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Mal Walden to retire from fulltime News

TEN Melbourne newsreader Mal Walden will retire from full time news after 40 years on TV.

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2013-07-01_0000Melbourne newsreader Mal Walden has confirmed he will retire from presenting TEN News full-time, at the end of the year, after 40 years presenting news and over 50 in the media.

Walden, 68, has been with TEN since 1987 and authored a book on TEN history for its 40th anniversary in 2004. He was previously with Seven News.

Walden’s presenting style sometimes draws upon spontaneous humour editorialising on news stories, but it has endeared him to the audienced he has attracted in his 40 years on Melbourne television.

“I’ve had a wonderful journey which began more than 53 years ago, including the past 40 years on Melbourne television,” Walden told news.com.au.

“Few people in this industry could ever have enjoyed the support that Ten has offered me over the past 25 years.

“Fewer still in television get the chance to choose their day of departure and I appreciate TEN’s support.”

TEN CEO Hamish McLennan said: “Mal’s decision is a sad day for Network TEN, but we are very grateful he has agreed to stay with us until the end of the year. Mal is television news in Melbourne. For the past 25 years, he has brought the big news stories to TEN’s viewers with authority, integrity and passion.

“Simply saying ‘thank you’ is not enough, but thank you Mal. Everyone at Network TEN and all our viewers will miss you and wish you the very best.”

Dermot O’Brien, TEN’s Melbourne Director of News added: “It has been a privilege to work with Mal for so many years. We are both professional colleagues and good friends. Mal is truly one of the great newsreaders of the Australian television industry and is universally respected by both current and former television professionals.”

From today Walden will present three days a week until December with Stephen Quartermain hosting Thursdays and Fridays. This comes despite TEN sources telling TV Tonight in January there were no plans for him to present 3 days a week later in the year.

Walden is reportedly still considering ‘less time-consuming TV projects’ for next year.

14 Responses

  1. I understand what Phil was attempting to say. He was saying maybe TEN should’ve considered being ageist rather than sexist when sacking presenters. Think of how crazy that is! A commercial network dropping *a man* close to retirement instead of a young-ish, talented woman. What would happen to their boys club?

  2. Don’t understand the fanboi love for Kapalos

    Her TT experience has shown she is just another TV airhead lost & clueless without an autocue

  3. I think December 10 would be the best date for his final News Bulletin, the Day of the Melbourne Analogue Switch Off.

    To End an Era at the end of an Era.

  4. Goes to show how little thought was put into the decision making by Ten in November. It didn’t take Einstein to know Mal would retire within a year or so. They should have retained Helen Kapalos. and had dual presenters Mon-Wed and Helen solo on Thur – Fri.

    Stephen Quartermain is a great sports presenter but he’s has no presence as a newsreader.

    As for those saying Helen was a failure at Ten, you’re wrong. She was very successful alongside Mal and was only sacked due to very poor decision making.

  6. Can’t believe how many people are bagging Helen Kapalos. She has one bad night and the knives come out…as for her being on multiple channels, you could count on one hand the number of newsreaders/presenters who stay at one channel for their whole careers.
    Good luck to Mal.

  7. I’ll miss the spontaneous editorials. Who else does that so entertainingly? Only Karl Stefanovic on the morning after the Logies.

  8. Let Mal retire gracefully on his terms. Ten owe him that.
    As for Helen Kapalos. how many networks can she work for before she gets it right? She has had unsuccessful stints at Nine & Ten & now Seven. Maybe there is something in that. Maybe she just doesn’t hat it! Only my opinion. Some people are stars & some are not.

    1. Helen’s time at TEN was not unsuccessful. TEN News won the hour. She was let go as part of network cost cuts across the country. Seven have some wider issues to address that are beyond the anchor and beyond TT, all of which have been documented.

  9. Helen should have not been sacked in the first place. Ten knew Mal was getting older and was eventually going to retire anyway!! He should have got the chop. As for 7, they are not taking the opportunity to give Helen a better job on one of their other shows. I wonder why they didn’t consider her to host X-Factor alongside Luke Jacobz?? I also wonder why Channel 9 didn’t hire her for AGT before they chose Julia Morris. I like Julia Morris but I think Helen should have been 1st pick.

  10. Agree with Bullswool. Kapalos should have stayed.
    She is not rating well at all with Today Tonight, it’s getting beaten week in week out by A.C.A.
    It will be interesting what they do now with, news reader and sport presenter.
    Good luck 2 Mal.

  11. Channel Ten made an incredibly stupid decision in dumping Helen Kapalos. Instead, they should have kept her to ‘share’ the news presenting with Walden, and take over from him when he eventualy retired.
    If Channel Ten felt one or two days a week wasn’t enough to justify keeping her, they could have given her other roles as well until Walden retired e.g apparances on Ten Late News and The Project.
    For goodness sake, at the time of Kapalos’ dumping, Walden was 67. They knew he wouldn’t have many more years left in him.
    If Stephen Quartermain is to become anchor of the bulletin, they create a huge headache for themselves by searching for a new sports presenter when they should have just kept Kapalos. Had Channel Ten kept her it would have been better for both parties. Her tenure at Today Tonight has been less than sucsessful.

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