Anchors away as TV3 rejigs

Mike McRoberts (right) and Hilary Barry are taking over the TV3 news presenter roles vacated by John Campbell and Carol Hirschfeld.

The changeover of news anchors at TV3 is now official - with the news that the faces of Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts will pop up on the back of buses this weekend.

Barry is not too keen on this. She had vague hopes of slipping into the chair vacated by Carol Hirschfeld on Monday with nobody noticing anything different.

She has read the news at weekends and as a fill-in for Hirschfeld over the past six years. Barry is also the morning newsreader for More FM, so the job is not completely new. But she has never been on the back of a bus before.

"It's not the first show that makes me nervous. It's everything else that comes with the job. I don't know what it is like to have that increased profile."

People already approach her in the street and point out her bad-hair days with brutal honesty.

"Can you imagine going up to somebody you've never met and telling them their hair looks awful? I have to laugh it off. I have developed a thick hide."

The other half of TV3's new anchor team, Mike McRoberts, has been on the back of a bus in his role as presenter and reporter on 60 Minutes.

He has been a journalist for 20 years - 10 in radio and 10 in television. He has filled in for Campbell but was more often seen on 20/20 and 60 Minutes.

He will stay on the latter, but the change to full-time news presenter will rein in his travel.

"I've been to some interesting places to report: Pakistan, Iraq twice, the Solomon Islands. Anywhere that's hot and smelly with a bit of danger in it, and I'm there."

Both Barry and McRoberts hope to continue the tradition set by Campbell and Hirschfeld of heading away on reporting jobs.

"I think the bosses see our point of difference as being that we can go out and do that," said Barry, who has worked at TV3 for 11 years as a reporter.

She has a traditional view of the newsreader's job.

"I'm not going to stamp my personality on the programme in any way whatsoever. I'd rather people just watched the news because they wanted to watch a good-quality bulletin."

Adds McRoberts: "Not because you've got that lovely jacket on again."

"Yes," said Barry. "Or the way they love my hair done that way."