Newman was raised in Feilding in the central North Island of New Zealand and trained as a reporter from the age of 17 working on newspapers in Palmerston North and Waipukurau before joining the old NZBC as a radio and TV journalist. He spent two and a half years in Sydney managing and promoting rock bands before returning to Palmerston North in the late 1970s to start entertainment magazine Get Up 'n Go.[citation needed]