MarkJennings
- Journalist
- Executive
Journalist Mark Jennings joined new channel TV3 in 1989, to set up its South Island news operation. After becoming TV3's news chief in 1995, he won wide respect as a calm hand, competing against TVNZ's bigger budgets and arguing that news presenters ought to have journalism experience. By the time his resignation was announced in 2016, Jennings had become one of the longest serving heads of news in NZ TV history.
Screenography
Biography
Dunedin-born Mark Jennings was educated at Otago Boys' High School. After realising he wasn't going to be an accountant, Jennings abandoned Otago commerce studies for a journalism course at Wellington Polytechnic. In 1977 he joined TV One as a trainee journalist in Christchurch, before moving to the Wellington newsroom. Jennings was mentored by TV One news head Doug Eckhoff and Christchurch bureau chief John Knowles, who "took me under his wing and taught me television."
Awards
2019 Huawei Mate30 Pro New Zealand Television Awards
Best Current Affairs Programme (shared with Paul Enticott, Melanie Reid and Tim Murphy): for Newsroom Investigates
2017 New Zealand Television Awards
Nominated for Best Current Affairs Programme (with Melanie Reid, Paul Enticott and Tim Murphy)
“He cared about news, because he cared about people. Because he understood that news was all about people: whether it was the people in the stories, or the people making them. Yes, he knew it was a numbers game, but this was secondary to the humans involved. ”