Newshub set to close at end of June, Warner Bros. Discovery staff devastated - NZ Herald

 

One of our biggest commercial media company’s newsrooms - Newshub - is set to close at the end of June, with dozens of high-profile presenters and journalists out of roles.

 

High-profile talent such as 6pm news presenters Mike McRoberts and Samantha Hayes and new 7pm show host Ryan Bridge are set to lose their jobs.

 

The Newshub website will also close. The company employs at least 57 journalists.

 

Warner Bros. Discovery laid out the plans to close Newshub at an all-staff meeting at 11am. Security guards were placed outside the company’s premises in Auckland and Wellington.

 

“Look this is awful,” Warner Bros. Discovery NZ boss Glen Kyne told staff at the meeting.

 

The company would look to co-fund local news but ThreeNow was now the “core” of a future digital business, staff were told.

 

In a statement at 11.18am, Warner Bros. Discovery said it had commenced consultation on a “proposed remodelling and restructure of its ANZ free-to-air business in New Zealand”.

 

“The proposal includes the closure of all Newshub’s multiplatform news operations and output, and new local programming would only be in collaboration with local funding bodies and other partners.”