Newshub's website will stop operating in just over three weeks, and will cease to exist after several months.
Newshub's website will stop operating in just over three weeks, and will cease to exist after several months.
The Newshub news website will stop being updated in just over three weeks and will cease to exist in several months, Warner Bros Discovery staff have been told today.
There had been hopes within Newshub’s digital team that Stuff – which takes over production of the 6pm href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/tv3/" target="_blank">TV3 news bulletin and ownership of digital assets after Newshub closes on July 5 – would retain newshub.co.nz.
But Newshub staff have been told today that the URL is to be closed down, once articles are transferred across to stuff.co.nz. The transfer also includes all video content post-June 2017.
While that gives Stuff an extensive library of historical journalism, it also means the closure of the third-biggest news website in the country.
In April, Stuff had a unique audience of 2.1 million, the NZ Herald 1.96 million, Newshub 1.3 million, RNZ 1.2 million and 1News 787,000, according to Nielsen figures.
There is now likely to be an almighty battle for the remaining news websites to snare as much of the loyal Newshub audience as possible.
The migration of Newshub content to Stuff is expected to start this month and take several months. It will be credited to Newshub and, where possible, specific journalists, Media Insider understands.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros Discovery is also working with the National Library’s Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision unit to house the full archive of TV3 news video stories, stretching back to 1989.
A Warner Bros Discovery spokesman said: “The work the Newshub team has done over the years is so important to New Zealand’s history. We’re delighted Stuff will be preserving that content as part of our partnership.
“It is wonderful that both the public of New Zealand, and the journalists who created that work, will still be able to access this content.”
Newshub's outgoing 6pm newsreaders Mike McRoberts and Sam Hayes – Hayes is joining Stuff and McRoberts is joining NBR.
Last month, Media Insider reported that Newshub’s digital news staff were “deeply frustrated” about what they considered a lack of communication from Stuff over the future of the website.
A Newshub source said the company’s specialised digital team – some 13 people – were “deeply frustrated with a lack of comms from Stuff on the future of the high-performing Newshub website”.
They said there had been no word on whether the website continued as is, whether it would be reshaped – perhaps as a video portal – or if its content “just gets absorbed into Stuff”.
“We’ve been asking our management, who say they know nothing. We were beating both RNZ and 1News most of last year and early 2024. RNZ has beaten us the past two months, though, as our staffing numbers collapse.”
Newshub did bounce back to third place in April.
Stuff did not respond last month to a list of questions, including what it planned to do with the website, whether it would be talking to the Newshub team and its response to their frustrations.
Stuff has been approached for comment again today.
It has set up threenews.co.nz as a URL - this currently hosts stories about the new 6pm bulletin, and may eventually be a landing page for the 6pm bulletin’s stories.
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
