Newshub is Dead.

Long Live the 6pm Stuff.

I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news.

If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, rather than one larger newsletter, let me know your thoughts on that too. 🙂

As with my earlier newsletter today I’ve kept this one free to all. As ever it would be greatly appreciated if you would consider subscribing to support my writing.

I got sincerity that's bonafide
And a heart so fine it's certified
So let your good stuff rain down on me
Your dang good stuff that's true and tried

Are you lookin' for it?
Are you lookin' for it?
You'll hear it from me
Good stuff baby

Last night came the news of an all hands meeting at Newshub. I figured that was promising - surely they wouldn’t get those poor buggers in just to tell them once again that they’ve lost their jobs.

News started to filter through of some sort of deal whereby Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) would pay a third party to produce a news show that they’d show on TV3.

I thought of the possibilities.

Had the government come to the party? Could someone have plied Winston with enough liquor and compliments that he forgot his hatred for the media and splurged a little of his largesse?

Was there going to be intervention from overseas? Rumours were rife that Rupert Murdoch might get involved. Hmmm, perhaps Newshub going bust wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to our media landscape.

What of the local players? Please god no, I thought. Not NZME. Imagine the ZB team bringing you the evening news.

Or how about a super merger with the “talents” of Reality Creation Radio and Sean Plunket’s Platform?

But no, as the story progressed it was announced that Stuff employees had been called to a 10:30 am meeting as well. It looked as if perhaps there was going to be a saviour of at least some of those jobs, and the retention of some variety in our evening news.

RIP Newshub, long live the 6pm Stuff.

The news came through - "the new Stuff-made 6pm news will begin on Saturday 6 July, the day after the final Newshub bulletin airs on Friday 5 July." It will broadcast for an hour Monday to Friday, with a half hour programme on the weekend.

That’s actually better than I’d hoped for, and I think a half hour bulletin in the weekend makes good sense.

Personally I’d drop the whole week back to half an hour and lose the weather and sports - but that’s just me. I can look those things up, listening to the extra presenters they have for each doesn’t do anything for me. But I’m sure others enjoy it. The main thing was that there will still be a news programme on Three.

Around lunchtime there was a joint press conference held by Stuff and WBD. Sinead Boucher, the owner of Stuff, was really excited about her team reaching a wider audience. She said that more news was good for our country and for our democracy, and spoke about those trying to discredit the news.

"The more journalists out there on the ground, the better for everybody." - Sinead Boucher.

Sinead sounded genuine and honest and it was bloody refreshing after listening to people like Melissa Lee being asked the same sort of questions.

Glen Kyne, ANZ head of Networks for WBD, was a little more circumspect and talked about the fact that there were mixed emotions. Not all of the Newshub jobs would be saved, and details are not available yet. Boucher said Stuff would “definitely be bringing some Newshub staff” to produce the 6pm show.

Stuff owner and publisher Sinead Boucher and Head of WBD NZ Glen Kyne have outlined an agreement to continue a nightly news broadcast on Three. Image: Stuff.

Sinead was clear that Stuff was not looking to move into the television business. This is very much a case of them producing content for WBD. But you’d have to assume that whatever the new station is going to look like, or be called, you’ll know it’s Stuff and not Newshub.

I’ve thought a lot about all of this over the last few weeks and the comments I make about the media. I’ve been critical of Newshub in the past, but faced with it’s closure I felt that would be a terrible thing for this country. I guess sometimes we don’t value things, or even take them seriously, until we face losing them.

It was a bit like someone who had been unhappy with the way things were but woke up to the reality of Brexit and knew that it was much much worse than the imperfect status quo.

In both situations you only had to look at the type of people who were celebrating. People that were championing ignorance rather than reality. Albeit a flawed reality.

Do I have reservations about Stuff? Sure, but this is better than all the other alternatives I could think of.

Stuff, like NZME, do tend to carry a lot of right wing voices with little in the way of left wing balance. Think libertarian writers like contributor Damien Grant or editor Luke Malpass. But they do also have some excellent reporters.

Since Tova O’Brien joined Stuff she has been doing stellar work, better than much of what I recall when she was at Newshub. Although that could of course be because she’s now trying to keep this lot honest, a mammoth task, rather that focussing on the parties that I thought were doing a pretty good job.

Tova will benefit from having the weight of a newsroom behind her, rather than cornering Luxon at Fieldays with a cameraman.

But what of Newshub political reporters like Jenna Lynch, Michael Morrah, or Amelia Wade? Each of whom have gone up a lot in my estimation over recent months.

There will inevitably be job losses with duplication across the organisations - but at least those people who are going to be out of work won’t be so in an environment where only one major television newsroom remains.

Stuff have always been a bit different. Long ago they stopped sharing content on Facebook and when they did it was with comments disabled. I thought both measures were good.

I don’t like the fact that our media, who produce the content, struggle financially, where other platforms like Facebook generate enormous income largely off the back of content that they don’t pay for.

Personally I’d prefer that media organisations moderate their comments sections, rather than turn them off altogether. But that of course costs money and doesn’t bring any revenue so I’m sure it’s hard to justify. Still having no comments section is better than the unmoderated cesspool you find with the likes of Newstalk ZB.

This could’ve ended with just a single evening news programme in Aotearoa. Or with the only alternative to TVNZ being run by Rupert Murdoch or sharing the editorial views of NZME.

But the 6pm evening news lives to report another day, and I reckon that’s bloody good news. We sure haven’t had much of that stuff lately. So yay! Now please make it good.