How Prime courted Holmes

By SCOTT KARA

Paul Holmes has been leaving TVNZ for a long time.

His last day would have surprised his viewers. But in light of his contract being up for renewal since April, his insistence that he is in the "summer of his career", and the on-going tension between himself and head of news Bill Ralston, it seemed inevitable he would move on.

Holmes' new boss, Prime TV's chief executive Chris Taylor, for one, has had the 54-year-old presenter on his hit list for nearly a year. When Mr Taylor started at Prime late last year he had to find ways to make the network a genuine player in the free-to-air market and looked on Holmes as potentially the one to help do it.

But speculation in the National Business Review suggests it was the chairman of Prime TV, Brent Harman, who Holmes approached first. The pair know each other well. Mr Harman gave Holmes his first break nationally in 1987 when he hired him to replace Merv Smith on Newstalk ZB.

However, it is Mr Taylor who is credited with negotiating the final deal to snare Holmes for a reported $3 million over three years.

The pair became good friends after coincidentally meeting at a birthday party while they were both on a winter holiday in Fiji this year.

"We struck up a friendship, and became friends well before I posed any thought in his mind about coming to work with us," said Mr Taylor.

Mr Taylor would not reveal any details but said the Holmes' deal was done over the course of the last six weeks.

At TVNZ, the day before Holmes resigned, rumours had started flying about Holmes' impending departure.

On Tuesday there was no usual 9am meeting. Staff were told Holmes was interviewing Diana Kerry, the sister of Senator John Kerry. They waited 30 or so minutes for him to come out of the interview, but he never showed. Instead, a source close to the Holmes' show told the Herald that Bill Ralston announced in a "businesslike and matter-of-fact tone" that Holmes was leaving.

"He said: 'Paul's going to Prime, he's no longer with us'.

"I wouldn't say anybody was sad. I wouldn't say anybody was overjoyed either." Prime TV called a press conference for 11am, giving media only two hours notice.

Mr Taylor was waiting for Holmes in a room at the Hilton Hotel next to where the press conference was being held.

"I knew he was coming down from TVNZ where I knew he'd resigned and [it] had been a few weeks of serious deliberation and discussion," he said. "I saw him, shook his hand, and put my arms around him. I guess ... it hit us and we were here and about to pull off what we believe to be a huge coup."

Over at Prime's offices in Albany on Auckland's North Shore, the 40-odd staff had gathered in the board room, and telephone links were made to the channel's branch offices.

Ten minutes before the press conference Mr Taylor told his staff about the hiring of Holmes.

Later in the day, at 3.46pm, TVNZ sent out an email about its programme change for the evening, and "every day henceforth".

It read: "Delete Holmes. Add Close Up At 7. Hosted by Susan Wood."

Blunt and simple - just like Holmes' final hurrah on Close Up At 7 that night.