Newshub closure: Stuff reveals name for new 6pm bulletin

NZ Herald

27 May, 2024 01:26 AM3 mins to read

Newshub anchor Samantha Hayes will join Stuff.

Stuff has revealed the name of its new 6pm TV bulletin, which is set to replace Newshub when it closes in early July.

It comes as big names from the outgoing news company make their moves into new roles at different media companies.

The bulletin will be called ThreeNews and the logo shares a similar look to the existing channel Three logo.

Warner Bros Discovery vice-president Juliet Peterson said they wanted to make the digital and free-to-air assets have “one look and feel” and pay homage to their history.

Stuff will provide an hour-long weekday bulletin and a 30-minute bulletin on Saturdays and Sundays. The deal starts from Saturday, July 6 – the day after Newshub shuts for good, with the loss of up to 300 jobs.

The Newshub website, which generates a unique audience of more than one million people each month, would transfer to Stuff.

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Samantha Hayes is set to host the news bulletin and will be joined by a host of her Newshub colleagues.

Other Newshub staff to be hired include political editor Jenna Lynch, reporter and presenter Laura Tupou, sports reporter Ollie Ritchie, Christchurch reporter Juliet Speedy and weather presenter Heather Keats.

Outgoing Newshub – and incoming Stuff – 6pm newsreader Samantha Hayes. Photo / Lee Howell IDC

Ryan Bridge and Michael Morrah are moving to NZME, as Newstalk ZB host and NZ Herald senior investigative reporter respectively.

Mike McRoberts is also heading to the National Business Review as Te Ao Māori editor.

Under the new deal, Warner Bros Discovery will pay Stuff an annual fee – likely in the low millions of dollars – to provide the 6pm-7pm weekday news bulletin (and the 30-minute bulletins on Saturdays and Sundays).

Outgoing Warner Bros Discovery boss Glen Kyne told Media Insider that a Stuff team had been in the Newshub studio last week, observing the production of the 6pm bulletin.

At the moment, Newshub Live at 6 generates an audience of around 200,000 people each night.

Asked if he expected the number to stay at that level, Kyne said: “We don’t know is the real answer at the moment.”

Kyne said the two companies were setting up governance structures to keep a close eye on ratings.

“There’s a lot of subtlety around that news bulletin, very small things that most viewers wouldn’t see or notice, but that can make a big difference to how a viewer stays through that hour – the organisation of stories, what comes after a break, when do we trigger the break?

“So many little broadcasting kind of know-how things.”