Annette Sharp: Sharyn Ghidella doesn’t hold back in farewell messages

Sharyn Ghidella did not mince her words on leaving Channel 7, with the newsreader making clear her distaste for the direction news is taking at the network in an email and social media posts, writes Annette Sharp.

Channel 7’s Sharyn Ghidella has always been a classy and direct woman, and it was with characteristic integrity that the newsreader signed off from Seven for the last time on Friday.

Not for Ghidella a nondisclosure agreement and a hefty cash payout that would silence the journalist and propel Seven’s new narrative that widespread cuts within its news department are part of a cultural clean-up triggered by the Spotlight cocaine-and-hookers scandal.

No, there would be no rhetoric and blather from Far North Queenslander Ghidella.

The co-anchor of Seven’s Brisbane news bulletin had things to say, and say them she did, via both internal staff email and Facebook.

“As has been widely reported, the past couple of weeks in TV has sadly been a miserable affair,” she said on Friday, confirming the industry talk that has flowed since the bloodletting began in April.

“A long list of talented, loyal and dedicated employees have been shown the door in what seems to have been an interminable process of … removing what’s been deemed excess stock from the building. These people are some of the best content creators in the business.

“They are good people and it’s been heartbreaking to watch. I’ve seen the toll it’s taken on those who’ve left, those delivering the pain and those still there, and when it comes to witnessing this heartache, I think I’m done.”

Seven News Brisbane anchors Max Futcher and Sharyn Ghidella.

Severing all attachment to Seven, even as an unemployed future viewer, and addressing reports Seven News will transition to a comedy and astrology offering, Ghidella added: “I’m also not one to have my evening news served up with humour and horoscopes either so, to be honest, it is time to go.”

Ghidella joins the growing ranks of loyal long-time Seven staffers who have recently been told the sun has set on their careers at the broadcaster.

Other prominent members of this club include Seven’s former news director Craig McPherson, commercial director Bruce McWilliam, revenue officer Kurt Burnette, head of sport Lewis Martin, Sydney news director Neil Warren, Melbourne news director Shaun Menegola, Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn and senior reporter Robert Ovadia, who last week lodged an unfair dismissal case against the network.

There’s also a host of lower ranking staffers in the outgoing lounge.

Seven news boss Anthony De Ceglie. Picture: Supplied

Joining this list is Seven News’s most senior female producer in Sydney, Michaela Marshall, who quit last week to join the office of federal Arts Minister Tony Burke.

After tendering her resignation, Marshall met with Seven’s rookie news boss Anthony De Ceglie on Tuesday and he asked “Is it me…?”, to which she is said to have responded, without hesitation “Yes”, before softening the blow with a “I don’t like the direction you’re taking us.”

Seven on Friday said Marshall, who leaves in a fortnight, had the network’s “full support and best wishes”.

Confidence and morale are said to be at an all-time low at the network as executives consult the heavens to determine what the future of commercial television looks like.

Along with the brutal decision to sack some of their most experienced hands to save money comes a plan to take a punt on the loyalty of Seven’s rusted-on older audience.

This is the audience sector who grew up watching Seven when it was consistently bested by Nine in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

Back then Nine dominated with a heavy slate of news and sports programming, but even in those primitive times Seven execs recognised the network had an obligation to deliver entertainment to families who enjoyed its drama and comedy content — and whose numbers were in the millions. Those viewers would eventually propel Seven to No.1 and become, as older viewers, fans of its news programs.

The question now is will they hang around if Seven’s news hour morphs into a light entertainment show more like The Project? Likely not.

Part of Ghidella’s Facebook post announcing she would be leaving the network.

TV ratings already show this audience has started abandoning Seven. The network has lost the fiercely contested news hour in five capital cities for two months straight under De Ceglie — the first time that’s happened in eight years.

At a time when brand value in the domestic television industry has plunged, thanks to the success of invading international streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney, Seven appears ready to blow up its once-valued and admired news brand — and the people who built it — and entrust it to untested freshmen who talk a good game.

As you can well imagine, there are a lot of people who talk a good game in the industry, and leave in their wake buzzwords like “evolution”, “innovation”, “diversity” and “dexterity”.

There are far less, certainly now at Seven, who can boast of getting “runs on board”.

Ghidella, with her flawless delivery, was one who could.

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