Stuff will provide an hour-long weekday bulletin and a 30-minute bulletin on Saturdays and Sundays.Video / Corey Fleming
The rivalry, naturally, was there from the start.
“I personally think one of us is going to struggle”, said TVNZ’s Julian Mounter to Janet McIntyre, after the 3 National News journalist asked during the upstart’s first news broadcast on November 27 1989 if the country had room for two competing news networks.
“I hope it’s you, and you hope it’s me”, added the state broadcaster’s then-director general.
Thirty-four years later, Three’s 6pm news bulletin has been saved from impending oblivion after rival media company Stuff signed a deal with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
Hour-long weekday and half-hour weekend bulletins would continue, but under a new look and name the day after WBD yanks the plug on the news arm of the free-to-air broadcaster on July 5.
But change is constant, and it’s not the first time for the many who’ve occupied our screens for more than three decades under the outgoing newscaster.
The first came after just six months, when poor ratings for TV3 saw inaugural newsreader - veteran broadcaster Philip Sherry - replaced by Joanna Paul.
Paul, propelled into the hot seat from breakfast news bulletin, told the Herald the promotion was an “indescribable high for me as a broadcaster, a woman and a Māori”.
The following year the 6pm bulletin was extended from 30 minutes to an hour, a move the state broadcaster wouldn’t match for another four years.
Veteran broadcaster Philip Sherry was hired to present the 6pm bulletin when 3 National News debuted in 1989.
Broadcasting big-hitter John Hawkesby followed Paul into the presenter’s seat in 1992, back then a solo gig supported by a cast of reporters that included lively up-and-comers like John Campbell.
Campbell switched to the swivelly seat when Hawkesby was lured back to TVNZ in 1998, joined by co-host - a first for the broadcast - Carol Hirschfield, followed seven years later by Hilary Barry and Mike McRoberts in 2005.
Daily exposure to hundreds of thousands of Kiwis made household names of all, although not everyone was a fan.
Then Prime Minister Helen Clark called Campbell a “sanctimonious little creep” after they clashed on-air in a controversial interview over genetically modified corn.
Longtime TV3 broadcaster Hilary Barry defected to TVNZ in 2016,
Later, good pal Barry would choke back tears while reading the news of the demise of Campbell’s post-newsreading current affairs vehicle Campbell Live.
There were lighter moments, from a giggling Barry struggling to read weather reports to Internet Mana Party press secretary Pam Corkery calling 3 News reporter Brook Sabin a “puffed up little shit” when he tried to get an interview with founder Kim Dotcom at the party’s launch.
She was replaced by TV3 journalist and former 3D and Newsworthy host Samantha Hayes - with the pair set to be the last frontline faces of the soon-to-be gone broadcaster.
“I love making live television”, wrote Hayes on Instagram when she and her colleagues were first told of Newshub’s impending closure.
“I love doing the news, and so we’ll keep doing it until the lights go out.”
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
