Why would people feel threatened by ex- AJ staff?
I can’t speak for anyone that was there but there certainly seemed a determination from Paul Yurisich who returned from AJE and began installing his former colleagues/staff from there into key jobs in the newsroom - rightly or wrongly someone doing that is going to be a tricky cultural progression.
It also wasn’t just the Big 3 either - there were other digital roles that went to hires from AJE is my understanding.
And Mereana Hond was also quite a destructive force in the newsroom, too I’m led to believe.
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How do I put this politely… as an international news channel, Al Jazeera English is of a completely different calibre to TVNZ. We’re talking a potential reach of 500 million for AJE, compared to 5 million for little old TVNZ. I suspect at least a few at TVNZ felt threatened and insecure by seeing all these new people in the newsroom with so much international experience (I know a lot of Kiwis do the OE, but that’s generally only a year so probably a bit different).
My impression is it was thought the new people would get rid of the current TVNZ-ers and bring in new people from AJE - which apparently is exactly what happened. So maybe they were right to feel threatened?
(I still think the ultimate aim was to have Kamahl replace Simon Dallow on the 6pm news. Breakfast never suited him, and I think even Yurisich and co knew that. No, Breakfast was only ever a stopgap for him until Simon called time)
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Hearing there’s a departure from the 1 News Sport team imminent.
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Kimberlee Downs (Ritchie?) is moving to Sky.
Jenny May, this is your calling …