Expect new feel when Stuff takes over Three news
Expect a new name and a new feel when
Stuff takes over the 6pm news on Three,
Stuff owner and publisher Sinead Boucher says.
Stuff announced yesterday that it will provide a news service for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) from July.
“I’m really excited about what we’ll be able to create together and what we’re going to be able to deliver to New Zealanders,” Boucher said in an interview after the announcement.
“We have a proven track record of modernising, changing and being at the edge of what you can do with our own organisation, and we’re hungry to bring some of that innovation and freshness to Warner Bros.”
Under the content partnership, Stuff will retain the Newshub website although it is yet to decide what the media company will do with it. The new bulletin will have a new name and feel, and leave the Newshub branding behind. Stuff understands the deal is multi-year.
Boucher would not reveal what the partnership was worth, but confirmed it would be a profitable venture for both organisations.
She said she was “thrilled” to have won the partnership with WDB and believed Stuff had the resources to produce a modernised TV news bulletin that resonated with a traditional 6pm news audience.
Boucher, who said she regularly sat down with her family to watch and talk about the 6pm news, said she never considered the possibility that Stuff would have the chance to “shape it for a new era”.
While some may consider it a big undertaking, Warner Bros. Discovery NZ executive Glen Kyne said he believed it was easier than ever to modernise traditional TV news with new technology and smartphones and believed that Stuff had what it took to do so.
The publisher of Stuff.co.nz, The Post, Sunday Star Times and The Press among other titles, employs more than 300 journalist across the country.
Boucher said Stuff would look to hire a number of Newshub journalists to create the daily bulletin, but it would also tap into its own talent to tell the stories.
She said details of how many staff that would be were still being worked through, but signalled it would be less than 40.
“We are not getting into the TV business. We are a digital company primarily and we have long been a digital-first multimedia video-first news organisation so this is going to be something we can create off the strength of that foundation.
“By not having to get into the TV business is what makes us able to be really flexible and do this in a new way.”
Kyne said Warner Bros. Discovery would retain the broadcast, delivery and distribution of the new bulletin.
“From a newsroom point of view, when people talk about using mobile phones, mobile journalism with an little bit additional equipment is phenomenal in terms of the quality in can capture, and we’ve been working with our own team on that for the last few months and that will continue on to the future.”
Kyne said he expected the partnership would deliver a high quality and innovative product.
Boucher said Stuff had rich analytics that showed what audiences were feeling, worried and excited about, which would shape the bulletin: “We’re looking forward to be able to translate that into a bulletin that is starting fresh with no preconceived ideas of what that should be or could be.”