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Sydney news: here we go again

After months of sitting quietly in the eye of the storm, Sydney news rivalry is about to rear its ugly head again.

chrisbathAfter months of sitting quietly in the eye of the storm, Sydney news rivalry is about to rear its ugly head again.

Mark Ferguson was farewelled from Nine News on Friday, and Ian Ross is expected to retire from Seven at the end of the year. That leaves Chris Bath to take his place -a point that was made clear some time ago.

“When Ian Ross leaves she will be taking over the 6pm bulletin Monday to Friday,” Seven news director Peter Meakin told The Australian in July.

Last Wednesday a crucial Seven News meeting attended by the Sydney newsroom went ahead without Meakin or Bath in attendance.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the pair’s absence was noted by puzzled colleagues, concerned that Seven’s 6pm bulletin audience had dropped eight per cent in the past month while Nine has grown 2.6 per cent.

“The absence of Meakin and Bath was a hot topic of discussion among the many senior reporting and production staff members who did attend,” a source told the newspaper.

But Meakin yesterday denied he was meant to attend, saying the meeting was “only for newsroom journalists and producers”, while Bath had organised the day off weeks ago to attend to a family matter. He also denied being worried about Nine’s recent advances.

Last week, just 1,000 split the two bulletins apart on Monday. But on Thursday, Seven was ahead by 94,000. Both the Wednesday and Friday shows were unusual comparisons due to the one hour length, dust storms and NRL match.

If Seven does not handle the transition from Roscoe smoothly, it could see viewers turn away, just as they did when Ferguson was replaced by Peter Overton.

Source: Daily Telegraph

6 Responses

  1. Seven should bring back the very talented Ann Sanders ,a woman with her knowledge and experience is put on morning news shes wasted there,give her back the 6.00pm news.

  2. Much effort over two nobodies. Two talking heads regurgitating script they have little interest or knowledge about. They’re paid to read and like SBS have done the format and feel can change which dictates what the viewer watches and the heads stay the same. Can we ever have an article on what constitutes news i.e. pets held at gunpoint v what our troops get up to in Afganistan or Iraq, very little of that “news” gets broadcast or critiqued.

  3. Yeh I watched 9 news the other day specifically for their football coverage, but had 7 taped. 7 always has more variety and more stories than 9, that’s why I regularly watch them now. Although I’m not a fan of Chris Bath, she seems to work overtime at the station, the only face I see. I reckon they should bring back Ann Sanders to the 6pm.

  4. Nine’s news in Sydney traditionally rates better around finals time. I’m not surprised the margins were close in Sydney last week considering the interest in Parramatta and St George. Without RL as a lead in on Sunday night viewers went back to Seven- margin was 80,000 this week whereas two weeks ago (the last week of Sunday afternoon football) Nine won by 200,000.

    The story doesn’t actually tell us what was discussed at the meeting. I’m guessing it wasn’t who will be reading the bulletin next year and was more likely a pep talk to keep breaking good stories, as they have been all year. Seven can’t stuff this up if they stick with the current plan and support Bath. I’m certainly not warming to Overton. The contrived happy family schtick at the end of their bulletin is cringeworthy.

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