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Nine’s Westacott retiring on June 30

As digital technology sweeps through Nine News' facilities, John Westacott will make his departure as boss of News & Current Affairs.

westyNine’s News in Sydney is shooting on digital cameras and is finally upgrading its facilities with a full move to digital -a move that was delayed due to the network once contemplating a complete location shift.

The whole second level at Nine’s Willoughby offices would be rebuilt by September/October before new equipment was rolled out to the rest of the network.

“We’re one of the last networks to go to the system but it’s allowed us to use the very latest technology, which has been a bonus,” said head of news and current affairs John Westacott.

“It allows for a lot later editing and instant updating of stories and the live links coming in from everywhere are easier to do,” he said.

As the digital age sweeps through the network, Westacott will retire on June 30, to return in a part time consultancy capacity after a well-earned break.

David Gyngell said Mr Westacott, 61, had “done the hard yards and he’s now entitled to a life”.

“But he’s part of the Nine family so it’s a partial respite only because I plan to call on his experience and wisdom in an ongoing consultancy role once he’s had a real break,” he said.

“It’s clearly rebuilding and the ratings are going in the right direction. The editorial direction is now sound and the place is being well run by Mark Calvert and Darren Wick (the director of TCN News).”

True to form, he couldn’t resist a dig at his rivals.

“And 60 Minutes has seen off Sunday Night so that seemed like a nice punctuation mark (when deciding to retire).”

Westacott, who was at the centre of a discrimination case by former reporter Christine Spiteri, also commented to The Australian on changes in media ownership and staff restructures at Nine over recent years.

“We were in an unassailable ratings positions, we were market leader as far as advertising went and we mucked it up through a lot of bad management decisions,” he said.

“There was no doubt we needed to trim our sails and restructure our business, but management needed to have some more corporate strength of character and decide who they wanted to keep and who they wanted to go, rather than let all the good people drift off.

“It showed a complete lack of knowledge of the people they were working with, as to who were the ones to keep and let go.”

Following Westacott’s departure, Mark Calvert will continue as director of news and the executive producers of A Current Affair and 60 Minutes, reporting to David Gyngell.

Source: The Australian

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