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Television is considered an unstable industry where its citizens are quickly discarded when ratings drop and where women feel the pressure to remain ever-youthful.
But TV3 newsreader Hilary Barry (38) is bucking the trend as this year marks her 10th year as a presenter and her 15th year with the network. "I can't believe it's been that long, the years are a bit of a blur," she admits. "I still enjoy it and it feels right. I think that I'll know when it's time to leave or else they'll sack me - then I'll really know it's time to leave," she laughs.
TV3 and TVNZ are constantly battling it out in the ratings war, scoring points off each other with negative comments about everything from the treatment of a story to a particular newsreader's performance - or their clothing. Cheerful and capable, Barry is a lot more animated in real life than her autocue persona suggests.
Surprisingly, given her somewhat mumsy image, she's also someone who relishes the rivalry with the state broadcaster. "I think that we are great combatants and we'll always be competitive on the field even if we might have a drink in the pub afterwards." But, of course, she thinks that TV3 is well ahead in the ratings war.
"They (TVNZ) made a few comments at the beginning of the year about how well they were doing but winter is when it counts, when everyone is at home watching, and we are winning when it counts."
Last week's latest figures show 3 News came in with 212,000 viewers in the coveted 18-49-year-old demographic compared to One News' 196,5000.
However, when all viewers 5+ are accounted for, One News rates 642,800 viewers versus 3's 388,000.
After so many years in the business, Barry is still passionate about the news industry and says you can't beat the adrenalin high of getting the jump on competitors for a story or even just getting a late-breaking item to air.
"It really is like that movie Broadcast News with people running everywhere," she says. "The noise slowly creeps up over the day and then there is an amazing feeling of elation when you pull it off. "The strange part is that what you find most rewarding about your job is actually these stories of terrible tragedy or misery."
Given this dynamic, she is loath to cite any particular story as a career high. Women in TV cop a lot of criticism and in her early days, Barry got used to comments about her bowl haircut and lipstick and earrings.
While she can't quite believe that viewers get hung up about that sort of stuff she admits she'll take a jacket out of circulation if she gets more than a couple of complaints.
"I've been in this industry long enough to have developed a very thick skin. I don't care what anyone thinks about me. I care about what my husband thinks and what my children think and that's it.
"TV is a tough business when it comes to women but I'm not sensitive at all about ageing," she says. "I refuse to get into botox or anything like that.
At least in New Zealand it's not as bad as the States where half the women newsreaders look plastic." Barry always wanted to be a reporter.
She trained at Wellington Polytechnic and then worked for Radio New Zealand in the Wairarapa. The sole-charge office was an exhilarating way to learn the business, and she still urges young reporters to take similar opportunities if offered because, she says, it gives such a good all-round start.
She joined TV3 in 1993, working with Mark Jennings (now head of news) in the Christchurch bureau. She moved to Auckland a year later and made the shift from reporter to newsreader in 1998. She says it was "by accident rather than design" - she was given the chance to fill in "because everyone was sick".
She was so unprepared she had to borrow a "very 80s" red and black jacket from her mother. "It was terrifying," she recalls. "I felt that the studio was unbelievably hot, even though I knew it wasn't. My heart was beating so fast it felt like my whole body was moving in time to the beat. I thought that people would complain about it." They didn't.
Barry went from producing and presenting Dateline (2000-2003) to working as weekend newsreader (1998-2004) to finally co-anchoring 3 News with Mike McRoberts when Carol Hirschfeld and John Campbell left four years ago (to respectively produce and host Campbell Live).
"It took about a year to feel like I was no longer filling in because they left such big shoes to fill." Boss Mark Jennings says she's well and truly filled those shoes now.
"The reason Hilary is such a good presenter is her ability to make you, the viewer, feel as if she is talking directly to you, and not to some huge audience sitting out there in TV land. Her presenting has an intimate feel and that is very hard to achieve. Judy Bailey has it and it doesn't surprise me that Hilary is sometimes compared to Judy. They are both world-class readers."
Jennings hired Hilary on the recommendation of Kevin Milne (Fair Go) who sent him her unsuccessful audition tape for TVNZ. Milne thought the network had made a mistake and Jennings agreed, hiring her on the spot. "I don't think Hilary has changed over the years," he says.
"To me, she still seems like the bubbly, dependable, talented kid I hired all those years ago." The Hilary Barry/Mike McRoberts combination has taken 3 News to new highs in the ratings. "They complement each other perfectly and a few weeks ago 3 News had the highest-rating week in its history," says Jennings.
Barry enjoys working with McRoberts, who is just as serene off screen as he appears onscreen, she reveals. Being considered his "onscreen wife" is one of the things she finds strange about the job and it can be confusing for people when she talks about real-life husband Mike Barry. "People do a double take and I have to tell them I'm not married to McRoberts."
She met her husband, that other Mike, through mutual friend Tony Johnson (now at Sky Television). There were some group outings and Johnson was dogged in his efforts to set them up.
Hilary took some convincing but after their first date alone "the rest was history". Mike Barry teaches English at Takapuna Grammar on Auckland's North Shore, where they live with sons Finn (8) and Ned (6).
It sounds an idyllic life with her mum and his parents nearby and grandparents also on hand to help out when work schedules collide. Barry went back to work part-time when Finn was 3 months old and she has worked ever since.
The couple have taken turns with parenting and working over the years but at the moment Mike is doing both morning and afternoon routines as she reads the radio news at More FM in the morning and on 3 News at 6pm weeknights. With a day that starts at 5am and ends at 7pm there is no such thing as "me time" but Barry wouldn't have it any other way.
And now the kids are older there is time for the odd "date night" with Mike. But don't expect to see any magazine photo spreads featuring the Barry family because both Hilary and Mike are fiercely protective of their boys' privacy.
Anyway, Barry laughs, no one is interested in her as she'd have to be the most unglamorous newsreader out there. "No one is going to try and get paparazzi shots of me in my trackies at the dairy because they expect me to look like that!"
People often say that TV news is becoming more tabloid and the extensive coverage of actor Heath Ledger's death is cited as an example of the networks being focused on the wrong things. But Barry isn't buying that. "Our role is to serve our audience of 18-49 year-olds and our bulletins are a reflection of what they are interested in," she says.
"I think that some news purists would be shocked to know how many people are actually interested in a B-list celebrity from LA."
She's also dismissive of predictions that the mid-evening bulletin is becoming irrelevant with the rise of the internet.
The show anchors an evening's programming, she says, and as long as it offers top stories with extra commentary and analysis then people will tune in.
