Tara Ward watched tonight’s six o’clock news bulletins to see just how the news covered its own news.
It’s not often the news has to report on itself, but tonight, it happened. With today’s announcement that Warner Bros Discovery is proposing to close the Newshub service on June 30, we were about to see Newshub become the very news it covers. How do you report the news that the news has been cancelled?
In the lead up to the news about the news, TVNZ1 had The Chase; on Three, it was Gold Rush, a show syndicated by Warner Bros Discovery, and the kind of international format show we’ll see more of on Three after June. Expect to watch more shows featuring Americans sitting around a table counting half a million bucks in gold – but for now, let’s go to Newshub, which is closing due to a massive decline in advertising revenue and general economic downturn.
“Going, going, not quite gone,” Mike McRoberts began, as Newshub’s glossy red set loomed into view. McRoberts voice was steady as he introduced the evening’s headlines, accompanied by footage of McRoberts himself walking out of this morning’s announcement. In the studio, Sam Hayes sat to his right, calm and composed as always. They were both so professional, it almost seemed like this wasn’t happening to them.
“This is not the news we thought we would be delivering today,” Hayes said, introducing the first of two stories about the closure. With the awful announcement that almost 300 staff would lose their jobs at the end of June, reporter Michael Morrah travelled back in time to show us Philip Sherry delivering the first 3 National News bulletin almost 35 years ago. Then, McRoberts popped up in the same news item, being interviewed about the story he had just introduced. It was like the Spiderman pointing meme, but way more depressing.
“It was a bombshell…It’s absolutely heartbreaking,” McRoberts in the past said, and a long line of commentators followed him to share their devastation. Former Newshub head of news Mark Jennings called it “a huge blow to democracy”, while broadcaster Eric Young said he’d first worked in the Newshub building in 1989; Three News is part of his DNA. Even former TVNZ weatherman Jim Hickey emailed Newshub to share his devastation. “It’s brutal and unethical,” he wrote.
Then, McRoberts crossed live to Morrah standing outside Three’s Auckland offices to talk about how the Newshub team was coping. He spoke of the team as being like a family, deeply passionate about news and journalism. These changes will reverberate through all aspects of the media, Morrah added, as a helicopter hovered somewhere in the distance and alarms echoed through the city.
Across town at TVNZ, the Newshub closure also led the 1News bulletin, with Simon Dallow declaring it “a sad day for democracy and journalism in New Zealand”. Behind him was a giant image of Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts, making this a rare instance of news competitors appearing on the other’s broadcast.
1News reporter Kim Baker Wilson crossed live and spoke about the impact of falling ad revenue across the media sector. He didn’t mention the impact felt by TVNZ itself, which has seen profits fall drastically in the last financial year, with a slow ad market cited as the main culprit. Just two weeks ago, Businessdesk reported that more job losses are expected at the state-owned broadcaster, after nine senior roles were axed in November.
Back at Newshub, McRoberts and Hayes crossed to a story about the political response to the closure. When questioned in parliament, Winston Peters was pissed off, minister of broadcasting Melissa Lee appeared ambivalent, and the prime minister seemed relatively upbeat about the whole thing. “People are consuming their news in lots of different ways,” Christopher Luxon said, speaking to the people consuming their nightly news on the nightly news.
But by 6.12pm, it was time for Newshub to move on to the other news of the day: gun laws, the official cash rate, rats at Countdown. A few minutes later, there was an update about the weather. Today, it poured. Tomorrow, a storm is coming.
Discussion about this post