TV star’s new job
In a sign of both media convergence and the gig economy, TVNZ star Simon Dallow has signed up to read the news for the National Business Review.
The move will see Dallow, a former lawyer who joined TVNZ in 1993, remain anchoring the state- owned broadcaster’s flagship evening news show but split his workday between two employers.
Dallow told the Weekend Herald last night the move had been under discussion for some time.
“They’ve been asking me for a little while. Personally I’m most interested in hard news, business and politics,” he said.
He emphasised the new position as “very much part time” and said he’d sought and received TVNZ approval before entering negotiations.
“I’ve canvassed it with TVNZ — and they’re quite happy,” he said.
Former TVNZ boss Bill Ralston, who appointed Dallow to the plum evening news job in 2006, described the move as “intriguing”.
“He’s a very authoritative news reader, but I wouldn’t have thought NBR was that rich: To be able to pay a six o’clock newsreader what he’s worth,” he said.
NBR managing editor Todd Scott was unwilling to comment on pay packets, but confirmed the deal and said he and Dallow had been friends since meeting on the set of Lotto in 1997.
Ralston said it was likely the move would be viewed positively by Dallow’s current bosses. “TVNZ’s management may well be thinking to themselves, ‘ He can front that because he’ll get our brand out to business leaders’.”
The cross- network arrangement — similar to that for Mike Hosking who fronts both TVNZ’s Seven Sharp and NZME’s NewstalkZB morning radio show — was confirmed yesterday after a meeting between the media companies’ management at waterfront Auckland eatery Harbourside. Dallow’s move comes amid considerable tumult in the media industry as audience migration online poses challenges for revenue, blurs formats and has led to a host of new startups.
Last week TVNZ announced it would cut staff seeking to do “more with less”, following a radical shake- up over at TV3 owner MediaWorks last year that saw established stars shed and its online, TV and radio news teams merged into Newshub.
And big media companies NZME, publisher of the Weekend Herald, and Fairfax are awaiting a Commerce Commission decision on their proposal to merge. And earlier this month Newsroom, an online news site founded by former NZME and Mediaworks executives, started.
The NBR has evolved over the past decade from a weekly newspaper to include a paywalled website with ondemand radio offshoots.
In January the company hired former Close Up host Susan Wood for its video arm producing short interviews with newsmakers, a unit Dallow is soon expected to front.
NBR head of digital Chris Keall expected an immediate impact: “Things are still being finalised, but he’ll likely be making a daily contribution. He’s keen to mix it up and get out in the field,” Keall said.
He’ll likely be making a daily contribution. He’s keen to mix it up and get out in the field. Chris Keall, NBR digital