Although some decent points have been made, I personally think for the few major news events in regional Australia each year which warrant a larger coverage investment by Nine News, both the metro & regional teams should be working side by side so the quality of the coverage is at a high standard regardless of whether you’re in the viewing area or the major capital city.
If a story is important enough for Melissa Downes to be sent up North for coverage of a flood or cyclone, then Samantha (or whichever regional presenter is available at that time, of course) should also be sent up North. Likewise if there was a major Federal Politics story (Budget, Leadership Crisis, etc.) which the TCN newsroom deems important enough for Peter Overton to be travelling to Canberra for the benefit of coverage in the Sydney market, then Vanessa O’Hanlon needs to be there too.
Others may feel differently but having the capital city presenter of Nine News on-location really wouldn’t mean that much if I lived in a regional area and rarely/never got to see them on TV at 6pm.
Times of crisis in regional areas should be the perfect opportunity for Nine to prove not only that their regional newsreaders aren’t just chained to a distant studio but perhaps most importantly, show to viewers that Nine’s local news offerings for regional Australia actually are bigger and better than those provided by WIN, Seven QLD and Prime7. If they want to become the #1 news source for regional Australia (and I don’t see why either party wouldn’t have that as an eventual goal), Nine and SCA need to do things with their services that the others can’t/won’t for various reasons!
Right on point. Local reporters or regional bulletin presenters must have experience beyond their comfort zone, i.e. their respective broadcast region. From promos to coverage matters, Nine should polish even further. No matter why Nine’s composite regional news editions “allegedly” fared lower than the competition.
The other thing to remember is Nine is not going to invest any more in these bulletins without Southern Cross paying more for it, and there’s Buckley’s and None of that happening.
Flood coverage on Nine News NQ tonight is much, much better.
The first 20 minutes of the bulletin have been nearly entirely dedicated to the local disaster with
6:00 - 6:13 shown statewide with live crosses and detailed stories,
6:13 - 6:17 further stories inside the local window,
6:19 - 6:20 story on PM visiting area and weather.
Cross to ad break mentioned 2 more stories after the break as well, well done to Nine!
7 News bulletin was the standout for local coverage last night.
Will watch the 7 bulletin replay on 7Two soon to compare the two.
After comparing, I think Melissa should’ve opened both Brisbane and Regional doing extended flood coverage, and then Brisbane and Regional going back to normal and continuing with local news and additional coverage for regional bulletin if needed?
Ideally they could’ve started RQLD with Melissa and essentially have a temporary simulcast of the metro bulletin for the first few live crosses and stories, then have a pre-recorded Flood Weather Wall and a generic “we now return to Sam and Paul in the studio but we’ll bring you more critical updates throughout your local bulletin.”
I think handing over to the metro bulletin for major news stories in regional areas is one of the worst things they can do, essentially giving viewers the impression that some stories are just too big for their local bulletins to handle. It should only be in extremely exceptional circumstances (such as major, bulletin crashing technical difficulties) that the regional services have to fall back on the metro services.
In the future, I personally think the regional newsreaders need to be sent out on location whenever a metro presenter is told to travel to a regional area to present major news coverage on location.
Possibly needed for Nine, and have their fill-ins occupy the studio for pre-recorded local windows (maybe at least outside the region where the main presenter is live on location) and other news stories read from the studio.
Well yes. Aside from the factors you mentioned, there’d still need to be someone in the studio on standby so they can take over in the case of technical difficulties with the OB. But that’s just common sense, isn’t it?
In the case of Regional QLD/Darwin, maybe send only one co-presenter out on location leaving the other in the studio to be on standby and cover the local windows/rest of the day’s news?
For Southern NSW/ACT & Victoria, maybe the Sports presenter? Mike Lorigan has presented news on full SNSW/ACT bulletins before and has done quite a competent job of that.
Agreed. Exactly the same as the metro bulletin did.
Send either Paul or Sam to Townsville and have the other in the studio.
In this case, when they haven’t done that, I would’ve rather had Melissa start the bulletin. Either way, they need to show someone at the scene honestly.
I’m also not a fan of throwing to the metro bulletin for coverage of major events, but when the metro presenter is live somewhere from the start of the bulletin, I think it could be quite easy to simulcast the metro bulletin for the start of the bulletin.
Like this would be good:
They could’ve had Paul/Sam read the headlines and for the last one feature the floods and have them say “Nine’s Melissa Downes starts our coverage tonight live from the scene”, have the normal Nine News (whereever) title card sweep across and then go straight to Melissa Downes. 99% of viewers wouldn’t have thought anything of it, to most it wouldn’t seem that different to any reporter being live at the scene.
When the metro bulletin threw back to Garry Youngberry, the regional bulletin could have had Melissa pre-recorded saying something about the situation here and then “Paul, Sam, back to you in the studio”, have the local window then start with one of them “Thanks Melissa, Melissa Downes reporting there from Townsville. Now to today’s local news …”
