Nine cuts regional news bulletin to 30 minutes, axes journalists
Nine Network will cut its one-hour regional television evening news program by half on its return next month, resulting in a dozen staff lay-offs.
Nine Network is looking to sack more than 12 regional journalists following the free-to-air television broadcaster’s decision to slash its one-hour regional television evening news program by half on its return next month.
The network suspended evening news bulletins in regional Queensland, southern NSW and regional Victoria in March at the start of the coronavirus crisis, which were replaced by metropolitan news programs.
Nine’s Queensland and northern NSW managing director Kylie Blucher told staff on Wednesday about the changes.
“Regrettably, this change will have an impact on some of our staff – and in total we expect a little over a dozen roles to be impacted – in these regional markets and we are in the process of pursuing alternate opportunities across the business, where possible, for those individuals impacted,” Blucher said in an email to staff, seen by The Australian.
Blucher blamed the decision on the advertising and economic fallout from COVID-19, with the network’s parent company Nine Entertainment earlier this month forecasting a drop in annual earnings.
“Changes like this are never easy and I am conscious of the impact this restructure will have on individual people. However, the unprecedented advertising and economic downturn has prompted a review of the functional effectiveness while ensuring our bulletins remain commercially sustainable,” she said.
The decision comes a month after The Australian reported that the owners of Nine and Seven Network are among more than 100 regional publishers and broadcasters to receive funding from the Morrison government’s $50m Public Interest News Gathering program following a double-digit drop in ad revenue during COVID-19.
Blucher said Nine has produced a one-hour bulletin under the brand of Nine News for the Southern Cross Austereo regional television markets in regional Queensland, southern NSW and regional Victoria for the past three years.
“In the wake of COVID-19, we then moved to statewide bulletins where we recorded no detrimental shifts in audience ratings during that time compared to last year. With that as a foundation, we have come to the decision to restructure our bulletins permanently for our regional audiences,” Blucher said.
The shorter regional news program will start on August 10 at 5.30pm followed by a state-based metro news bulletin at 6pm.
Nine expects to report underlying earnings guidance of between $390m and $410m for the 2020 financial year, and net debt of around $300m. That’s down as much as 8 per cent from Nine’s previous annual earnings forecast of about $423.8m, which it dumped in March, citing poor future advertising visibility due to the coronavirus crisis.
Separately, the return of Nine’s obstacle course entertainment show Ninja Warrior has proved popular with viewers. It was the most watched entertainment show on Sunday, attracting more than 1m metropolitan viewers, according to the latest TV ratings figures from OzTam. The fourth season of Ninja beat Seven’s new dating shows Farmer Wants A Wife, which boasted a metro audience of 908,000 on debut.
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