Michael Rowland (news presenter)

 Michael Rowland (born 8 July 1968) is an Australian television news presenter and journalist, currently working for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, having previously been an American affairs correspondent in Washington. Additionally, he has been a financial, economic and political reporter for several Australian News channels.

He is currently co-host of the ABC's morning program News Breakfast alongside Lisa Millar, and is the network's senior presenter. His frequent collaborations include presenters from News Breakfast, including Millar, sports presenter Tony Armstrong and weather presenter Nate Byrne. Rowland has also worked alongside other Australian news presenters such as Virginia Trioli and Barrie Cassidy.

Early life
Michael Rowland was born in Victoria, Australia before moving to Sydney. During his teenage years, he attended De La Salle College Ashfield and graduated in 1985. He studied communication at the University of Technology Sydney, but quit after a year.

In 1988, Rowland was hit in the eye by a stray pellet from a slingshot, causing it to dilate uncontrollably. Although doctors saved his eye, the dilation became permanent. Rowland additionally has colour blindness which was not caused by the incident.

Career
Michael Rowland began his career in the news industry by reporting and journalism in the 1990s where he spent five years in the ABC's Parliament House bureau in Canberra, filing for Radio News and Lateline. During this time he learnt about news reporting and journalism as a news cadet for over a year. He worked in the Canberra Press gallery for five years covering both New South Wales and Victorian politics for the ABC. In 1988, he transferred to a position as a New South Wales state political reporter. He then progressed to a finance reporter in 1991 for the ABC. He met his future News Breakfast co-host Lisa Millar while covering the 1996 federal election at the ABC's Canberra Bureau.

He was Lateline finances correspondent, and also covered business and economics for a range of other ABC TV and radio outlets including AM, current affairs morning program, The World Today, a current affairs program, PM, the midday report run by the ABC, Inside Business, the economic and financial focused branch of ABC and the 7 pm TV news all of which included Rowland as the financial presenter focussing on Australian economics.

Rowland then became the ABC's North America correspondent, and during his posting covered stories including the election of Barack Obama as US president, the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the Virginia Tech massacre and David Hicks' release from Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

In June 2010, Rowland was appointed co-host of News Breakfast, replacing Joe O'Brien and has continued working on the ABC's morning breakfast segment till the current day.

In June 2019, ABC announced that Rowland would take on an expanded role as senior network presenter for ABC's morning news breakfast segment. In addition to News Breakfast, Rowland would anchor coverage of major domestic and international events across ABC News programs, including the 7 pm News, the breakfast segment for ABC's news, and ABC radio.

In November 2020, Rowland covered the 2020 United States presidential election presenting live result of the ABC news segment as a temporary American correspondent.

In January 2021 HarperCollins published Black Summer: Stories of loss, courage and community from the 2019–2020 bushfires. The book was edited by Rowland, with proceeds being contributed to the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund, as a means to provide support to the families who lost loved ones and homes during the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.

ABC Radio News and current affairs
From 1993 to 1998, Rowland joined ABC Radio News, where he still visits occasionally to present and co-host, reporting on Australian affairs including economic and political news. His position included co-hosting on the financial news and providing a segment during the current affairs news segment reporting on financial and economic changes and its state within Australia and Wall street in America.

Victorian State political reporter
From 1998 to 2001, Rowland was the Victorian State political reporter for ABC News, reporting mainly major live events that were occurring and usually the political party movement in Victoria.

Business and finance reporter
From 2001 to 2004, Rowland was a business and finance reporter for AM, an informative morning current affairs program, The World Today, a current affairs program, PM, the midday report run by the ABC, Inside Business, the economic and financial focused branch of ABC and the 7 pm TV news broadcast across Australia.

Lateline
From late 2004 to 2005, Rowland worked with Lateline on a questionnaire and reporting shows for the ABC as an economics and business correspondent. During his time there, he edited several articles and appeared several times on the show to provide insight into the financial situation within Australia.

ABC American correspondent
Rowland was the ABC's correspondent in Washington from 2005 to 2009. During this time, he reported the US presidential election and was ABC's Wall Street correspondent during the height of the global financial crisis. He also presented a major event in the US in 2008 following the Obama administration and affairs in the USA politics. Rowland reappeared in this role for the 2020 United States presidential election, covering it live during the coronavirus outbreak. Rowland covered the election in 2020 in Washington DC to provide insight for Australian viewers. During this time he reported both online, answering viewers questions while presenting on the street live while the final results from the US election were occurring. During this time, Rowland was also reporting the surges of COVID-19 outbreaks and the ways it was changing the potential outcome of election results. He highlighted the death toll and how the need for mail-in ballots could change the outcome of the election in any way during the time.

ABC News Breakfast
Rowland began his current position for the ABC by presenting on ABC News Breakfast since the launch of ABC News 24 in July 2010. On Monday, May 2011, the News Breakfast hosted by Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland, moved from the ABC2 channel to ABC1. Through this move, News Breakfast had new segments such as "The Party Line", with interviews with political leaders and newsmakers. This also changed the news focus on local and regional issues in Australia and aimed to move the presenter around to where crises were occurring. In 2019, Rowland was a live correspondent for the show, reporting on the wild bushfires that struck Australia and interviewing firefighters and residents of towns such as Wytaliba in north-east New South Wales. Rowland has also interviewed a large array of Australian ministers. During his time on News Breakfast, he has also had the opportunity to interview every sitting Prime Minister of Australia from the past decades,    including Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.

=Personal life= Rowland is married to Nicola Webber with whom has two children. Rowland has disclosed throughout his social media platforms that he is a heavy family orientated person.

Rowland was the vice president for the Melbourne Press Club until his resignation in 2019 due to conflict between two other major members of the board. He is still considered a life member of the club, and has been acknowledged by them for his work and contribution to the club and journalism.

Rowland is a fan of the Western Bulldogs, and began supporting them after returning from the United States to co-anchor ABC News Breakfast when it launched midway through 2010. He has said that the reasons why he follows the team is due to him settling in Melbourne and because his son supported the team. In 2016, he interviewed the Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon on News Breakfast less than 48 hours after the club ended its 62-year-long premiership losing streak. Rowland described this experience as a big highlight in his years on the show, with Gordon allowing him to hold onto the AFL Premiership Cup. Rowland has also stated that of his interviews with celebrities on News Breakfast, his favourite was with American actor Alan Alda, who appeared on the show to promote science education.