First it’s One, nek minnit it’s 60 Minutes. But do not adjust your sets. TVNZ political editor Guyon Espiner will join TV3 in the New Year, as a journalist on the current affairs programme 60 Minutes.
Director of News and Current Affairs, Mark Jennings, says he is delighted to have Espiner joining the team.
“When you get an opportunity to snap up a journalist of Guyon’s calibre, you don’t hesitate,” he says.
“I have a great deal of respect for his work; he breaks stories and tells them well. He is a great addition to our 60 Minutes team.
Espiner has been TVNZs political editor since 2006, having joined the network in 2003. Prior to TVNZ, Espiner had ten years experience in journalism, including working at Wellington’s Evening Post, and a stint as political editor of the Sunday Star Times. He attended Canterbury University, and the Wellington Polytechnic Journalism School (now Massey). He also writes a political column in North & South magazine.
Espiner will take up his new role in February 2012. The highly political poaching had been whispered about for weeks, but media maven Bill Ralston let the tweet out the bag earlier today, tweeting “I hear Guyon Espiner has gone to TV3’s 60 Minutes. Good one Guyon and good luck”, prompting TV3 to put out a release confirming the move. 60 Minutes executive producer Terence Taylor says it is “great news.”