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TEN sacks Helen Kapalos

“We will not be renewing Helen’s contract," TEN says of its Melbourne News presenter.

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TEN News Melbourne presenter Helen Kapalos is the latest to have been given her marching orders by management.

A TEN spokesperson told TV Tonight, “We will not be renewing Helen’s contract, the details of which we will not discuss publicly.”

A string of journalists and News staff were being forced to take redundancies after the network reportedly didn’t receive enough voluntary redundancies. The network has declined to comment on the total number of people affected, rumoured to be around 100.

Kapalos has been with TEN since 2006, fronting the 5pm news with veteran presenter Mal Walden or in a  solo capacity.

Last night she tweeted:

-Am taking a little break…. but the very competent, bubbly @meldavies10 is filling for me… see you soon….

-Watch out for http://www.helenkapalos.com.au – my blog goes live on Sunday. I will be chatting to you from the Big Apple.

It’s certainly disappointing that so much knowledge and experience is being lost at TEN (Breakfast remains untouched) but even the way TEN is commenting on this leaves a lot to be desired.

In the “old” TEN style such a departure would have acknowledged Kapalos’ achievements, explained the cost cuts and wished her well. But the network has lost its former Programming Chief and Head of Publicity as it adopts a hardline approach to public statements from Sydney. As a result, 6 years of work (and ratings) is apparently summed up with just 16 words.

Harsh. Very harsh is this new TEN.

53 Responses

  1. @Jennome – Agree. With 7 & 9 the newsreader is seen for about 14 mins, then 6 mins of sport with someone else, 3 mins of weather with yet another someone else, and 7 mins of commercials. TEN’s newsreaders run to about 36 mins.
    Interesting week ahead with Bruce Gordon, WIN-owner and TEN’s biggest shareholder arriving in town.

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