3D reporter Paula Penfold will be among those affected by the news.

Mediaworks have confirmed that the investigative news show 3D will not be renewed, after breaking the news to staff in a meeting today.

The episode airing on Monday, December 14, will be the show's last.

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3D had bounced around the schedules and it's understood MediaWorks were dissatisfied with its ratings.

Staff were told last month that the programme was under review and a consultation period followed.

In a statement, the broadcaster said they were now working with staff on "redeployment opportunities". They wouldn't give a number of how many staff are affected, but those working on the show include the award-winning pairing of Paula Penfold and Eugene Bingham.

The 3D team made a public statement on facebook which read:

"The MediaWorks announcement today that 3D has been axed is a huge disappointment to everyone on the programme. Most of us are long-serving employees of TV3, some have been with the company since it started more than 25 years ago. We have put everything into our work, often in stressful and dangerous circumstances, reporting on the people and issues that matter to New Zealand. While most of us are serving out our final days as employees of MediaWorks, we cannot comment further."

The post was also shared on Twitter where it was retweeted by individual reporters.

Staff drowned their sorrows at Galbraith's pub, close to the TV3 offices at Flower St in the inner-city Auckland suburb of Grafton.

Long-time MediaWorks presenter and 3D reporter Samantha Hayes was among those at the pub but did not want to comment further.

Media comentator Brian Edwards said Mediaworks' conscious shift into "high popular, tabloid-style reality television" was something the network had been consistently open about. "In my opinion, they don't seem to be dedicated to public service broadcasting or current affairs programming. Look at the new management and the people in charge there, everyone from Julie Christie to Rachel Glucina, public service broadcasting is not their speciality and that's something they've been quite open about," he said.

"Current affairs is not their field and at the end of the day, it comes down to generating revenue, attracting advertisers and profit," Edwards continued. "They could argue they no longer have a responsibility for that kind of broadcasting, let TVNZ do that. It's about ratings and public service broadcasting for some reason does not seem to have a very high rating for them. They're in the business of ratings and profit, essentially, that's what this is about," he said.

A Mediaworks spokesman said on Tuesday: "MediaWorks would like to acknowledge the efforts and dedication of the 3D team who have consistently produced outstanding work over a long period of time. We are all extremely proud of the way our current affairs teams are respected and admired by other media and the wider community and our challenge now is to explore new ways to deliver high quality investigative journalism."

In a leaked email to staff last month, MediaWorks boss Mark Weldon said entertainment had performed well but news and current affairs had not: "The numbers do not lie, and there have been performance issues in both TV and in digital."