Newshub’s demise: ‘Less scrutiny of our politics, our business and our society’
Wednesday, 28 February 2024
The news Newshub will be almost certainly be shutting down later this year has sent shockwaves across the media industry.
“Newshub’s approach to news has always had a lot of energy. It was a start-up channel- the first one that wasn’t government owned in New Zealand, and it carried a kind of youthful exuberance, and a little bit of a mischievous quality to its news,’ Duncan Greive told Stuff’s Newsable podcast.
Click the play button above to listen to the full story or click here.
Greive is the founder of media outlet The Spinoff and also hosts The Fold podcast which looks at media, technology, and culture here in New Zealand.
Executives from Newshub’s owner, Warner Bros Discovery, told staff of the proposed shut down at a meeting at 11am on Wednesday.
About 200 staff could lose their jobs in the closure.
“We’re one down.. Having a different number of newsrooms matters, because newsrooms are competitive and they function as checks and balances, not just on society, but on one another. And when you have one fewer, you just have less people.. scrutinising the operations of our politics, of our business, and our society,” Greive said.
Greive also spoke on the media personalities the company has fostered.
“It’s always been an incredible incubator of talent - people like John Campbell, David Farrier, Hilary Barry, Paddy Gower - they all came through that newsroom,” he said.
“There’s been a lineage of great political editors, from Duncan Garner, to Paddy Gower, to Tova O’Brien, to Jenna Lynch - they’ve all had this particular quality where they know how to frame up a story, they know how to make it feel like it really matters to you.. they really go after it and stay with it.. you can imagine there’d be a lot of politicians who breathe a little easier as a result.”
Listen to the full interview here.
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