Radio – with better pictures – is set to cost the national broadcaster up to $150,000.

Tenders for a Radio New Zealand website redesign close tomorrow. Chief executive Paul Thompson, who last week confirmed 14 job losses across the state-funded business, says it must invest in digital.

"To stay focused solely on radio broadcast would in time make RNZ less relevant to those who fund us."

Tender documents show the organisation expects to spend between $100,000 and $150,000 on the website project that will take six to nine months to complete.

"It's really more about the audiences than what we do," said Thompson. "The audiences are calling the shots now, we have to be where the audiences are. We love radio, we continue to be great at it, but even radio's being redefined."

He said listeners were accessing content via apps and the likes of live-streaming service iHeart radio.

"I don't think any so-called 'radio' broadcaster worth their salt would turn their back on being really attuned to where the audience wants us to be."

Thompson said RNZ was not trying to compete with commercial media companies and was prepared to give its content to other organisations for free.

"It's not about having the biggest website in New Zealand, that's pointless . . . I'm happy to make any of our content available to any commercial publisher or commercial media organisations that sees the value in it.

Thompson said if RNZ didn't invest in digital, "we'd be outdated and we wouldn't be able to provide the access to our content that people are asking for. We're not here to pull up the drawbridge and just try to be a radio broadcaster. We think we should just be where everyone wants us to be."

Glen Scanlon, RNZ's head of digital, said, in the past month, the organisation had received 1.2 million requests for audio, across "a mixture of platforms".

"Which just tells you that people are trying to get that audio in a different way. They're also wanting the story behind it. If we can tell a better story about it then why wouldn't we, by providing written content, by providing a photo of the person who is in the story, by providing a better way for the audio to be seen or consumed?"

RNZ last week announced that it was hiring former Seven Sharp presenter Jessie Mulligan to front its afternoons slot, replacing Simon Mercep.