Nine slashes Gold Coast bureau
... and axes its Darwin news entirely. Is more cost-cutting to come?
It may be as hot as Hades out there in the Brisburbs, but there’s a chill wind over Mt Coot-tha.
In the latest news about media cost-cutting, Channel Nine has announced it is reducing staff numbers on the Gold Coast and in the Northern Territory.
The Coast’s nightly bulletin will have just one newsreader, with Paul Taylor and Eva Milic (pictured above) splitting the job between them, and three full-time journalism positions will be lost.
This follows Channel Seven’s recent move to axe its dedicated Gold Coast bulletin altogether — which is exactly what Nine has just done to its Darwin News. Audiences in the NT will get the Queensland bulletin instead — which, I suspect, won’t go down very well up north.
The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that 11 jobs will be lost across the Coast and the Territory, although some people will be redeployed within the Nine network.
This week has also seen the departure of Brisbane newsreader Andrew Lofthouse due to ill health. Speculation has begun as to who will replace him, but maybe now the question is whether he will be replaced.
The changes are being reported just days after a restructure at the top of Channel 9 and I imagine it’s fair to think that staff in other parts of the vast media empire — which includes a radio network represented in Brisbane by ratings-challenged 4BC — have cause for concern.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz used to work for Nine Radio and really hopes his friends there keep their jobs.