Up to 300 jobs are expected to be lost as one of our biggest commercial media company’s newsrooms - Newshub - is set to close at the end of June. Video / Chereè Kinnear | Ben Dickens
Newshub presenter Samantha Hayes has broken her silence over the announcement that the newsroom is set to close at the end of June, saying she will keep presenting the news “until the lights go out”.
The announcement today that Newshub could shut down at the end of June is heartbreaking. It’s a newsroom brimming with talent & enthusiasm, & I just feel so incredibly sad for everyone today. For now though, see you at 6pm pic.twitter.com/E0RysdEgBH
Patrick Gower (from left), Samantha Hayes and Ryan Bridge are just three of the well-respected journalists who could lose their jobs following the closure of Newshub. Photo / Warner Bros. Discovery
Dozens of high-profile presenters and journalists such as hosts Mike McRoberts and Hayes and new 7pm show frontman Ryan Bridge are among the hundreds about to lose their jobs.
A steady flow of Newshub staff left a meeting this morning in tears and with stunned looks on their faces.
Former AM host Bridge told journalists they were “going to go and have a drink”.
Mike McRoberts and Ryan Bridge leave this morning's meeting. Photo / Dean Purcell
News anchor McRoberts also described the announcement as “heartbreaking”.
“We are a pretty good newsroom, if we can’t make it work, who can?”
Presenter and journalist Paddy Gower was said to have delivered a morale-boosting speech at the end of the meeting.
Speaking to media, Gower said he was not allowed to say anything, but added that everyone impacted was working at a place that began in 1989.
“Amazing people started it here. And I said to everyone in the meeting they are amazing as well, and they’ve continued that legacy and that they should be proud of everything that they’ve done. That’s what I’ve told the team and that’s what I’ve told everyone else.”
