I imagine they’re limiting the number of people permitted inside the newsroom and Shirvo is probably recovering from his marathon presenting stint. Beretta was probably happy just to have an excuse to leave the house. I know I was happy to have a reasonable excuse to go for a long drive beyond the borders of my LGA the other day.
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Valid points.
Meanwhile Jane from Adelaide was making lots of mistakes while she was reading in the days before she took a two week holiday to Coffin Bay.
Obviously, very poorly. An appointment that could have been made at the time of Rod’s retirement, instead an announcement today that in just 5 days Steve Titmus will join Amanda. Utter desperation at BTQ by the looks.
https://twitter.com/7NewsGoldCoast/status/1433245905872818178?s=20
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Channel 7’s news director Neil Warren said they had to wait until after the Olympics to roll out the plan.
I’m in two minds. Maybe the plan was always for Steve to fill Rod’s spot on the news desk alongside Amanda? Or has this decision only just been made as a result of supposedly poor ratings?
That’s not entirely true. Ann Sanders has been reading news at Seven for over 30 years. Melissa Doyle was at Seven for 25 years. Peter Mitchell in Melbourne has been at the network for almost 35 years.
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But there’s only a handful of talents who have been loyal to Seven. Even Mel Doyle who was a distinctively ‘Seven’ personality left last year.
Nine has so many reporters and presenters who’s been with the network for more than 10 years and some of them have never even been to another network in their careers. That should tell you about their loyalty to Nine. By contrast, there’s so many new reporters and presenters at Seven and there’s no longevity and thus experience.
The duo in Perth have been doing it for a while. Jane Doyle too. Mike Amor has been at Seven for a long time. Jaq Felgate for over a decade.
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Yes you’re right about Adelaide and Perth which is part of why they’re so dominant. Having said that it doesn’t account for the fact that SO MANY presenters and reporters have left Seven in the last 5 years compared to Nine. It says a lot about working at Seven, because if the experience is so good they wouldn’t leave in droves.
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While this point is true (especially from a Sydney perspective)…
I was under the impression that most, if not all on-air presenters/reporters currently at Nine News Sydney (including Peter Overton, who was at Seven Adelaide in the very Early '90s) have previously worked for another media organisation.
After other stations within the network (QTQ, STW, etc.), Ten & 2GB seem to be the main breeding grounds for TCN talent.
It’s been six weeks since Rod retired, 4 weeks (!) since the Olympics finished and it’s a Thursday. Nothing about the timing of this says planned to me.
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Yes I agree. You have to compare Nine and Seven Gold Coast News side by side to see the differences.
Nine has Bruce Paige and Eva Milic. Bruce who the Gold Coast audience has known since 1971 when he started reading ABC News Queensland and decades reading Nine News Queensland and Eva Milic who’s been at Nine for nearly two decades (including reading Nine Gold Coast News solo for a few years).
Seven has Amanda Abate and now Steve Titmus. Amanda has been at Seven for a while, but not in the same league as Eva (no offence) and Steve had read a lot of news but not on the Gold Coast. Smacks of desperation.
I think they should have gone with someone like Richard Fowler who is still known on the Gold Coast. Hosts the 94.1 Breakfast Show (which Seven have a cross promotion deal with) and previously read at Prime and Nine. But what do I know?
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I think they should just axe it rather than working on a lost cause. Focus on the main Brisbane bulletin so they can get back up on top. The only thing that they should keep is that Gold Coast set and move it into Brisbane.
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Experience is 9’s advantage at 6pm too. The whole problem when Seven launched the GC news (20 years too late) was that they had two selling points: 1) local news, 7 days a week and 2) it’d be anchored by Rod Young. They have neither now, so no wonder they’re in trouble.
Looks like they’re are trying to ride off the coattails of the Titmus name. But, they even failed at that- no time for decent promotion, just dropping a tweet five days out from his debut. Another presenter change. Surely, this is the last ditch attempt for the bulletin.
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Yes totally. The Gold Coast is totally different than somewhere like their operation in Regional Queensland.
Seven was able to make inroads against the long standing bulletins at WIN in Toowoomba and Rockhampton because WINs product was stuck in the past (and still is). Seven was able to try new ideas and ways of thinking to get eyeballs.
Nine Gold Coast News has been on air for just over 25 years and for most of that time its produced a superior product for a local news. Seven came in thinking they could better that but it’s proved over time they couldn’t.
Seven’s not offering anything different and you could even say their Presenters and Reporters feel less experienced against Nine’s team.
At least it seems slightly more funded this time around than the original Seven Gold Coast News in 1998-1999 (Presented by a young Melissa Downes). I remember “The Jetsons” was a lead in at 5pm in a last ditch desperate attempt to promote it as a Family Hour before it was rebranded back to a Prime only bulletin.
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I wonder if Seven have considered extending the Gold Coast news to one hour, therefore starting at 5:00pm. Could be the point of difference needed to beat Nine.
It may be Australia’s 6th largest city but I don’t think there’s enough news to generate an hour worth of content every day unless they filled it with fluff interviews and did extended Titans and Suns reports.
Seven need someone presenting who’s been known to the Gold Coast audience for a long time. I don’t know where Rob Readings is these days but having someone like a “Bruce Paige like” presenter would really help them. Maybe Geoff Mullins? Someone who may be Brisbane based but previously known to Gold Coast audiences.
They’ve gone with Steve Titmus to give him something constant and he’s on the payroll. Also Samantha Heathwood can act as the main Newsreader fill in for Brisbane and Seven QLD.
The Gold Coast demographic is mostly older so having someone “mature” helps with building an audience.
Also they could replay the bulletin on Prime7 at 7pm or using 7Two. In a city full of Brisbane commuters (those who aren’t sitting at home all day) a lot of people simply aren’t home at 5.30pm but I guess they can watch on 7Plus.
Geoff Mullins is long gone. Apparently he owns a communications business now.
