, Barbara, and welcome everyone who's joining us here today. I echo Barbara in saying we'd hoped to be able to hold this meeting in person, but we do look forward to being able to do that again in the very near future. I'd like to begin with an overview of New Zealand Media and Entertainment. As you'll know, NZME is a leading player in all the sectors of the media and entertainment industry we represent, be that through audio, publishing, or real estate. We are an audience and customer-centric, integrated, multi-platform media and entertainment business. We're heavily focused on our audiences and our customers, connecting advertisers to more than 3.5 million New Zealanders across each of our platforms. Those platforms include 32 print publications, 10 audio brands, 17 websites, and 12 real estate publications.
Through our audio platforms with our nationwide broadcast network and our digital platform, iHeartRadio, we reach over 1.9 million people. Furthermore, we have a publishing audience of 2.8 million, with 50% of New Zealanders engaging with New Zealand Herald online each and every month. The New Zealand Herald remains New Zealand's number one daily newspaper. As Barbara mentioned, our acquisition of BusinessDesk earlier this year has also contributed to us growing our digital subscriber base. Our OneRoof real estate products reach more than 850,000 people through both the OneRoof digital platform and our various dedicated property publications right across the country.
Our audience reach and continued growth across our multiple platforms, including our ongoing focus on digital growth, sees NZME continuing to have a strong position in each market it participates in as a leading, innovative, multi-platform media and entertainment business. Our people have continued to demonstrate our commitment to protecting the craft of journalism and broadcasting. They're delivering on our purpose of keeping Kiwis in the know. We are focused on ensuring we're delivering quality journalism and entertainment for our audiences, and despite significant uncertainty in the 2021 financial year due to COVID, we were successful in doing so. Once again, we were faced with the challenges of the global pandemic, and we felt the impacts, not just from a business and operational perspective, but also the responsibility to use our multiple platforms to ensure that our communities were connected and kept safe.
The Ninety Percent Project was a bold initiative driven by The New Zealand Herald, and it was supported across the entire NZME business, with NZME taking a leadership stance to get 90% of New Zealand's eligible population vaccinated by Christmas of last year. This campaign was one of NZME's proudest achievements. It was a great success, with New Zealand achieving the target with more than a week to spare. We're also hugely proud to have raised more than NZD 1.5 million recently for the Ukraine Crisis Appeal. This was a fundraising campaign between The New Zealand Herald and World Vision to raise money for families impacted by the terrifying events in Ukraine. We shared personal stories from families on the ground in Ukraine, which clearly resonated with our New Zealand Herald readers who donated over NZD 1.5 million in under 3 weeks.
Furthermore, we are diversifying our content to meet the needs of our communities. These include Kāhu, a digital platform that showcases Māori stories and talent from newsrooms right across Aotearoa. Talanoa, a focus on the people, stories, and voices of our Pacific communities. Kick, a youth-focused digital radio network designed and built by seven graduates from the New Zealand Broadcasting School, helping grow the future of radio content by youth for youth. Earlier this year, we welcomed 15 Te Rito journalism cadets at NZME. Te Rito is a groundbreaking initiative between ourselves and three other media partners with support from New Zealand On Air's Public Interest Journalism Fund to train and develop new journalism cadets to inject the industry with voices that better reflect our diverse communities.
NZME recognizes the responsibility that comes with acting as a voice of record for New Zealand, and we continue to use our audience reach and engagement to address key issues that are important to New Zealanders. In terms of our financial performance, as Barbara mentioned, we are extremely pleased with our 2021 year-end result, despite it being another challenging year operationally with disruption due to COVID. I'm pleased to be able to highlight earnings growth, the elimination of debt on the balance sheet, and a return to dividend payments. Despite the continued impact of COVID on demand during the year, our operating revenue grew 5% to NZD 349.2 million. Operating EBITDA was NZD 66 million, in line with the previous year.
Statutory net profit after tax was NZD 34.4 million, which was NZD 19.9 million higher than the prior year, which included a gain on the sale of GrabOne of NZD 15.4 million. It was pleasing to see operating NPAT was 6% higher than last year at NZD 23.6 million. Our balance sheet has significantly strengthened, and we closed the year with a net cash position of NZD 13.5 million. That's an improvement of NZD 47.4 million from the net debt position at the same time the year prior. Given the significant progress made with revenue and profitability growth and a positive improvement in our debt position, the board declared dividends in relation to 2021 totaling NZD 0.08 per share.
As mentioned in our results presentation earlier this year, these results demonstrated the strength of our business with improved outcomes and continued progress towards our strategic priorities despite another difficult year in terms of our operating environment. The bars on these charts show the changes in total market revenue across each of radio, print, and digital. The lines on these graphs show just how NZME has grown its market share in each channel over the last three years. Pleasingly, our first quarter performance in 2022 shows our radio revenue looks to be on a trajectory to return to pre-COVID levels. We're also pleased with our digital revenue growth across the three strategic priorities of audio, publishing, and OneRoof. The left-hand graph shows the substantial growth of digital audio revenue from iHeartRadio that was up 51% in 2021.
The popularity of digital audio continues to grow, and with diversity of voice through various podcasts and availability of all radio brands, this is a platform that NZME's really excited about for the future. The middle chart shows both digital display advertising and digital subscription revenue growing, resulting in a 32% increase in total digital publishing revenues. Digital revenue from our OneRoof property platform also grew substantially. It was up 90% year-on-year. Turning now to our audio strategic priority to being New Zealand's leading audio company. Supported by three key pillars that you can see next to the icons on the left-hand side here. We are making solid progress towards our 2023 targets for audio. We've grown audience share by 1.8 percentage points, exceeding our goal of 1% share growth per annum.
Despite our radio revenue share being slightly short of our target last year, it's been very positive to see our radio advertising revenue recovering to now exceed pre-COVID-19 levels. As mentioned, we also continue to grow digital audio revenue through iHeartRadio, and we have further bolstered our iHeartRadio team with a number of key senior appointments to cement our focus as being a significant growth opportunity for NZME. Turning now to our publishing strategic priority, our publishing business with the focus on The New Zealand Herald becoming New Zealand's Herald. We've seen total subscribers increase by 13% to 191,000 in 2021. We continue to track well towards our 2023 targets. As Barbara mentioned earlier, the acquisition of BusinessDesk earlier this year has been fantastic, with their premium digital offering and business subscriber base.
Total subscribers are now over 200,000, with digital subscriptions now totaling 97,000. Digital advertising revenue represented 46% of total publishing advertising revenues in 2021. You will note the 2023 EBITDA target has been adjusted to reflect the impact of the software as a service change, accounting policy change during 2021. We are progressing our position to have OneRoof become your complete property destination. We've seen good progress across residential listings penetration of the market and growth in listings upgrades in our biggest market, Auckland, as well as nationwide. This has been supported by bespoke product bundles delivering value to our customers. The first quarter of 2022 has seen continued positive momentum with digital revenue growth in OneRoof of over 50% against the first quarter in 2021.
During the year, we had a number of internal appointments into NZME's executive team that demonstrated the depth within NZME and the talent of our people. Jason Winstanley was appointed as the new Chief Audio Officer and Paul Maher as the new Chief Commercial Officer. In addition to our internal executive appointments, Carolyn Luey, who has extensive experience in telecommunications and media, rejoined NZME in the newly created role of Chief Digital and Publishing Officer. She has responsibility for delivering a sustainable growth strategy for our publishing business. Jason, Paul, and Carolyn all bring with them a wealth of experience, and their appointments reflect the evolution of NZME's executive leadership team to support the ongoing acceleration of growth across our strategic priorities. The country is still in the midst of the Omicron variant outbreak, albeit large cities like Auckland appear to be past the peak.
The impact of the outbreak, inflationary pressures, and the cooling housing market continue to keep businesses cautious so far in 2022. Despite low business confidence levels, we are pleased to report that Q1 advertising revenue in 2022 outperformed Q1 2021. While we have received Ministry of Health COVID advertising spend over recent years, it has not been enough to offset the decline in travel and tourism advertising spend. There are positive signs for the tourism sector, with the government announcing the reopening of borders to vaccinated and eligible travelers across Q2 to Q4 of this year. We are beginning to see tourism advertising bookings come through for the second half of 2022. NZME has advanced its commercial discussions with Meta with regards to them supporting a number of digital transformation projects over the next year. We expect to be able to update in the coming days.
Since signing the letter of intent with Google, we are making good progress on the final agreements. As we've previously noted, based on the key terms of the Google letter of intent, if NZME and Google ultimately enter into the final agreements at the end of the period of negotiations, and having regard to the current trading performance and other anticipated commercial arrangements, NZME expects that EBITDA for 2022 financial year would be in the range of NZD 67 million-NZD 72 million. We're also pleased to have commenced the on-market share buyback last week. Finally, on behalf of myself and the executive team, I'd like to thank our fantastic talented team of people at NZME. The positive results we achieved in 2021 have been made possible thanks to their dedication, their passion, their support, and their commitment.
Thanks also for the millions of Kiwis who choose to engage with NZME via our multiple platforms each and every day. Thank you to our shareholders. Thank you for turning up today and for being part of us. Thank you also to Barbara Chapman and the NZME board for their ongoing support and guidance, which has been particularly valuable as we've worked through many challenges over recent years. In conclusion, I look forward to discussing any questions you have before the end of today's meeting. Before passing back to Barbara, I'd like to share with you a short video that captures some of the key highlights of NZME's Ninety Percent Project. This is a celebration of our customer-centric, multi-platform business and the talented team we're so lucky to have at NZME. Please enjoy.
In September 2021, during a nationwide lockdown, NZME launched a campaign to get 90% of eligible New Zealanders fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Christmas. The target was ambitious, some thought impossible.
You know that we have been resistant to setting a target.
The campaign caught the country's imagination immediately. Within a week, the government endorsed the 90% target, which it later applied to district health boards.
That 90%+ is of course where we need to aim for. I welcome any campaign that'll get people motivated to be vaccinated. We need to be at or above 90%. This is mission critical.
As vaccine rates climbed, restrictions were eased, and Kiwis gained more freedoms. On December 16, New Zealand reached 90% coverage, 9 days ahead of schedule. The Ninety Percent Project was one of the most successful public service journalism campaigns in recent New Zealand history.
Thank you, Michael. We now come to the matters requiring resolution, which are outlined in the notice of meeting. You may ask questions on each matter being put to shareholders through the virtual meeting website. I will call a poll in respect of each of these resolutions. As I explained at the beginning of our meeting, shareholders will be able to cast their vote using the electronic voting card received when online registration is validated. To vote, you will need to click Get Voting Card within the online meeting platform. You will be asked to enter your shareholder or proxy number to validate. Please then mark your voting card in the way you wish to vote by clicking For, Against, or Abstain on the voting card. Once you have made your selection, please click Submit Vote on the bottom of the card to lodge your vote.
Voting will remain open until five minutes after the conclusion of the meeting, and the results of the vote will be announced via NZX and ASX. If you require any assistance, please refer to the virtual meeting online portal guide or use the helpline, 0800 200 220. Each resolution set out in the notice of meeting is to be considered as an ordinary resolution and, as such, may be approved by a simple majority of the votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote and voting on the resolution. Resolution one concerns the reelection of Director Sussan Turner, having retired and now standing for reelection. The board recommends Sussan to you as an NZME director and unanimously supports her reelection. Sussan will now say a few words in support of her reelection. Thanks, Sussan.
Thank you, Barbara. Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Susan Turner tōku ingoa. Good afternoon. I'm Susan Turner and I stand today for reelection, having already served one term on the NZME board. I'm highly committed to serving another if it is the shareholders' wish. By way of my background, I've been involved in the media industry a large part of my corporate life. Having started many, many years ago as a cadet journalist and then latterly moving through to lead one of New Zealand's largest television and radio organizations. I'm certainly well used to the media industry and its ever-changing and highly competitive nature and believe I remain current in my skill set to positively influence the strategic direction and performance of this company. I have well-established networks across the broader New Zealand marketplace and make good use of these to the advantage of NZME.
In terms of governance style, I think I bring a pragmatic but highly commercial lens to my board contributions. I also adopt a whatever is required of me commitment as a director, which ensures many additional hours are made outside of the formal governance duties, and this I love. My governance experience spans 20 years, having sat on various boards throughout this period. Currently, I am CEO of Aspire To and hold the position of Pro-Chancellor at AUT. I would be delighted to receive your support today to continue on the board of NZME. Thank you.
Thank you, Susan. I now move as an ordinary resolution that Susan Turner, who retires by rotation and is eligible for reelection, be reelected as a director of NZME. Before we move to the vote, are there any questions for the board concerning the resolution?
There are no questions on this matter from shareholders joining online.
Thank you. Please now select either For, Against, or Abstain for resolution one on the voting card. Resolution two concerns NZME's auditor's remuneration. The motion concerns the fixing of the auditor's remuneration and seeks shareholder approval that the directors of NZME be authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration. I now move as an ordinary resolution that the directors of NZME be authorized to fix the auditor's remuneration. Before we move to the vote, are there any questions for the board concerning the resolution?
There are no questions on this matter from shareholders joining online.
Thank you. Please now select either For, Against, or Abstain for Resolution 1 on the voting card. That concludes the formal part of the meeting dealing with resolutions to be voted on by shareholders. You should now submit your votes. As I mentioned earlier, voting will be open until 5 minutes after the close of the meeting, and results of the poll will be announced on NZX and ASX after the conclusion of the meeting. On the agenda for discussion today is a matter which has been raised by a small group of shareholders regarding NZME's advertising and editorial policy independence. Just to provide the background to this matter, the board received a letter from five shareholders who are also members or supporters of the Free Speech Union, a trade union registered under the Employment Relations Act 2000.
We subsequently reached out to a number of those shareholders to confirm that they wanted this matter to be raised as a proposal for discussion by shareholders at this meeting. The issue concerns an advertisement that was pulled from one of our regional papers. That advertisement had previously generated multiple complaints. In addition, we were asked about how we maintain editorial independence while receiving government funding. We have decided to cover off this matter in two parts. Firstly, I will provide some context and detail around NZME's advertising acceptability policy, followed by context from our editorial code of ethics, both of which are published on our website www.nzme.co.nz. Following that, Shayne Currie, NZME's managing editor, will speak about the newsroom's editorial independence in practice. First and foremost, I want to assure shareholders that upholding editorial and advertising independence is of the utmost importance to NZME.
As you can imagine, NZME receives hundreds of requests to place advertising across our radio, print, and digital platforms every week. We aim to treat all advertisers fairly and openly as we do our audiences. It is extremely rare that we would outright reject an advertisement. We are open to all points of view, and we encourage the respectful dissemination of ideas, information, and expression. However, unlike social media, we are not an open platform. Our principal responsibilities are to the community and the truth, and this includes a responsibility to ensure advertisements appearing on our platforms comply with law, advertising standards, and support a quality, engaging environment for our audiences and our advertisers. NZME reserves the right to reject advertisements in its advertising terms and conditions.
NZME will reject an advertisement if it breaches the New Zealand laws, the Advertising Standards Code, the principles set out in our policy, or if there is another compelling reason for us to do so. NZME recognizes that expression of opinion through advocacy advertising is an essential and desirable part of the functioning of a democratic society. Our editorial position on a subject does not determine the acceptability of advocacy advertisements. So as to ensure that one person does not make decisions regarding advertising in isolation, where there remains a question about the acceptability of any advertising, the matter is passed to the NZME Advertising Review Panel comprised of NZME executives. The panel then assesses the advertising material in accordance with NZME's advertising acceptability policy. Turning to editorial. As our code says, our editorial team's principal responsibilities are to the community and the truth.
Through our editorial code of ethics, we undertake to maintain the highest ethical standard in our journalism while balancing the right of the individual with the public's right to know. Our news publications are also bound by the principles of the New Zealand Media Council. Two of the key principles covered within NZME's editorial code of ethics relate to editorial independence and balance. The code states that our editorial teams will be independent and not bow to improper internal or external influences. This includes NZME management, advertisers, and the government of the day. In terms of balance, NZME's editorial teams will be honest and fair in gathering, reporting, and presenting the news in the pursuit of truth. In areas of controversy or disagreement, a fair voice will be given to opposing views. I trust this helps clarify our position and provides some further context.
Now I will pass on to Shayne Currie, NZME Managing Editor, who will make some brief comments regarding NZME's editorial independence, government funding, and how this all works in practice within our newsrooms. Thank you, Shayne.
Thank you, Barbara, and kia ora, everyone. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Herald's editorial independence with shareholders today. It's a really important topic. In terms of the operation of the newsroom, NZME has 300 editorial staff across the country, all of whom operate without fear or favor. We are beholden to our readers and to the truth, as Barbara mentioned earlier in referencing our editorial code of ethics. The Herald and all of our NZME news platforms are fiercely and proudly independent. A newsroom pursuing stories of public interest is critical to ensuring not just a healthy democracy, but to ensure that our business and our journalism survive and thrive. Our editors and our news directors are constantly making calls on what we cover and what we don't on a particular day.
These decisions can come down to the news value and judgment based on relevance, audience, and public interest, and other factors such as exclusivity, as well as reporting resources at any given moment. We receive regular feedback from our readers on our coverage of events, as you might expect. We know that people's views of the Herald's editorial position will differ depending on their own perspectives and political persuasions, and that's only natural. Our reporting covers the government as critically as the opposition. There will naturally, of course, be more focus on the government of the day's policy and performance, especially in heightened times of a pandemic. The New Zealand media market's very small, and unlike the U.K. and the U.S., we don't have major mastheads that are politically positioned. The Herald, when it comes to its own editorial positioning and the writing of those editorials, is centrist.
Liberal on some issues, conservative on others. Recently, as a result of ongoing feedback from our readers, and some questions regarding the government's Public Interest Journalism Fund, myself and two of our senior editors engaged with our Herald Premium audience in a live online Q&A session, which we later made available to all of our audience. Interestingly, some readers were of the view that our coverage was too pro-government and referred to the Public Interest Journalism funding as the reason for that, while others were of the belief that we were too right-wing based on our lineup of columnists. With strong views on our coverage from both sides of the political spectrum, we believe we've got the balance about right.
We also know we've got a huge responsibility to ensure we provide a broad range of views every day to foster debate and discussion, and that's not a duty that we take lightly. Just a little bit more on the Public Interest Journalism Fund, or the PIJF. The Herald receive funding from myriad sources, including the government, through advertising for more than 158 years. On no occasion has that ever influenced our journalism or editorial endeavor. Today, we've been specifically asked about our government funding from the Public Interest Journalism Fund, and that was established in 2021. We've received approximately NZD 4.5 million in PIJF funding for the next two years, plus along with three other partners in the media business and the media industry, another NZD 2.4 million for our groundbreaking cadetship program.
That funding represents a very small percentage of our overall newsroom budget for the next two years, and is largely for incremental extra roles. That funding is also administered by New Zealand On Air, and their decision-making on funding applications is independent from the government. There's no government, ministers involved in PIJF funding decisions. As well as that, our PIJF funding contracts have clauses within them that specifically preserve editorial independence. Myself, our editors, and the newsroom would simply walk from any funding agreement that attempted to influence our editorial coverage. I mentioned our cadetship program. That's an example of our, one of our flagship PIJF schemes. It's called Te Rito. It's a cadetship program that introduces 25 new journalists to our industry, 15 of whom are currently based at NZME. These individuals may not otherwise have come through the traditional tertiary education pathway.
Neither New Zealand On Air nor the government will dictate how and what these cadets will cover, but they will certainly be offering a broader, more diverse portfolio of stories that reflect New Zealand's multicultural fabric. I also wanted to touch on another matter that shareholders have raised, and that's a statement that Winston Peters issued on March the ninth, and questions about why the Herald chose not to cover it. Part of Mr. Peters' release was based on a New Zealand Herald investigative story that ran two days earlier. Hot topic at the moment, and the Herald's reporting on it. We've published a range of articles and opinion pieces on it, including recently Shane Jones, Richard Prebble, the Herald's own editorial, along with new stories and explainers, including from senior political correspondent, Audrey Young.
The Herald's own editorial stated doubts about the value of co-governance for the likes of Three Waters, and that any benefits needed to be better communicated by the government. Recently, an independent report that we commissioned showed that in the week from 7 March - 13 March, NZME delivered 122 pieces of content on Three Waters, and it found the majority did challenge the government's position. In closing, I hope the information that I've provided has helped clarify things a little further and has provided assurance to shareholders regarding the editorial independence of not just the Herald, but the NZME news platforms more generally. As I mentioned, our editorial code of ethics ensures we are beholden to our readers and to the truth, and we're incredibly proud of our newsroom and our journalists, all of whom are fiercely and proudly independent. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Shane. We're happy to have engaged with shareholders on this matter, and if you do want to contact us again, we're also very happy to do that. We did welcome this matter being raised today, so we could address it from a board and editorial perspective at our meeting. We have received a number of questions online about this matter. Those questions were addressed in my coverage and in Shane's coverage, so we don't intend to spend any more time on that now. But if you do have a question that wasn't covered in this section, please do forward it through to the company, and we will take it from there. I'd now like to give shareholders the opportunity to ask questions. Any questions must be related to today's presentations, the financial statements, or the management of the company.
You can continue to provide questions online, and we will also address questions already submitted online. If we run short of time and are unable to answer your question in this general business section today, we will endeavor to respond to you after the meeting. We have received two questions from shareholders in advance under the general business section. One relates to editorial independence, which Shane and myself addressed under the previous agenda item. The second relates to the quantum of revenue received from government agencies, which has been covered previously in this presentation. Are there any questions from shareholders?
We have received a question from a shareholder online. Given the cash position following the sale of GrabOne, were other options like a cash distribution to shareholders considered before the decision to buy back was taken? Did the American interests influence this decision? Second question, we congratulate the directors and staff on restoring NZME over the past two years. Are there long-term incentives adjusted to take account of the reduced number of shares?
Well, thank you very much for those questions. I'll start with firstly the cash position from the sale of GrabOne. Yes, we did consider a number of options and took advice on options on what to do, how to return that cash to our shareholders in the best possible way. The distribution through the on-market share buyback was, in our view, the best decision to make, and it is tax effective for our shareholders. Yes, we did consider other options, and we are progressing with the on-market share buyback. Thank you for congratulations on the performance. That's very nice to hear.
In relation to the LTIs, we will be considering that at the time we go through this financial year and consider at the end what we are going to do in relation to an adjustment for the number of shares, 'cause as you know, that will impact on the performance of the company. We're going to take advice on that, but please rest assured that we will be considering that as we go through. It's not an uncommon situation to face, so there's lots of precedents we can look at, so we're going to be doing that. Thank you. Are there any other questions?
There are no further questions on this matter from the shareholders joining online, Barbara.
Well, thank you very much, everybody, for participating. On behalf of the board and the NZME executive team, I'd really like to thank you for coming along to our virtual annual shareholders meeting today. Your participation and feedback is greatly valued. As always, we remain focused on the pursuit of improved and sustainable returns for shareholders. We strive to ensure that NZME is a great and safe place for our employees to work and the best place for our audiences to be informed and entertained. Thank you again to my fellow board members, executives, and employees for your dedication and hard work and to our shareholders for your continued support. There being no other business, I declare this meeting closed. Thank you very much.