But his move should not really a surprise for anybody. As good as he is at presenting news shows, he's even better out in the field, while TVNZ has made no secret that they wanted to add him to their roster. He's always been a TV man at heart, so of course he's going back to it.
It's also not a surprise because media companies in this country have a huge staff churn of staff. No newsroom is that stable, and no line-up lasts forever.
There have been some exceptionally chin-stroking think-pieces in recent days of what it all means for the public broadcaster. You don't have to look far to see people pontificating on the morale at RNZ, and how the government's backtrack on funding is affecting staff, and how Carol Hirschfeld's sudden resignation has had an impact, and how nobody seems to know what's happening to The Wireless.
These pieces are usually written by people who have some tenuous connection to Radio NZ, and you can tell, because they haven't actually gone far enough – while they usually mention the loss of Campbell and Hirshfeld, there have been other huge losses in the past few months. Long-serving Auckland correspondent Todd Niall has gone to Stuff, and excellent reporters like Benedict Collins, Laura Tupou and Mei Heron have all buggered off to television. Lynda Chanwai-Earle, who was behind the excellent Voices editor has gone and almost the entire Wireless team has been replaced.
There have been a dozen other resignations in the past year, especially from off-air staff who never see their name in lights, but do invaluable work behind the scenes. And it's far from over, with other members of that brilliant Checkpoint team bound to follow JC out the door, and at least one prominent on-air personality currently in a total shitfight to keep their job.
Many of these people have legitimate grievances with the organisation and the people who run things there, and RNZ does have problems – including some incredibly shitty pay rates - but to suggest that this wave of quitting proves there is a toxic culture is pushing it.
Because this kind of thing is hardly unique. Newsroom in this country are always cycling through a huge amount of staff, and reporters who have only been in the game for a few years suddenly find themselves in senior positions as older workmates jump ship to other newsrooms or out of the profession altogether, and have to be replaced by people who are still figuring out how this whole news thing works.
Most people leave for better pay and hours, but there might be a hundred other reasons, with some leaving for the OE, while others are just burned out. There tend to be waves of people all leaving at once, but this is no suicide pact – sometimes one person leaving can be enough to push others to make a similar decision, or it could just be total coincidence
The bigger the newsroom, the more stable it can be, and they can lose a few people without really having a huge impact. But a huge organisation will also lose people all the damn time, because individual people have individual needs and wants, and a bit of new blood every now and then is also healthy for the mix.
No newsroom is going to hold onto everybody forever, even if you're working in a place that doesn't have commercial or promotional imperatives like RNZ. The public broadcaster is not a perfect place to work, but it's just as bad almost everywhere else
There are still going o be some glum people at RNZ when John signs off for the last time, but life goes on.
- Margaret Tempest
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