Siddown you’re rockin’ the box…

Following on from recent revelations that David Leckie had been brought in to overhaul Seven News, comes further insights into the moves.

An email from CEO Tim Worner to staff was leaked to Confidential which plays with a straight bat.

“David Leckie has a consultancy agreement with us. He has consulted for us for the past couple of years and we’re pleased that he’ll be continuing this consultancy,” Worner noted.

“He is working across our company and I welcome and endorse his role reporting to me on ideas to ­contribute to the ongoing growth of our business.”

But the article also suggests Leckie insisted Sydney’s Mark Ferguson remain seated at the newsdesk after presentations standing up resulted in his moving arms being a ‘potential distraction’ to viewers.

The notion of stand-up news presenters was much-discussed some years ago.

Here’s a bit of banter from rival news directors in 2008: after Jo Hall stood during a live link following an earlier trial:

“Because of the overwhelmingly positive feedback, we decided to take it one step further,” Nine’s Director of News in Melbourne Michael Venus said.

“We had a significant ratings win, with more than 500,000 viewers watching us on Sunday night,” he said. “Having also won on the Saturday night, everyone seemed happy with the result and we certainly were. We hope our audience enjoyed what we offered them.”

But his rival, Seven Network News Director Steve Carey, unsurprisingly was quick to dismiss the idea, saying Seven had no plans to follow suit. “It looks uncomfortable and contrived,” he said. “It’s hardly novel or new, despite what Michael Venus might say. It’s old news as far as I am concerned.

“We don’t worry about set-led recoveries. We worry about giving people the best news service,” he said.