Cunningham: Nine staff sackings, loss of local bulletin leaves NT media landscape in poorer shape

Channel 9 were the team to beat in the Territory, and viewers did not even get the chance to say goodbye after the bomb of staff sackings and the loss of our local bulletin were dropped, writes Matt Cunningham.

Nine News Darwin. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

When Cyclone Carlos approached Darwin in 2011, a group of NT News staff took turns setting our alarm clocks for ridiculous hours of the morning.

We would wake and post the latest weather bureau updates at 2am and 5am to the NT News Facebook page.

This was a time before organisations like the Bureau of Meteorology had their own significant social media presence, and people were desperate for information.

But informing the public wasn’t our only motivation.

Our biggest concern was to make sure we got the news out there before Channel 9.

This was the peak of the Darwin media wars.

Nine boss Andy Bruyn – who started at the station on the day it began operations as Channel 8 in October 1982 before rising to the top - had hired a news director named Geoff “Killer” Maurice.

Familiar faces of former Nine Darwin staff: Henry Jones, Kathleen Gazzola, Kathryn Foran, Amy Culpitt, Georgie Chumbley, Isabelle Mullen, and Jonathan Uptin in the Darwin Nine News studio.

Killer had previously worked in the cutthroat Sydney newsroom where Nine and Seven would go to war every day.

He seemed incapable of operating without a sworn enemy and on landing in Darwin, decided the NT News would be it.

Then editor Julian Ricci was up for the challenge.

Our goal every day was to beat Channel 9.

This was no easy task. Their team included Charles Croucher, now Nine’s chief political editor, the well-connected police reporter Justin O’Brien who scooped us so often we ended up poaching him, young homegrown talent including Kathleen Gazzola, Amy Culpitt and Kyrrie Blenkinsop, and presenter Jonathan Uptin.

To understand how big “Jono” was in Darwin in 2011 – and I say this with no disrespect - you need to watch Anchorman and times it by 10.

His face was on the back of every bus, he hosted the opening of every envelope, and he beamed into thousands of Darwin loungerooms at 6pm each weekday evening.

We’d watch the Nine News bulletin in the NT News office, hoping they hadn’t beaten us to a big story.

If they had, Jono’s famous grin would widen slightly, knowing the pain he was inflicting on us as we set about chasing up their yarn.

They would taunt us with Facebook posts about the slightest dip in circulation.

We would return the favour, ensuring any Nine gaffe received prominent coverage in our gossip pages.

Channel 9's Jonathan Uptin has a new gig at Nine Brisbane after two decades in the NT. Jonathan with his family Kerrilee wife Bailey 17 and McKenzie 15 and Boston the dog Pic Jamie Hanson

This will all, of course, seem like trivial nonsense to most normal people.

The point is that a thriving Channel 9 meant a healthier media.

This meant fewer things kept secret and more accountability for politicians.

Even as Nine’s resources were further stretched in recent years and its bulletins were read out of Brisbane, its local news team was still putting three or four good local packages to air each night.

Sadly, this week Channel 9 announced it was axing its Darwin bulletin and sacking or deploying all but two of its staff.

It ends more than 40 years of commercial broadcast news that began in the pioneering days of Channel 8.

Territorians can now look forward to reports from the Toowoomba courthouse and Queensland parliament as Nine shifts its Brisbane bulletin into the 6pm timeslot.

There are many reasons behind Nine’s demise.

The growth of social media (ironic considering how desperate we were 14 years ago to get our news out first on Facebook), a shrinking advertising market, changing consumer habits and a Territory economy that’s been stuck in neutral for more than a decade.

Commercial media outlets are also forced to compete with a public broadcaster that enjoys resources beyond the wildest dreams of organisations like Nine Darwin or the NT News.

It’s hard work selling a product when the government is paying to give something similar away for free.

And so, on Wednesday night, Darwin residents turned on their TVs to a Brisbane news bulletin.

There wasn’t even the chance for a final goodbye. 6pm will never be the same, and we’re all the poorer for it.