NZME’s new streaming video breakfast show Herald NOW has debuted. And it’s refreshing to see that from start to finish it is about news.
It stands in stark contrast to TVNZ’s Breakfast and its giggly magazine format punctuated by obligatory bulletins and couch-bound conversations.
Ryan Bridge fronts Herald NOW. He is, of course, no stranger to breakfast television, He was a mainstay of TV3’s AM Show before Warner Bros Discovery axed it as a prelude to walking away from news production entirely.
However, the new show is not a remake of AM, in spite of the scheduled reappearances of familiar political panellists David Seymour and Chloe Swarbrick (the former was interviewed on the first show, but his fellow panellist was absent), and Mark Richardson who is swapping sports commentary for financial observations. Richardson’s role – he is now a financial advisor at Forsyth Barr – was previewed last week but the inaugural financial slot on the show was filled by his colleague Zoe Willis. Bridge previewed the lineup in the Weekend Herald.
The new show’s strong news focus was obvious from the outset. It comes from a glassed-off space in the Herald’s Auckland newsroom, with busy journalists all-too-obvious in the background. The set has none of the enforced casualness of couches: It is a radio studio with video cameras. And Ryan Bridge has no coffee-sipping co-hosts with whom he is expected to exchange inane banter to ease you gently into the day.
After a short welcome, it was straight into a news bulletin with one of the country’s best news-readers Neva Retimanu (more on that later), then a series of Budget-related news interviews that Bridge conducted in a straightforward manner designed – as these things should be – to elicit information. There were no smart-alecky snide asides, or ingratiating comments. Just a journalist doing his job.
He was doing his job when he asked Nicola Willis if she was wearing the same dress in which she unveiled her Budget (and which was criticised as not being NZ-made). She batted the question back, saying they had more important things to talk about, but it showed the interviewer had a keen eye. It was also a legitimate question, given the comparisons that have been made with former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern’s championing of New Zealand fashion.
It was not surprising that Herald NOW cross-fertilised with its NZME stablemates. Investigative journalist Michael Morrah was interviewed on his story on badly stretched facilities at Middlemore Hospital, which led the day’s newspaper. Businessdesk’s Garth Bray discussed a story on Fonterra’s sale of retail assets, which also appeared on his home website. The host of The Front Page podcast discussed an upcoming post on ‘de-extinction’ – bringing back the Tasmanian tiger, mammoths and moa. And no NZME show would be complete without its star turn Mike Hosking: Herald NOW replayed an interview from earlier in the morning about teenage dental backlogs. Newstalk ZB afternoon host Matt Heath paired up with Dame Julie Christie on a panel and the sports panellists were Herald staffers Bonnie Jansen and Cam McMillan.
This lineup could have turned Herald NOW into little more than a two-hour marketing exercise for NZME but, in fact, each of the segments had genuine news value and was treated as a stand-alone news story. They were not contrived promos. And in this age of media fragmentation, it would be unwise to assume that the audience had seen or heard it elsewhere. So long as that approach continues, there is nothing remiss in using the company’s resources more widely. I do draw the line at OneRoof stories associated with NZME’s real estate platform. Their only purpose is marketing. Thankfully, it was absent from the first show and should remain at a safe distance.
There are, however, strict limits to repeat performances and Herald NOW let itself and its audience down very badly in its news and weather bulletin. Note my use of the singular there. That is because in the course of the two-hour show the same news bulletin read by Neva Retimanu and the same Metservice weather forecast were repeated at the top and bottom of the hour until 9 am without change. All of which made Bridge’s comment at 8.30 am – “Thanks for the update, Neva” – both laughable and disingenuous. Equally laughable was being told at 9.05 am that a weather warning “will be in place until 9am”.
I had wondered how Retimanu could read the Herald Now bulletin when she had the same role on the Mike Hosking Show. I interrupted my viewing to listen to the ZB bulletin. It was not the same, and then the penny dropped. She had done a pre-record before Herald NOW went to air then went back to her day job. That prerecord had allowed the show’s producers to insert video to supplement her voice-over but, frankly, I would prefer to have up-to-date news ahead of video repeats.
I cannot understand why the show does not include a live cross to the news booth at Newstalk ZB when the radio bulletin is being read. They might, at the same time, move the video camera so that the microphone does not completely obscure the newsreader’s face. The repeat performance explained why Retimanu was hidden by a microphone throughout the show, rather than having the problem rectified after the first bulletin.
The other deficiency was the complete lack of international news on the show. I know these are early days, but Herald NOW must widen its brief a little if it is to avoid some of the audience diverting to Sky News, CNN, the BBC or Al Jazeera to find out what is happening elsewhere. When that happens, there is a risk they will stay on the other channel.
Day one had a number of minor glitches and that is only to be expected. Some of the live crosses were not properly cued (“we’ll comer back to that”) and news bulletins (even if they are repeats) should start on the hour and half hour, not a few minutes after. No doubt the timings will improve. I hope the same is the case for some minor technical issues. Cameras should maintain their focus, and Bridge’s face should be as well lit as those of his in-studio guests. I suspect the problem with lighting is due to the fact that directly behind him is a large window looking out onto that busy newsroom. Journalists can be tetchy enough without shining unwanted bright lights in their faces. It may pay to reposition his chair to at least place the window off-centre.
I am still of two minds about the live newsroom backdrop. The folk outside the studio seemed a good deal closer than is the case in foreign news programmes that use the same symbolic immediacy. For most of the programme I found the background figures annoyingly distracting. So, too, did a viewer who messaged Ryan Bridge about it. I was watching via YouTube on my tv so the screen size may have been a factor. After about an hour and half I seemed to be less distracted, but it may still be wise to re-arrange cameras or seating so that it doesn’t look as though he is sitting in the front seat of a crowded bus.
With the exception of repeat news bulletins (which must stop), these are minor issues. Like the viewer who sent a comment on Day One, I welcome to my screen a breakfast show with substance.
The sources of Herald NOW’s audience have yet to emerge. I have no doubt it will draw some of TVNZ’s Breakfast viewers frustrated by starting the day on the couch with chit-chat. Will it draw people from RNZ’s Morning Report, from Newstalk or More, or will it create a new audience? It will take more than a day or two to work that out. For some, learning how to access it will be the first challenge.