0/5

Nine News Director sacked

Nine moves to address underperforming News in Sydney by dismissing its News Director, Ian Cook.

ninesydney2Ian Cook, Nine’s Sydney News Director, was sacked by Nine just before the Easter break, reports The Australian.

Cook was given his marching orders by news and current affairs director John Westacott. A Current Affair executive producer Darren Wick has been appointed in his place.

Westacott hired Cook, a former news director at TCN9 in 1980s, just before CEO David Gyngell was appointed CEO in late 2007, which never augured well for Cook’s tenure.

At the time Westacott trumpeted the appointment declaring: “Make no mistake – the Nine News and Current Affairs team is now even better placed to maintain the confidence of Australia’s news public.

“For me, this is about evolution not revolution and strengthening the service we offer our viewers.”

Staff at the network’s Willoughby headquarters were said to have been informed via email late this evening, well after most had left for the Easter break.

But Nine News in Sydney continues to struggle against Seven News. A change from Mark Ferguson to Peter Overton has not only failed to make inroads, it has lost ground. On Wednesday night when the it fell to 180,000 people behind Seven News, Gyngell is said to have lost patience.

The problem is compounded by under-performing news services interstate, notably on WIN-run affiliate STW Perth. Melbourne remains the network’s most competitive edition.

ACA deputy Grant Williams will replace Darren Wick.

Source: The Australian, Live News

23 Responses

  1. (This is based on an actual experiment conducted in the U.K.) Eight monkeys in a room, middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas on the ceiling.
    monkey’s tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, making them miserable. Soon, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, set upon him and beat him up. Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder. One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious.he immediately begins to climb the ladder. All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. he no longer attempts to climb the ladder. A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer attempts to climb the ladder, all the other monkeys beat the crap out of him. The previous new monkey, who participates in the beating has no idea why he’s attacking the new monkey. One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None have ever been sprayed by ice water. None attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will beat up any new monkey who tries, with no idea why.

    This simple principal is behind how most networks treat their programming executives

  2. I wonder what would happen if the ABC was to run its News at 6pm. Would the marginal increase in quality outrate the fluff and pap that is commerical network news services thesedays. That is not to say the ABC has fluff and pap too, it does, but less of it.

  3. Make it one hour and have more content. NBN news (Nth NSW) is by far the number 1 ratings from 6-7 in its market. It has a share of national and international news combined with local news without trash and fluff. NBN does not have any of ch 9’s news other than 4.30pm and 5am. 4.30pm news they only started doing once 2.5 Men was on 9 at 7pm. At 7 on NBN you have ACA. No 2.5 Men. And when there is something useful at 7pm, they put it on at 5.30 and drop 4.30 news.

  4. I agree with lex on the “get rid of celebrity fluff’ and get back to being a news service bit.
    However, the reason why Seven news in Melbourne is loved, is due to the fact it is in touch with the local market.Nine in Syndey looks like basket case.
    Seems nine has no idea who it’s market is or just believes all their mates thatkeep saying “you are number 1”
    Stop listening to mates with hidden agendas and start listening to the people – quality needed not trash or tabloid TV.

  5. Spiral Media: the win by STW’s news over TVW on Sunday April 5 has prompted TVW to restore the news to 6pm this Sunday. This means however, the replay of the AFL game between Fremantle and Adelaide has been pushed back from 5.30pm to 6.30pm. By 6.30pm most people will have found out the results anyway.

  6. @knowfirst thank god you are no where near a newsroom or not going to be near one any time soon.
    9News Syd needs to get a better balance of stories. Before 7 took news down market there was a better mix of local/national and international news.
    nine news needs to get this balance back and stop forcing fluffy boring local reports down our throat.

    also i think what’s happening in the world is a bit more important than the local town fair report.

  7. David,

    Do you have a theory as to why the viewers abandoned GTV after the bushfires?

    I agree that the lead-in will help matters, but back in 9’s “good old days” the lead-in didn’t matter. People switched on to 9 no matter what. Even in Hitch’s early days there would be at least 250k turning on at 6pm.

    1. Figures for news (indeed all television) have dropped across the decade when they were measured differently and before we had the news at our office desks. Instead of 600,000 they are now looking at about 300,000 – 400,000. In Melbourne when a big city event happens Nine wins about 90% of the time. I don’t think it’s so much as abandoning later, I think it’s just extra people coming in to event news and then it goes to back to where it was.

  8. Hi David,

    i think if you have a look at this year’s figures in Melbourne, you’ll see that Nine Melbourne is getting thrashed by Seven whereas last year it was a lot closer. Admittedly, their situation is not as bad as TCN. Personally I think “Hitch” has little chance of reining in “Mitch” now that the rot has set in.

    I thought Mark Calvert was supposed to be the miracle news “consultant” turned network news director. He used to run 5 News in the UK… have a look at that… it might give you an idea of what we will be seeing more of. Yuck.

    1. Last year in Melb we saw stretches of weeks that went to 7 and then the same for 9. Just when it looked like it was all going one network’s way it would inexplicably swing like a pendulum the other way. 9 was winning during the bushfire reporting, 7 is out in front right now, but we’re only 8 weeks in… (and it will certainly help to fix the lead in).

  9. I think the presenter move has proven a failure. I know of many people at home and work that preferred Mark to Peter and have changed channels.

    I do feel sorry for Ian Cook though, I’ve met him before and he is a very nice man. It’s not nice for anyone to lose their job.

  10. For years 9 News poor performance was put on the shoulders of STW. But it is not just Perth where 9 is being pummelled, it is every capital city, where we have seen the gap widen to 500k, up from the 400k last year.

    There is something seriously wrong with that news service, but replacing Ian Cook with someone who was associated with A Current Affair doesn’t sound too promising.

    But I guess they’re more busy messing with the anchor, and now lead in – it will be interesting to see what impact (if any) the latter has. We’ve seen ‘Extra’ in Brisbane regularly outrate Deal, but when it ticks over to 6pm 7 News pulls out a 100k lead over 9 News.

  11. Well, like I said on the MS forums last night (which are down at the moment for some reason) Nine needs to take serious steps with it’s news brand.

  12. From Lex: “Stop doing the local stories”

    Are you for real? Stop doing local stories? How are people going to find out what is affecting them in their lives in their suburbs?

    Thank Christ you are not anywhere near a TV network and running a newsroom, because that comment of yours just portrays your ignorance and intelligence frankly.

  13. Wed night Nine News was #3 news program in all 5 mainland capitals, beaten by ABC, and in Perth by TEN. You can’t cut overseas bureaux & resources (when 7 & 10 have reporters on-camera on the scene in Italy 9 has a reporter on the phone from somewhere). The figures are appaling. -184K in Syd, -100K in Bris, -66K in Melb. As Lex says, it’s in the content and order of stories. Even WIN held STW9 News in such low esteem they used to carry TEN News on their regional WA stations until WIN bought STW and had to switch to the STW9 News. Then, first ting they did was sell the news helicopter. “Melbourne remains competitive” at -66K? They have actually lost as many as Syd, just that GTV had a bigger lead over Seven that has now turned into a trail by 66K. Who to blame there? No change in anchor.

    1. Measuring ratings results for shows that aren’t head to head, such as ABC News v others, needs to be done with some context. I’m sure if Nine News was in a timeslot unto itself it would perform a lot differently too.

      Also, Melbourne figures tend to move in waves where Seven wins for a few weeks then Nine and it’s been this way for years. News Directors are still scratching their heads over what influences such change. Seven has risen up in the last few years but it would still be hard to declare a clear champ, unlike other cities.

  14. I still can’t believe they thought they’d pick up more viewers by taking out my favourite nine news reader at the moment Mark Ferguson, and replacing him with someone who has an annoying voice (Peter Overton).
    That completely moved me over to 7 (which I did watch the majority of the time anyway).

  15. I was so happy reading the headline that the Nine News director was sacked then I realised it wasn’t Westacott and then I saw that the ACA producer was promoted.

    Are channel nine executives idiots? Why are they doing this? Do they not know how to run a proper news service and do they not realise what makes a good news service!

    Stop doing the local stories and the celebrity fluff, get a proper news studio, change back to National Nine News. There is a reason why National Nine News was the most popular and respected news service in the 90’s and early 2000’s – it was good quality, didn’t treat viewers like idiots, had good content (world and national mainly) and good story order as well as good anchors.

    What makes them think replacing Fergo with Overton would do anything? They need to change the bulletin!

    I hope ratings continue to slide and slide so low! To be honest, I thought David Gyngell coming back would turn Nine around – he has maybe in their shows but definitely not in their News. I’m disappointed they’re doing nothing – they can’t run a decent news service at all – which shows because of the one or two viewers they have left.

    And as for axing Nightline? I’m not even going to start on that, when AUstralians are getting home later and later and need a late news service.

  16. I just have to say to the comment regarding STW … who exactly won the 6pm slot on Sunday the 5th of April???

    Granted, 7news was on at an earlier time … but people didnt even tune in for that. If you compare the two bulletins – STW thumped TVW by in excess of 100, 000 viewers (and 110,000 at 6pm).

    I think STW needs to be given the resources to adequatley compete in both quality and standard with TVW (althought 7’s graphics are soo old, and the set is so 2004).

    As much as I hate to say it, but since WIN took over and actually put money into the department…it has improved dramatically…and it can only get better … and once those 50-65’s die off, the ratings figures might be a true representation of the audience share.

Leave a Reply