Jane Goldsmith has left WIN Network, ending an association with Newcastle's local television news that stretches back more than two decades and made her one of the most recognised faces on the Hunter's nightly bulletin. Her exit, confirmed this week, closes a chapter in local TV journalism that began when NBN Television — the regional broadcaster that WIN absorbed into its national network — was still operating as a largely autonomous newsroom on Mosbri Crescent, The Hill.
The timing matters. WIN Network has been shedding local content and staff across its regional affiliates for several years, part of a broader contraction in Australian free-to-air television driven by advertising revenue migrating to digital platforms. In the Hunter, that squeeze has been felt acutely. NBN News once operated a full bureau feeding stories from the coalfields of Cessnock and Maitland through to the Port of Newcastle and the beaches of Stockton. The newsroom today is a fraction of its former size.
A Career Built on the Hunter Beat
Goldsmith joined NBN News in the early 2000s, when the station still ran its own production out of The Hill studios before WIN took over programming and branding arrangements that progressively centralised operations in Wollongong and beyond. She covered the stories that define this region: the restructuring of the coal industry under successive state and federal governments, the redevelopment of the Newcastle CBD following the removal of the rail line to Wickham in 2014, flooding emergencies across the Maitland floodplain, and the long-running debate over the Port of Newcastle's future role in an economy shifting away from thermal coal exports.
She received a number of regional journalism awards during her tenure, including recognition from the NSW regional television industry for long-form reporting on Hunter communities facing economic transition. Colleagues who worked alongside her at the Mosbri Crescent facility consistently describe her as the kind of reporter who stayed on a story through multiple news cycles rather than moving on after a single bulletin.
WIN Network's parent company, Seven West Media, which completed its acquisition of the WIN regional network in stages from 2021 onward, has been progressively restructuring local news delivery across regional New South Wales. Australian Communications and Media Authority data from 2025 showed that regional commercial television stations collectively reduced local news hours by roughly 18 percent over the preceding three years. NBN News viewers in the Hunter — a market of approximately 650,000 people across the greater Hunter and Central Coast — have seen that reduction firsthand.
What the Departure Signals for Local TV News
The loss of experienced reporters from regional newsrooms has consequences that go beyond individual careers. When a journalist with Goldsmith's institutional knowledge of the Hunter exits, what disappears with them is source networks built over years — contacts at the University of Newcastle's research offices on University Drive, Callaghan, relationships with community organisations in suburbs like Mayfield and Waratah, and an understanding of how local government operates across eight councils from Lake Macquarie City Council to Dungog Shire.
The Hunter faces a genuinely consequential period of change over the next five years. The state government's Hunter Renewable Energy Zone, the ongoing transition negotiations around the Eraring power station closure, and the redevelopment of the Newcastle East end precinct around Honeysuckle are all stories that require sustained, informed local coverage. The ABC's Newcastle bureau on Darby Street remains the most resourced local public broadcaster in the region, but it cannot cover everything.
For Goldsmith, the question now is where her skills land next. Regional journalists with television presenting experience and strong community recognition have, in recent years, moved into corporate communications roles, community broadcasting — including Hunter-based stations such as 2NUR FM operating out of the University of Newcastle — or digital-native local news outlets. Several former NBN News staff have also moved into communications work for local government bodies and infrastructure projects across the Hunter.
No announcement has been made about her next role. Given the depth of institutional knowledge she carries about this region, the gap she leaves in commercial television coverage of the Hunter is real, and local audiences who have relied on the NBN News bulletin for nightly coverage of their communities will notice it.
