On the news ladder: Who is now fronting Newshub Late?

Journalist Wilhelmina Shrimpton (left) is joining Newshub Late as a new host. She tells Sarah Nealon about her career so far.

Wilhelmina Shrimpton had her first taste of a television newsroom when she was in her final year of high school. Shrimpton, who will take up hosting duties on Newshub Late three times a week from March 12, appeared on TVNZ’s Breakfast as a teenager to give a young person’s perspective about a couple of issues. “I was head girl at my school so the principal asked me to represent our students (on Breakfast) and as soon as I walked in I knew a newsroom was exactly where I wanted to be. I loved the excitement, the adrenalin rush ... it was all go, go, go,” she recalls. Fast-forward 10 years later and Shrimpton is now a Newshub reporter who has worked in radio and at TVNZ on its assignments desk and as a junior reporter. “I’m actually not formally journalist-trained,” she says. “I started off with this idea of doing medicine. I signed up for the bachelor of health science and a bachelor of commerce conjoint at Auckland Uni. “After the first semester I knew that med wasn’t for me so I thought I would continue on with a bachelor of commerce degree. “At that stage I was working as a junior on the desk at TVNZ and thought I would continue the bachelor of commerce and I’d do the post grad in journalism. I thought it would be the point of difference. But when I graduated in my commerce degree, a full-time position came up.” Shrimpton, who was just weeks away from marrying her partner of eight years when she spoke to TV Guide, is thankful for the opportunities she has been given so far. “I’m very lucky to have gone through that path because not many journos my age, I don’t think, have gotten into a newsroom and successfully climbed the news ladder without a journalism qualification,” she says. Shrimpton will share Newshub Late hosting duties with Sacha McNeil, who will be behind the desk on Thursdays and Fridays.