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 shouldâve 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 couldâve 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 âwe now return to Sam and Paul in the studio but weâll bring you more critical updates throughout your local bulletin.â
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, thereâd 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 thatâs just common sense, isnât 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 dayâs 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 havenât done that, I wouldâve rather had Melissa start the bulletin. Either way, they need to show someone at the scene honestly.
Iâm 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 couldâve had Paul/Sam read the headlines and for the last one feature the floods and have them say âNineâs Melissa Downes starts our coverage tonight live from the sceneâ, have the normal Nine News (whereever) title card sweep across and then go straight to Melissa Downes. 99% of viewers wouldnât have thought anything of it, to most it wouldnât 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 âPaul, Sam, back to you in the studioâ, have the local window then start with one of them âThanks Melissa, Melissa Downes reporting there from Townsville. Now to todayâs local news âŚâ
âDue to technical difficulties, weâve been unable to bring you tonightâs edition of 9 Local News. We will have local news updates throughout the night.â just scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
