Newshub had funding: Where was Nation?
Warner Bros Discovery is understood to be offering relatively generous redundancy packages to staff affected by the proposed closure of Newshub.
Media Insider understands staff will be offered four weeks’ salary for every year they have worked at the broadcaster, up to a maximum of nine years. In other words, longserving staff are set to receive up to nine months’ salary.
That will come as small consolation for journalists and broadcasters still reeling a week after the announcement that Newshub is proposed to close at the end of June.
As some staff try to pull together a rescue package themselves, background talks continue on whether any aspect of the Newshub brand can be saved. Could any other media company, for instance, offer Warner Bros Discovery a daily package of video news for its digital and terrestrial channels (a little like Newshub gives to Sky TV now for its
5.30pm news)?
Several high-profile journalists and broadcasters are continuing to talk behind the scenes with rival media companies about their future options.
One of the intriguing questions around the closure of Newshub has been the whereabouts of Newshub Nation. It had secured about $1 million in NZ on Air funding and was meant to have been on air on Saturday, February 24, the week before the Newshub announcement. It never started.
“WBD had communicated with us that they needed to delay their on-air date this year due to recruitment for a key role, and we were awaiting a confirmed revised date when [the closure] announcement came out,” a NZ on Air spokeswoman said.
She said no money “had gone out to WBD yet for Newshub Nation
2024”.
The key role is understood to be executive producer.
Newshub Nation was co-hosted by Rebecca Wright and Simon Shepherd, although Shepherd had been named as Newshub business correspondent just a week before Warner Bros Discovery announced the Newshub closure.
In the wake of the Newshub news, Shepherd had been considered by some to be a potential candidate to be new editor-in-chief for the
National Business Review but it appears he’s not in the running.
“I received inquiries from a number of fantastic candidates for the ‘editor-in-chief of strategy’ role,” said NBR publisher Todd Scott.
“Ultimately [wife and business partner] Jackie and I have decided on a person we both have a great deal of respect for, an individual who has a lot of experience.
“We will spend a couple of days with this individual going over strategy here in Fiji later this month, following which Jackie will fly back to Auckland mid-April to make the announcement to our team.”