Spy: Tristram Clayton's new focus

Tristram Clayton. Photo / Greg Bowker

Former Campbell Live reporter Tristram Clayton returns to our screens this month, hosting the new daily video news show NZ Herald Focus.

The show, to be screened online at nzherald.co.nz, will see him going up against his former mentor John Campbell at Radio NZ.

"The first couple of months after Campbell Live were strangely unsettling. The programme was always about doing stories that mattered and suddenly it was gone.
"It has been fascinating learning new skills but I've really missed being able to help people share their stories. So I'm incredibly excited to have that opportunity again," Clayton said.

"Stepping off the frantic treadmill of daily TV current affairs did mean a few, very welcome, extra hours in the day. I briefly upped the amount of cooking and running I was doing, but journalism is a tough habit to break."

He will work on the new show with co-host Laura McGoldrick, Newstalk ZB's Niva Retimanu and sport maestro Tony Veitch. The show is being produced by former 60 Minutes producer and host Belinda Henley.

Clayton said he and McGoldrick didn't know each other well before starting on the project but they already feel like old mates. He said her ability to sum up a breaking sports or entertainment story, to give fresh insight and to have a "bloody good laugh" was unbelievable. "She's an absolute star."

Clayton said Veitch was a well-established journo and made him feel very welcome when he did the graveyard shift at TVNZ 15 years ago and the same has happened with the new show.

On Wednesday night, Clayton was at NZME's iheartradio lounge to support his colleague Retimanu, (famous for being the dulcet-toned newsreader on ZB) at the launch of her new book, Leading From Behind, about getting better, fitter and stronger through running marathons.

Clayton has not worked with Retimanu before but told Spy he felt he had known her all his life from listening to her read the news.

He's excited about being involved in the new show. "It's the next step in the fast-moving world of media convergence.

"Newspapers around the world have been providing basic video content on their websites and apps for years. What we're doing is moving that up a gear with a high-quality news bulletin."