
Nine News axes local bulletin in Darwin
Brisbane bulletin to screen in Top End from tonight. Jobs also go at Gold Coast newsroom in a shift to single presenter.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News, Top Stories
Nine News has axed its Darwin bulletin, effective immediately.
In a note to staff Nine’s head of news Fiona Dear attributed the change to “well-considered changes in order to offset the declining free-to-air advertising market.”
“From tonight, Territorians will receive the Brisbane 6pm bulletin as they currently do on weekends. There is no change to our station operations in Darwin, and Nine remains committed to the Northern Territory. We will retain a reporter and camera operator on the ground whose sole focus will be to tell the Territory’s stories to a national audience via our National News Desk, ultimately giving them more exposure.”
There are also further changes impacting Nine News on the Gold Coast.
“Moving now to the Gold Coast, where 9News remains the only free-to-air bulletin in this region – and that commitment doesn’t change. Despite an increase in ratings since Seven’s exit last year, we are required to make this a more efficient operation which means shifting how we produce and present this bulletin. We will be moving to a single presenter format, with Eva Milic and Paul Taylor splitting this responsibility across the week. While addressing workflows to avoid duplication, we are also required to reduce the number of camera operators at the bureau along with a producer position.”
It’s unclear how many roles have been impacted by the changes but Nine indicates it is working through redeployment opportunities and vacancies.
“By closing some open roles or moving individuals into vacant positions, we have reduced the impact significantly. Importantly, these decisions are in no way reflective of the calibre of talent, professionalism or dedication of the Darwin or Gold Coast newsrooms.”
- Tagged with Nine News
13 Responses
Really surprised they didn’t opt for the 30 min local version first like the Gold Coast then over to another capital city. So strange.
Maybe they could just watch the local Seven or Ten bulletins …. oh wait
So a city over 3000km away takes the Brisbane bulletin but a city 70km away gets it’s own bulletin.
They should at least get a local insert into the Brisbane bulletin, even if thats pre-recording a section of local news in Brisbane.
The difference is that the city 70km away has four times the population of Darwin (640k vs 150k). Given Darwin’s small population (and the NT as a whole), I’m surprized that they still had a commercial network news show on air.
sadly iona is right, advertising is rapidly deminishing and since thats the only way FTA networks can cover costs of news, less money in and costs going up somethings got to give. I don’t have an answer but with all the streamers getting money to watch and social media advertising way cheaper something has to give.
A whole Australian territory now without a local television news outlet. That’s what Nine’s abandonment has done. Good luck keeping the government to account there. And good luck keeping viewers watching Nine because why on earth would they want Queensland news? And do Queensland viewers really want to watch a Darwin local news story randomly plonked in their state bulletin every night? Times are tough but find a solution and make it work – don’t just cut and run.
… the actual bulletin has been produced from Brisbane since 2017 anyway …
Darwin’s News gets axed, and it gets a localised news from Brisbane, for Brisbane viewers, instead? What a silly decision.
Although it’s obviously never good when news services are axed, I’m actually surprised Nine kept their Darwin service running as long as it did. We are afterall, talking about a market with roughly 140k residents: Smaller than Canberra, Tasmania…even the likes of Newcastle/Hunter, NSW Central Coast, Wollongong/Illawarra, etc.
At least the Northern Territory still has ABC News although you really have to wonder about the future of that, especially if there’s a change in Federal Government later this year.
It probably makes sense for Nine Gold Coast News to be a single headed bulletin, although the reduction in behind-the-scenes roles is nonetheless a worry.
One has to wonder if NBN Newsers might be currently nervous about the possibility of their bulletin/s being next in-line for cutbacks. Having said that, I can see areas there (namely the separate brand and website) which are obvious targets for cost-cutting without affecting overall journalism quality too adversely.
“We will retain a reporter and camera operator on the ground”. Wow, hope the reporter or the camera operator don’t take ill or need a day off. This is very sad news. A capital city that has to get its news from another state.
Or 2 or more breaking stories at the same time that would require covering.
This is very sad news for Darwin viewers who will lose its localised news bulletin. They will have to put up with news coming from Brisbane. Fans want to hear some local news, not news based on Brisbane Lions. At least abc Darwin will have its localised news.
This is not looking very good in the NT region with news from interstate.
I wonder if this will be the top story tonight, like “Our top story, Nine News has axed its Darwin bulletin, the Brisbane bulletin will take it’s place”… also I can imagine a Darwin news reporter reporting that live “Our top story, Nine News has axed its Darwin bulletin … oh you ba” then it cuts to the Brisbane team