Nine closing Mackay, Toowoomba newsrooms
Mackay viewers to get a hybrid regional bulletin . Toowoomba viewers to receive Nine’s S.E. Qld bulletin.
- Published by David Knox
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Nine’s recent expansion with regional news has taken a hit with confirmation it is closing newsrooms in Toowoomba and Mackay.
From Monday February 18, the Mackay audience will receive a hybrid regional bulletin featuring local weather, state and local news. Toowoomba viewers will now receive Nine’s South East Queensland bulletin.
Both markets were part 15 new regional bulletins announced in 2016.
Nine says it has spoken to the nine people impacted by changes, noting “while nearly half have already been redeployed, we have assured the remaining employees every effort will be taken to redeploy as many as possible within our Nine Network.”
Nine’s Director of Regional News Mike Dalton said, “The changes to the Queensland regional newsrooms from seven to five is in alignment with the government broadcasting legislative requirements. Nine would like to reassure staff these changes in no way reflect upon employees’ efforts or professionalism over the past two years.”
Source: TV Blackbox
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12 Responses
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t TNQ (which is Nine in regional Queensland) owned by Southern Cross Austereo and not Nine?
No, you are not wrong (how’s that for a double negative?), but SCA were not bothered with providing television news services to their newly-acquired Nine signal (25 years after losing it to Bruce Gordon in the first place) so Nine created a regional division to do it for them as part of the affiliation agreement.
OK. I didn’t realise that Nine created a regional division to do the regional bulletins, so I stand corrected.
So we can take it that there is no other reason apart from Penny pinching at the viewers expense.
“Dalton said, “The changes to the Queensland regional newsrooms from seven to five is in alignment with the government broadcasting legislative requirements.” Or…the minimum we can get away with, short of the rip-and-read from the local newspapers and ABC local radio 30-seconders repeated over and over to make up the minutes style in some markets by Prime and WIN.
We live in NE NSW and use Vast TV, so our 6pm news is either –7 Melbourne or 9 Sydney.
If you want more local you have to wait for NBN way later ‘during’ all the prime time shows, so nobody does. We constantly watch remote unusable advertising.
The whole system is an irrelevant information mess, and this will only degrade it further.
NBN next to go ???
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for many people to access regional and local news services and information since many of the bulletins are increasingly being sourced from other cities or capitals, sometimes even hundreds of kilometers away. Many regional online newspaper-based media have also implemented paywalls. It’s harder to stay in the loop whenever I have to stay in regional areas.
No lose really, everyone in Mackay watches Seven News. WIN News Mackay didn’t last long on WIN/Nine back in 2009 either.
Makes sense in Mackay as people still watch what was essentially the incumbent news service from the old MVQ6 Tropical Television days which has since morphed into 7QLD Mackay.
And so it begins…..
… nope, it began with Bob Hawke’s gift to Kerry Packer – aggregation. This is just the straggling end of regional television after thirty years of decline.
Agreed. Now metro Television is on the slippery pole as well due to the average viewer age being 60 years plus and the invasion of streaming services from over seas.