Cam Slater: Stuff to Rescue Newshub?

Apparently, Stuff has come riding to the rescue of Newshub, inking a deal to produce news for the failing network. Presumably, Sinead Boucher came riding in on a dead horse:

The 6pm TV3 news has been saved – but it will have a totally new look and will be provided by rival media company Stuff once Newshub closes in early July.

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) says it signed a deal with Stuff yesterday “to produce and provide us with a 6pm bulletin”, WBD staff were told by New Zealand boss Glen Kyne today.

Stuff will provide an hour-long weekday bulletin and a 30-minute bulletin on Saturdays and Sundays. The deal starts from Saturday, July 6 – the day after Newshub shuts for good, with the loss of up to 300 jobs.

The Newshub website, which generates a unique audience of more than one million people each month, would transfer to Stuff, Kyne said.

At the same time as Kyne was making his announcement, Stuff owner Sinead Boucher told her staff that the new news service would not be called Newshub. A new name had not been selected.

NZ Herald

Oh my, what fun can be had choosing a new name for them:

Hub ’n’ Stuff?

StuffedHub?

Stuffed News?

Stuffub?

“Stuff Has It Televised To You Now Every Weekday Service” (SH*TTYNEWS)

“Biased Unbalanced Leftwing Lies Stuff Has Invented Today” (BULLSH*T)

Will Sinead Boucher give Patrick Gower a new show called Paddy Gower is Stuffed?

But seriously now, let’s get this straight: trust in news is a problem; the report says so. And in order to restore trust in news, Newshub’s owner, Discovery Warner Brothers, has decided to outsource its news to Stuff, which ranked even lower than Newshub in the trust stakes…hmm OK.

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Other media are saying that Stuff has saved Newshub news. That’s arguable. Stuff’s own finances are rather cloudy so I’m not sure how this is sustainable but I guess the media dropkicks out there won’t now focus on arresting the decline in trust in news…until the next report comes out showing that trust is gone completely.

It is often said that trust arrives on foot and leaves on a horse. It won’t be on Sinead Boucher’s dead horse, that is for sure.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the BFD - where this article was sourced.