Newshub presenter Mike McRoberts says his final bulletin on Friday night is “going to be tough”.
The veteran journalist and anchor will retire as a news presenter when the programme ends as part of the closure of the Newshub newsroom by Warner Bros. Discovery.
The presenter said the announcement in March that Newshub’s last bulletin would be on July 5 came as a complete “shock”.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening,” he told 1News.
“I thought there might be amputations, losing shows, but I didn’t think they’d fail to resuscitate the patient.”
Since then, he said, there had been “a lot of grief” as the news team had continued to work with the upcoming closure looming over their heads.
“Four months is a long time to be hanging in the breeze — and it’s been a bit of a torturous time over that period.”
Despite the sadness, the presenter said that this week was “all about celebration”.
“I’ve had the mindset that this is the day to celebrate our 35 years of existence — all the people that have come before us and the great mahi that we’ve done.”
McRoberts said the “little secret sauce” of the channel was the way it has engaged with the audience — not just with the six o’clock news but also with the AM Show, the late news and The Project.
“It’s those little moments, those things that connect you with an audience — points of engagement that I think have set our stories apart and are something I’m really proud of.”
Laughing, McRoberts recalled one interaction that they had with their audience when they had attempted to speed up the weather graphics by taking out the temperatures.
“Someone emailed in and said: ‘Do you realise you’ve taken the only thing based on fact out of the weather?’ So we put them back.”
He said there had been an “outpouring of well-wishes and love” since the closure was announced and he was aware that they wouldn’t have lasted 35 years without a faithful audience.
“It’s been a wonderful time and for me personally, an incredible 23 years — something I’m really going to miss,” McRoberts said, looking back on his own career.
“Also the people here, they are fantastic. A lot of them aren’t just colleagues, they’re my best friends, and that’s the thing you miss when you walk out the front door.”
As for the final bulletin on Friday night, McRoberts said it “will probably feel like my first news show — it will be a blur.”
He hoped people would get a sense of who they were and what they stood for, but wasn’t sure yet what he was going to say on the night.
“The final words are still rattling around in my brain at the moment, but it’ll be a thank you of some sort.
“I think I’d like to tell the audience that, over the past 35 years, they’ve always been first and foremost in our minds.
“The honour and privilege that it’s been to tell stories; to go overseas and represent them; to bring them back news and information that you don’t get from British or American networks.”
