The day Newshub ends, and Stuff’s major gamble begins
The plucky underdog goes offline, paving the way for a brand new – and experimental – TV news service.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Friday, July 5.
In today’s edition: A mixed response to the government’s plan to “flood” the housing market, new targets for the mental health sector, and should there be screen time limits in our schools? But first, the end of Newshub and the dawn of a brand new television news service.
The curtain falls on Newshub
Nothing in the media scene this year came as more of a shock than the demise of Newshub. At 7pm tonight, the news service will conclude its final bulletin, making way for Stuff’s new Three News to begin tomorrow. To casual viewers of Three, the shift may not be too jarring. But for devoted Newshubbers, there’s a lot at stake – the question of whether Three News can fill the void, or if it will switch people off, remains to be seen. The crucial consistency between the two services is Samantha Hayes, the Newshub host who will be staying on as the face of Three News. She joined Duncan Greive on The Fold this morning for a candid conversation alongside her outgoing co-host Mike McRoberts.
The rocky road that led us here
Long-serving Newshub journalist Adam Hollingworth recently produced an excellent two-part mini documentary for The Detail tracing the rise and fall (and rise and fall and rise and fall) of Newshub. There are so many incredible details, from Mike McRoberts heading into warzones without insurance cover, to the tumultuous years under Mark Weldon that triggered an exodus in high-profile talent. For many, those years are the most memorable, for better or for worse. It saw the end of Campbell Live and the launch of gossip site Scout – Duncan Greive wrote a meaty feature on the inside story of Scout for The Spinoff back in 2015. This period also saw the departure of Hilary Barry and Weldon’s own resignation (there’s an incredible photo of Barry and McRoberts entering the newsroom that day with a box of champagne).
The thread that holds all of these ups and downs together is simply that Newshub has always been the underdog – or perhaps more accurately, a cat with nine lives. It’s why, as described in part two of Hollingworth’s report, Newshub staff consider themselves a “family”, a notion Weldon reportedly objected to. In his piece for The Spinoff yesterday, former Newshub boss Hal Crawford made a similar point, describing the newsroom’s “younger child” mentality coupled with a desire to outperform a lack of funding.
McRoberts, in that interview with Greive out this morning, says it more bluntly: “If you want to be on telly, go to One. If you want to tell stories, come to Three.”
Looking back…
Newshub’s eventual closure, wrote Duncan Greive in February, followed some clear signposts. A wave of resignations and programme changes signalled that the economic headwinds were too strong to avoid. Close to 300 jobs will be lost today.
I spent a very brief six months at Newshub back in 2016. It was the newsroom I had always wanted to work in, and the one I always hoped I’d end up in again one day. Many of the most prominent broadcasters have been writing this week about their time at Newshub, such as Patrick Gower, Amanda Gillies and sports presenter Andrew Gourdie, while for paid subscribers of his Webworm newsletter, David Farrier has also delved into the archive.
It’s worth remembering that while a lot of the attention is on Newshub Live at 6pm, today is also the end of AM – it’s currently broadcasting its final show. Co-host Melissa Chan-Green has paid tribute to the show she’s worked on since 2022, reflecting on the power of live morning television. If Stuff’s gamble pays off, my hope is we’ll one day see another breakfast programme on Three. It’s not just those in front of the camera, either, with dozens of production staff, camera operators and Newshub’s online team out of work. Newshub’s website will go offline tonight, the Herald’s Shayne Currie recently reported, though the archive will migrate to Stuff.
… And looking forward
Twenty-four hours after Newshub airs for the last time, Three News will launch. Ahead of its debut broadcast, there’s a lot we still don’t know. Duncan Greive asked and tried to answer 14 questions about the new-look show when it was first announced.
In the weeks since, Stuff has recruited a small but formidable team of television journalists, including current political editor Jenna Lynch and journalist Laura Tupou. The politics hires can’t be understated: paired with the likes of Tova O’Brien, Stuff will have arguably the most impressively stacked line-up of political journalists. Lynch tells The Bulletin: “The driving force behind everything we have done [at Newshub] has been to make politics more accessible to people. In that vein I'm determined to bring that same energy to the role I'm stepping into with Stuff.”
As The Spinoff’s Madeleine Holden reported earlier this year, the number of journalism roles in New Zealand has dropped dramatically in recent months, so to have a news show continuing on Three – even in a slimmed down form – is a net positive for the industry. It’s also timed with the long overdue announcement this week of future government support in the form of the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill (we talked about that on Wednesday). It hopefully paints a more optimistic picture for the future of news in New Zealand than previously anticipated, though one that remains deeply uncertain. Newsroom’s Mark Jennings, in April, said that while Three owners Warner Bros Discovery have “de-risked” the news operation by passing it on, “the onus is now on Stuff to provide a news product that stands up to viewer scrutiny”. Mediawatch’s Colin Peacock put it bluntly this week, asking “Do we still care about the 6pm TV news?” It could be some time before we know for sure.
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Wayne Brown on planned housing overhaul: ‘We don’t like to be told what to do’
Auckland’s mayor has criticised the government’s plans to adjust zoning rules and remove the requirements on apartment size, saying: “There’s no sign of any money, just a whole lot of instructions.” As we discussed in The Bulletin yesterday, housing minister Chris Bishop wants to “flood the [housing] market” in an effort to make properties more accessible. But, reported The Post, Wayne Brown was one of those left unimpressed. “Aucklanders don’t appreciate a dump like Wellington telling us how to live. As a city, we don’t like to be told what to do,” he said.
On the front page of The Post today, another critic questioned whether the plan would lead to “potential ghettos and bad quality design”. In contrast, Eric Crampton, chief economist at the New Zealand Initiative, said the policy was a step in the right direction, citing the ability for further development outside urban areas. The Spinoff’s Joel MacManus has a column on this today, saying Bishop’s metaphor of a flood is over-egging it. “A more accurate metaphor would be a stream. The government can’t make people build houses any more than it can legislate the price of them.”
Listen: Will we see a rate cut from the Reserve Bank this year?
Bernard Hickey goes hunting for the Reserve Bank’s first rate cut in a discussion with Kiwibank economist Sabrina Delgado. It was supposed to be this year, especially now that the economy appears mired in a multi-dip recession with higher unemployment – but sticky local inflation has held the RBNZ back.
Now, however, it is forecasting a rate cut in August 2025 at the earliest. Sabrina explains why she disagrees, why the central bank should be able to cut as early as November, and what that will mean for the housing market.
Dr Areta Wilkinson on building taonga for the community, with the community
"I have a lot of tentacles," says Dr Areta Wilkinson of her creative practice. She investigates contemporary jewellery as a form of knowledge informed by whakapapa and a Ngāi Tahu worldview. In the second story of Art Work, Sam Brooks speaks with Dr Wilkinson about her many projects that require hi-vis, grassroots and going deep into the past. Read it, here.
Click and Collect
A Māori cultural advisor is "gobsmacked" an Upper Hutt brewery has released a beer named Kupe as part of a series showcasing historical explorers, reports RNZ.
Are new screen time limits needed in our schools? A group of experts say excessive use of devices linked to poor physical and mental health.
On a similar thread: Why banning social media for under-16s won't help
Newshub’s Michael Morrah couldn’t resist one more scoop. He’s got a follow-up to his investigation into historic allegations of abuse at a Catholic-run orphanage in Upper Hutt.
In The Press this morning, proposed speed limit rules could cost ratepayers $7.2 million for variable signs outside of schools.
Green Cross Health’s The Doctors chain of general practices has been the target of a fake app cyberattack, reports NZ Doctor (paywalled).
Liam Rātana asks whether dropping reo Māori names from government agencies could actually give mana to te reo Māori. "I hope you fucking die": our new staff writer Lyric Waiwiri-Smith reports on the reality of being a bus driver in 2024. Hera Lindsay Bird advises a reader whose neighbours keep pissing on their fence.
#DogsAtPollingStations
To close this morning, some dogs! We’re still a couple of hours from polls closing in the UK election, which means it’s time for dogs at polling booths. The BBC has collated some their favourite furry friends here, and below, one that appealed to me from Twitter. If you want to relive the best dogs from our election last year, you can find our live blog here.
That’s it for The Bulletin this week, thanks for reading. I’ll be back on Monday, have a good weekend!
Let me know in the comments, or get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz, if you have any feedback on today’s issue or anything in the news.
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I am one who long ago ceased watching the 6pm news live on any channel but the reality is we only ever did it habitually because we had no choice - it was watch then or miss it! Now I can see segments on YouTube & the whole bulletin on TVNZ+ or ThreeNow later in the evening. I can download RNZ news bulletins & segments on my podcast app & listen anytime (and actually prefer RNZ news as more succinct & with no advt!)
On the other hand, I have fond memories of many of the people who have worked at TV3 over the years & it was my go-to TV News until the American owners took over - hard to pinpoint, but the tone shifted & so did I! Very emotional tonight watching the last bulletin - whatever happened, it is people out of work who have families to support that is the real tragedy, as well as the loss of another news source.
The David Farrier Webworm retrospective at least gave me a smile to start the day - there were many naughty & irreverent times on TV3, especially late at night!
Why not do an article on the economic, environmental and carbon costs of pets?
I remember research from decades ago about a medium-large dog having the same size footprint as a medium SUV!