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Nine sacks 5 producers

The Nine Network sacked five producers on Friday, including two long-serving senior news producers.

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9id09There is no more ‘welcome home’ mat greeting five Channel Nine producers who were sacked by the network on Friday, including two long-serving senior news producers, The Australian reports.

They include Craig Sullivan, who produced the short-lived THIS afternoon, and Phil Hind who produced afternoon and late News bulletins for the network.

Sullivan only lasted a week in the role as Executive Producer of THIS afternoon before being replaced by Today’s weekend EP Kerri Elstub. At the time Nine said he would remain with the network.

Three freelance assistant producers were also dismissed as CEO David Gyngell looks at cost cutting within the network.

The sackings follow talk last week of the network’s secret plans to axe its Canberra bureau.

The newspaper notes Gyngell had wanted to close down the expensive political operation at Parliament House but retain the services of veteran Laurie Oakes.

But the plan was scuttled before Gyngell could tell Oakes or Nine’s news chiefs Mark Calvert and Darren Wick about it, when someone leaked the news to veteran Oakes.

On Friday a Nine spokesperson told TV Tonight, “It, like many others, didn’t go any further than that. Indeed there are always many more options than those cost-cutting measures which are adopted.”

When contacted by The Australian, Oakes declined to comment.

The plan to create a mega bureau came unstuck when Gyngell and Sky’s Angelos Frangopoulos extended it to include Seven.

But according to Sky sources, the move is “inevitable”, one saying “Laurie won’t be around forever”.

Source:  The Australian

15 Responses

  2. Nine is not the same anymore compared to the Eighties and Nineties.

    Here is an idea They Might have over looked.What about Amber Brown the very last host of Here’s Humphrey for the 20 to 1 Role or Ed Phillips or anyone else who is way off retirement age It would make sense.

  3. Why don’t they do the sensible thing and sack the Programmers … who are totally useless … and then sack the overpaid egomaniacs like Eddie etc …
    Jack!

  5. I really don’t understand how Laurie Oakes can still work there while Rome burns around him. If he really cared about his journalistic integrity, he’d either retire already or work for an organisation that still *does* news.

  6. and still the programming department remains intact, along with overpaid execs and “on air talent”
    But wait we still have Bert and another 20-1 plus 2 and half men repeats

  10. @BM-dog. Totally agree with you. Just goes to show how Mickey Mouse Nine News has become. That they would even dare contemplate closing down their bureau located at the heart of this countries parliament as a cost-cutting measure speaks volumes for the downward spiral Nine finds itself in.

  12. @BM-dog: ill have to disagree with you about car crashes, although it might not be as complex as political coverage, dosn’t mean it not worth covering, car crash stories are important as your dealing with people being injured or killed and that to me is very important and defiantly legitimate news.

  14. It would be an utter embarrassment if Nine were to decide not to have a parliament house bureau. I realise their news service has gone way way downhill since the Hendo era, and they’re now more interested in spending time summarising last night’s car crashes than on actual legitimate news coverage, but I still find the idea that they’re considering not having a federal parliament bureau absolutely ludicrous.

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