Every night at 6pm, 9News and Seven News battle to attract the biggest audiences to their one hour news. It’s a war with new generals.
Gone are both Seven’s former head of news and current affairs, Craig McPherson, and his counterpart at Nine, Darren Wick. Their respective replacements are both new in their roles, yet already making an impact. At Nine, Fiona Dear, and at Seven, Anthony de Ceglie.
At the start of the year, Nine might have been happy with 9News and its suite of current affairs shows being competitively placed going into the Paris 2024 Olympics.
However, Nine has gone into the Games in a leadership position across metro markets. The broadcaster has weathered any potential bumpy transition from Wick to Dear.
Nine Melbourne 6pm news presenters Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort
Nine’s metro leadership position
In data supplied by Nine, the daily news and current affairs offerings are up YOY against the same time last year. The data for 9News (seven days 6-7pm), Today (7-9am) and A Current Affair shows YOY growth in 16 of the 21 measures across national, metro, and individual metro markets.
It should be noted that nationally (metro plus regional), Seven leads with News and Sunrise. While Nine has the 6pm edge in each east coast market, Seven leads in the Adelaide and Perth markets.
The biggest growth for Nine is in Perth, Brisbane, and Melbourne, where growth is in double digits. Perth is a market in which Seven has had traditional ownership. Nine now talks about turning that market into a “battleground”. The increase in Brisbane comes as Seven shakes up its 6pm bulletin. The growth in Melbourne comes as Nine can already claim to have won the year before July has finished.
Nine News Sydney 6pm team of Amber Sherlock, Peter Overton, and James Bracey
Closing the gap in Perth
Talking to Mediaweek about the products she has helped shape in her former and current role, Dear said: “9News is in a terrific place this year. We are seeing incredible growth with our audience and that is nationally. We’ve won nine of the last metro weeks, which is our longest winning streak in nine years.
“We are seeing audience growth year-on-year for total TV, Monday to Friday. The numbers are good for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Our Perth audience is up 13% and Perth is now a big battleground. We’re super proud that we are closing that gap in Perth.”
In the past, Seven had maintained a vice-like grip for its news in the West. “We are engaged in some very competitive battles over there that are showing some significant signs,” explained Dear.
9News Perth presenter Michael Thomson
The ratings grew after Nine made some significant hosting changes in recent years. Tracy Grimshaw exited A Current Affair. Ally Langdon moved from Today to the evening slot, with Sarah Abo moving into breakfast. At 9News Melbourne, Peter Hitchener moved onto weekends with Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort looking after weekdays.
The Tipping Point
The 6pm weekday news also saw Nine taking a risk on the lead-in. It dropped the Eddie McGuire-hosted Millionaire Hot Seat for the Todd Woodbridge-hosted Tipping Point Australia.
“They can be really scary times,” said Dear about making major hosting moves. “I was the executive producer of A Current Affair when Tracy Grimshaw came to me and said, ‘You know, after 17 years, I think it might be time for a change Fi.’ That is nerve-wracking for an executive producer to hear that their highly respected host of 17 years wants to try something new.
“We put an incredible amount of thought into who was the right person to lead A Current Affair forward. Just as we did with who was the right person to lead Melbourne News forward.”
The 5pm gamble paid off too. The last week before the Olympics, Tipping Point Australia was well on top of The Chase Australia in metro markets.
9News Adelaide presenters Brenton Ragless and Kate Collins
‘Bold, brave…and well thought out’
Dear talked about the decision-making process, noting the big changes had been made before she took on her current role. “People might say they were bold decisions or brave decisions. They were carefully thought out decisions.”
When asked if there was audience research or simply gut feel, Dear replied: “A bit of both. I have worked in the Nine newsroom for almost 20 years. There are two lessons that I learned from sitting on a COS [chief of staff] desk. I learned very quickly two things. One, you need to respect the audience. Never assume what the audience wants or needs.
“And two, not to spend your entire time looking at your opposition. You can get bogged down in what your opposition is doing. You should be focusing on what your team is doing. Are they doing it well? Do we need to change anything? How can we do it better?”
That provided a nice segue to ask about Nine’s competition. There are a multitude of options that continue to grow. The growth of streaming platforms has lured some viewers away.
“The one thing that we have that our streaming competitors don’t have, and can’t have, is news and sports and current affairs.
“We know people’s viewing habits are constantly changing and we respect that. But we still know that one of our advantages is, especially up against our streaming competitors, the ability to have a recognised face that feels like is part of their family, propelled into their lounge room each night, each afternoon, each morning.”
Mark Humphries is a much-discussed addition to Seven’s Friday 6pm news.
Seven’s experiments on the 6pm news
Dear was thoughtful when asked about the changes being introduced by de Ceglie at Seven News.
“My short answer would be news is news. That’s the short answer,” said Dear about any difference between the Nine and Seven product at 6pm. But she had more to offer though.
“That comes with a but. I am focusing on our teams and focusing on delivering news.
“However, I do respect the audience and the changing audience and the younger audience. We fully realise that audiences these days are after a lot more than those regular rounds that made up the news of the 1980s, those half-hour bulletins. The one-hour bulletins have changed things. The audience has changed things. Technology has changed things.
“While news is news and will always be that, we also need to give them a bit extra. I want to make sure that we give them everything. We give them the news of the day, but we also tell them about things that they care about or things affecting them, whether that be in their world around them or the greater world.”
Dear is okay with experimentation in the news hour. “We have to take risks,” she said. “I understand why some of my competitors are taking risks. If we don’t take risks, we stagnate, and that is not good for any news bulletin.
“However, there are core things that we need to respect about our audience.”
Dear was certainly not about to unload on other news services. “I’m not going to disrespect my opposition. I’m not going to disrespect them because everyone in this industry works very hard at what they do.”
See also: Anthony de Ceglie’s ‘dream’ is a ‘unified’ Seven and new audiences
9News: ‘We are a business facing pressures’
With all media companies carefully watching, and in many cases, decreasing, staff numbers, Dear also feels the pinch.
“We are not immune to the economic challenges facing Australia and the world, and we would be naive and our employees would be naive to think that we are immune from that.
“We are a business facing pressures and it’s no secret that ad revenues are challenging. Like any businesswoman running a business at the moment, I’m counting every penny and I’m watching where we spend our money and making sure that we’re spending it in the best places.
“We have to transform as a business does in tough times. It’s been a project we’ve been working on. We are now carefully planning the newsroom of the future that will keep us future fit.
“That means changing how our workforce tell their stories each day. I don’t mean in terms of the words and the pictures. I’m talking more about the processes. In the past, there were some glory days of television where we had four separate teams working on the same story over four different bulletins.
“That is potentially a luxury that we can’t afford at the moment, and it’s not smart television.
“I’m also looking at multi-skilling different sections of our 9News newsrooms, and for multiple reasons. For cost efficiency, but also to give some of our team more opportunities.”
Portrait of Fiona Dear director of news and current affairs at Nine. Photographed at 1 Denison. Friday 24th May 2024. Photo: James Brickwood. 240524
Fiona Dear: A day at Nine news and current affairs
Learning about how a news executive spends their day is instructive. When asked to share her diary, the recently-appointed Dear noted she hadn’t quite worked out the routine yet.
“I’m still trying to work out a routine that is best for all the different news bulletins and the Today show and A Current Affair and 60 Minutes.
“And also for myself because I need a good work-life balance otherwise I will be a terrible leader.”
She admitted she continues to wake early and tries to catch the 5am Nine News bulletin.
“I’m then watching the Today show going through my email. Plus reading the newspapers. That part of my day hasn’t changed at all.
“I am then getting into the office earlier than I was for A Current Affair. Then looking at each market, their assignment boxes, what are they planning for the day in terms of the news bulletin.
“Then I try and join the 9:45am conference call with all the news directors around the country plus the Today Show and A Current Affair.
“The rest of my day is looking at budgets, looking at technology, getting to know 800 new people.
“I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few weeks travelling around the country, going to visit the different newsrooms and the different teams. I’ve still got the Gold Coast and Darwin to go.”
Dear quickly realised she couldn’t watch every evening bulletin. She checks into a different program each day.
Nine’s Today show team in Paris: Alex Cullen, Karl Stefanovic, Sarah Abo, and Brooke Boney
9News, Today, and A Current Affair in Paris
The network has committed a sizeable news team to cover Paris 2024 – even as journalists from its publishing division go on strike. Dear explained each market is represented in the TV cohort, including NBN.
“We know the opportunity that Paris presents. We know that this will hopefully deliver more eyeballs to news and current affairs across the business.”
The day we spoke with Dear, Nine had posted its largest news audience of the year. That’s a record it has broken quite a few times recently.
While the Olympics has helped with momentum, Dear noted: “I don’t think audiences started switching to us eight weeks ago because of the Olympics.
“I would hope they’re coming to us because they can see that we’re offering a quality news brand.”