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Southern Cross ends last regional TV news bulletin in South Australia

News bulletin on 7TWO in the Spencer Gulf region has discontinued, with management in discussions with staff.

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South Australia’s last regional TV news service has been shut down.

The Spencer Gulf bulletin spanned SA’s mid north and Eyre peninsula

ABC News reported editorial staff in Augusta, Whyalla and Port Lincoln were told this morning that last night’s bulletin was their last.

An SCA spokesperson told TV Tonight, “SCA confirms that it will discontinue its weekday News bulletin on 7TWO in the Spencer Gulf region of South Australia.

“Discussions with affected staff for redeployment opportunities within SCA are underway. The final local News bulletin went to air on 12 April 2023.”

There was no indication of a final bulletin when Madeleine Kerr signed off last night.

24 Responses

  1. On the topic of crewing in regional areas, my mate runs news camos for a network in regional NSW. He can’t get young cam ops because the new regional sport streamers pick them off with better money and perks. He can’t compete.

  2. Seems like strange scheduling. Was presented from Hobart, on 7two at 6:30, in opposition to Seven Adelaide News on 7 from 6pm. Guessing it was designed so that “nobody watches it” could be used.

        1. As I recall, the bulletin aired at 6:30pm on 7 in regional South Australia while Adelaide metro viewers got Today Tonight. When Today Tonight was dropped, the regional bulletin was moved to 7pm on 7Two, with viewers across all of South Australia getting the now hour long Adelaide bulletin. Home and Away was not dumped.

          The bulletin airing on 7TWO at 6:30pm is news to me. I was not aware that it had been moved. Putting it on opposite the very popular Adelaide news doesn’t sound like a move to ensure the bulletin’s success.

          1. “The bulletin airing on 7TWO at 6:30pm” is in yourtv.com.au/guide – select region and select today. Don’t select next week ’cause it’s all gone.

          2. Generally, the bulletin would air at 7.00pm Mon-Fri on 7TWO, but aired earlier at 6.30pm if AFL was on main channel.

  3. Sad for local news and young new journalists. Very odd to end so abruptly like this without any notice, goodbyes etc. 50+ years of local TV news in the GTS/BKN region gone in a flash. Such a shame.

    1. … except SCA, like every other regional media outfit, have been having trouble attracting any young people there in the first place … in my days reading news on GTS/BKN, it was a five-minute paste up by a local newspaper journo and its intelligibility depended on whether he wrote it before or after he went to the pub …

    2. Seven should step up and produce a local bulletin for regional South Australia from its Adelaide studios. It would help to further cement their dominance in South Australia.

  4. Very sad to see cuts to regional news in SA. There will be a lot of staff who will be redundant. A few days ago, whilst driving, I heard on the ABC Radio & listened that there are cuts to SW WA newspapers and staff. This was reflected back in early 2012 when WIN WA axed its local news. the loss of WIN WA News has hurt their ratings. Albany viewers want to hear local news, not news coming from interstate. Sadly, Albany viewers will suffer. However at least they have GWN7 News which airs at 5:30pm locally.

    1. I’m sorry to hear that more cuts are occurring in local media in both South Australia and Western Australia. These communities are going to be worse off for it. It is good that Albany still has GWN7 News, but that bulletin has to cover a huge swath of rural Western Australia. Dedicated local news services are needed to cover these communities properly.

      1. Unless more funding is needed in the regions, regional areas will suffer. That’s why the Government needs to increase more funding in the regions of providing local content inside the communities. Otherwise, the regions will suffer without local news. Local news provides an important voice to regional areas.

  5. It’s always sad to see regional news finish up. Good luck to them all. Has anyone heard when tas nine news begins? Seems to have gone quiet

    1. Win currently has the rights to Channel 9 in Tasmania –
      and present a local reporters and mainland newsreader 30 minute bulletin at 530 weekdays only.

      Channel 10 has no Tasmanian bulletin.

      If Channel 10 returns to Win, the Win bulletin returns to Channel 10, and 9 will not have a Tasmanian bulletin.

      THe non-Win station is run jointly by Southern Cross and Win, so I do not expect to see a joint local bulletin there from the two different parties.

      1. it was announced last year that Nine was going to produce a Nine News Tasmania one-hour bulletin for broadcast on WIN, replacing the current half-hour WIN local news and Nine Melbourne news on relay. But there hasn’t been a word from Nine/WIN since that announcement.

      1. They do for now. It is set to be replaced by an hour long 6pm bulletin that Nine News will be producing for WIN locally. However, there hasn’t been any word on the status of that plan since the initial announcement was made. I hope Nine is still planning to do it, as it should provide Tasmania viewers with a more comprehensive service. Also, with SCA having scrapped its South Australian bulletin this week, the future of its long running and very popular Tasmania bulletin is suddenly a little less bright.

    1. … not really … when we closed the Prime news in Canberra we gave the staff the option of continuing on air or finishing immediately (while continuing to be paid) … they chose the latter …

      1. When Prime axed Wollongong News crews on the road were called up and told “don’t bother, come back, the news has been axed”. Some stopped in at WIN on the way back to fill in a job application form.

        1. So the news crews were on road gathering stories and were told to just abandon them? Yikes! What a way to learn that their services were no longer needed. I wonder how many of the crews ended up getting hired by WIN.

      2. While I don’t blame the staff for wanting to finish immediately and not drag out the inevitable closure of the news service, I think that they should have at least stayed on air for one more day just to give viewers notice that the bulletin was ending and to offer up a formal goodbye. It would have been a more respectful way to say goodbye to their viewers.

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