[38] Joanna Werner and Stuart Menzies, along with Brett Sleigh and Sally Riley on behalf of the ABC, executive produced the series.

[42][45] The 1980s and newsroom setting was decided upon later, which Lucas concluded both elicited and compelled "more pressure on [both characters] to fulfil certain roles", with the masculine qualities of a newsreader juxtaposed against the misogyny of the 1980s that "punished" women that held them.

[46][42] Lucas' research into newsrooms of the 1980s over 2015 and 2016 – which included spending time interviewing those who worked in them at thetime – found that female newsreaders were caught in an "era of change", in how to present themselves and "look in a workplace" and industry dominated, and influenced by how "viewers liked the news [being] read" by, "very masculine voices of God".

[46] He undertook an assiduous and mammoth task of reading "nearly every newspaper from 1986", with a particular focus on letters to the editor, which Lucas claimed "give you the full picture of what people were making of thigns [then]".

[44][46] When Lucas established a writers' room in 2017 – composed of those Lucas knew would provide valuable assistence in developing the programme (such as Niki Aken, who came from a research background), but also carrying on a practice he had used on other shows he had worked on, and hiring emerging talent (Kim Ho)[42] – the team were "bouncing back and forth" evaluating how character arcs fit into the way in which real-life events were depicted in the show.

The "emotional arcs and storylines" were less set in stone throughout episode production, with amendments to their depiction even taking place as late as the post-production edit.

An episode on the heroin crisis, for example, was able to be placed anywhere within the series, Lucas commenting that he had "a little bit of leeway to put that story at an appropriate time for our cast of characters".

[52] This caused Lucas to be "conscious of picking stories that have some international resonance", such as the Azaria Chamberlain case that was infamous within Australia and well-known abroad even decades on.

[59] Marg Downey was at first bemused when asked to audition for the role of Evelyn, but reacted more positively when receiving the script, having been very aware throughout her life of the type of women who are surreptitiously manipulative and are the "power behind the throne".

[65] Torv described her portrayal as an "amalgamation" of the female newsreaders she grew up watching – and later re-watched in research for the role – and that the opportunity to be given lessons on how to read autocues were pivotal.

[66] She also acclaimed the experience of working with creator Lucas, producer Werner and director Freeman, and specifically how open they all were and the environment of collaboration and improvisation that was consequently fomented.

[75] Em Rusciano, colleague of Lucas, made a singing cameo in the opening scene to the fourth episode,[76] as did several current Australian TV journalists (namely ABC meteorologist Nate Byrne, Network 10 reporter Daniel Doody, and radio sports commentator Megan Hustwaite).

[49] Freeman commented it was a "special project" as the cast and her – as the director – were "so aligned", meaning it is an "incredibly collaborative show", with Reid and Torv "help[ing to] develop the script on the floor".

Lim Davidson recounted how she inadvertently inhabited the role of her character's lower status within the show's main ensemble to the extent it influenced her performance and line delivery, with Torv on one occasion altering the script – to Lucas' delight – while McInnes and Downey spoke of their proclivity to stick to it.

[87] An intimacy coordinator was utilised during the second series, to mould lines and the performances – and to "ensure [it was] period accurate" – between the characters of Dale and Gerry regarding the former's sexuality in the third episode.

[46] Notable aspects from the filming of the first series included the shooting of scenes in the aftermath of the Russell Street bombing being at the site of the attack itself,[90] and Lucas himself cameoing in one episode in an experience which he stated allowed him to get to know the cast better.

[106][107][better source needed] ABC News' Matt Neal wrote about the level of historical accuracy attained by each episode of the series throughout its run.

[110] The show's costume, hair and makeup designers have spoken of the assiduous work put into ensuring those aspects of the characters were period accurate.

[112] In August 2023, the date of the launch of the second series was announced, as was that episodes for this series would be also accompanied by the official The Newsreader Podcast, made available online following each episode; hosted by Leigh Sales and Lisa Millar, they were teased as to feature insights into the actual lives of journalists working in newsrooms in the 1980s, as well as 'never-before-heard stories from the writers room', cast interviews and 'gossip from the set'.

[114] On 8 September 2023, the first episode of the series premiered at an event at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, co-hosted by ABC, and was followed by a Q&A session with cast and crew.

[22][23] Entertainment One acquired international distribution rights to The Newsreader in late 2020,[115][40][41] and has sold broadcast or streaming rights to the series to Arte in France and Germany, the BBC in the UK, Cosmo in Spain, Filmin in Portugal and Spain, NBCUniversal International Networks in Latin America, Now TV in Hong Kong, RTÉ in Ireland, The Roku Channel in the United States, Telus Presents in Canada, and Viaplay in Poland, the Netherlands and the Nordic and Baltic regions.

[124] Also in March 2022, the programme's Brazilian premiere took place on Universal TV,[125] in New Zealand on Eden and on-demand platform ThreeNow,[126][127] and in Spain on Canal COSMO, as part of its Women's Month programming.

[118][116] In the United Kingdom, the series was made available from July 2022; broadcast on free-to-air channel BBC2 and on-demand through BBC iPlayer, with the vast majority of viewership from the latter.

Sinead Stubbins of The Sydney Morning Herald – in a review of both the first and second series – proclaimed that The Newsreader was "the slick, addictive and excellent local drama that might be the best show Australia has produced in years", praising "the determination to use historical events and attitudes to illuminate something about our present" and how the show "uses ... huge world events cleverly ... they aren't just dumped in the middle of an episode", and "though there are occasional cute moments, [they] are woven into the lives of these reporters".

[153] Karl Quinn, in a five-star review for The Sydney Morning Herald, called the series "brilliant" and a "terrific ensemble piece", "beautifully handled by director Emma Freeman" with "incisive, empathetic and funny scripts" by Lucas, concluding it was "the most fun [he'd] had watching telly in a long time.

"[154] David Free, also in The Sydney Morning Herald, commented it was "the best show [he'd] seen in yonks", lavishing praise on the attention-to-detail in the series, in the clothes, language and propwork.

[155] However, Marama Whyte, in an article for History Australia journal, wrote that such details were relatively facile, and that "the period setting is style without much substance", as "[i]t wants the shoulder pads and typewriters, without engaging with the fact that this was an industry on the cusp of colossal change.

[157] Helen Vatsikopoulos in The Canberra Times, who worked as a journalist during The Newsreader's temporal setting, also observed that newsrooms of the era "were not as diverse as the programme pretends".

[160] Rachel Aroesti from The Guardian acclaimed the way in which the show represented various sides of the industry, and that it "is excellent at capturing the weird, restrained elation that a large-scale tragedy can bring to a newsroom ... and neatly sums up something decidedly murky about journalism in the process".

[163] Satirist Mitch McTaggart, of The Last Year of Television, argued that "a show made in 2023 [...] shouldn't need to be held to a subjective casting expectation of another period, real or imagined".