PETER WILLIAMS: The Curious Case of the Disappearing Male Newsreader

Where have all the young men gone?

Mark down Thursday, March 5 as an unusual evening in the long and curious history of television news in New Zealand.

“¿Qué?” you may ask, in the puzzled tone of Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

No, it wasn’t because the bulletin suddenly contained stories that might warm the heart of the Coalition government. Nor was it because the New York correspondent had miraculously overcome his daily bout of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

No, the reason was something much more subtle.

For one night at least, the studio was awash with testosterone.

There they were: Jack, Sav and Dan. Three blokes behind the red light and the concrete door in TVNZ’s Suite 4, delivering the evening bulletin on 1 News. I’m not certain, but I suspect it may have been the first time this year the entire presenting line-up had XY chromosomes.

Now before anyone reaches for the smelling salts, let me say this: in 2026 we pay very little attention to the gender of news presenters. Nor should we. The key requirements remain the same as they have always been — clarity, accuracy, and the reassuring impression that the person reading the bulletin actually understands what they’re talking about.

But the March 5 lineup did prompt an idle thought.

Broadcast news reading, both on television and radio, now appears to be a profession dominated by women.

Take television first. With Melissa Stokes now fronting the main desk on 1 News and Sam Hayes long established at Three’s bulletin, both of the country’s main 6pm news programmes are anchored by women.

Weekend bulletins show a similar pattern. Sure, Jack Tame holds the fort on Friday and Saturday for TVNZ, but over on Three the weekend desk is occupied by Imogen Wells.

With the demise of most other television news programmes in recent years — largely because the audience evaporated — that means three-quarters of the country’s prime television news anchors are women.

Radio, as far as I can tell, follows the same pattern.

On Newstalk ZB, Niva Retimanu reads the morning news before Raylene Ramsay takes the afternoon shift. Across the NZME music stations, updates are frequently handled by Jody Gill or Kaye Gregory.

Over at Radio New Zealand, I understand Nicola Wright continues her long-running role reading the news on Morning Report, a job she seems to have held for about as long as some of us have been paying taxes.

Weekends are similar: Diana Vezich and Sandy Hodge take most of the shifts, before the venerable Joe Gilfillan finally appears on Sunday nights to remind us that men still occasionally read the news.

The role has become so female skewed that it’s a wonder news readers on both TV and radio aren’t joining a pay parity claim.

(I thought for their comparator occupation they could try actor, but then that would probably result in a pay cut!)

None of this particularly bothers me.

The gender of the presenter is irrelevant if the bulletin is delivered well. But the pattern does raise an interesting question: where have the young men of broadcasting gone?

When I was growing up the profession was overwhelmingly male. I was inspired by the likes of Dougal Stevenson, Philip Sherry, Bill Toft, Tom Bradley and Hewitt Humphrey.

That changed in 1977 when Jennie Goodwin broke the glass ceiling by becoming the first regular female prime-time news presenter in New Zealand. She was followed by Angela D’Audney and eventually the most famous newsreader of them all, Judy Bailey.

From that point on the job became what it should always have been: gender neutral.

Through the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s there was a steady mix of male and female presenters. Viewers became familiar with faces such as Richard Long, Simon Dallow and Mike McRoberts — along with a fair number of others, including yours truly.

Reading the news, despite what some might think, is not an especially difficult job. But it does require a few essential skills: a basic level of intelligence, a grasp of current affairs, the ability to pronounce foreign names with at least a hint of confidence, and the knack of moving seamlessly from war in the Middle East to a school gala in Morrinsville.

The old newsroom creed still applies: often wrong, never in doubt.

For most of my career I assumed the job would remain permanently balanced between men and women. It seemed inconceivable that it would ever tilt decisively one way or the other again.

Yet here we are.

So the question remains: where have the young men who might once have aspired to read the news gone?

Are they off doing podcasts? Working in public relations? Becoming influencers on TikTok?

Surely they’re not being discriminated against because they need to shave every day?

No executive will ever convince me that a female face or voice resonates better with viewers and listeners than that of a male.

I honestly have no answer.

But for one brief bulletin on March 5, at least, Jack, Sav and Dan reminded me of what the old line-ups used to look like.

Writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Subscribe to Peter William's Substack here