The Latest

That was a lot better than what I thought it would be (a ‘typical bulletin’ just with a different name). Really like the focus on reporters & having a few feature interviews - it was a mix between MSNBC’s ‘The 11th Hour’ and Lateline.

There’s a few things that can/should be tweaked (eg; letting interviews run longer & the overuse of the ‘Latest’ wipe/transition). However, it’s definitely a program which is a valuable addition to the news landscape and one I’ll make an effort to watch

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As well as saying “developing”. Felt like they were trying to give a sense of urgency but the tone of the bulletin was the opposite.

“Looking ahead” should have been tomorrow’s headlines or events that should be making news tomorrow instead of it basically being a headline recap.

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I’ve got a list of things they could have improved however,

May I take this opportunity to say how FANTASTIC it is that we finally have commercial Late Night news back on FTA in Australia! :slight_smile:

I’m wishing Seven the very best. I hope Nine follows with Nightline and 10 follows with “10 News Last” (lol, sorry).

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Does anyone have a montage or full broadcast?

I just checked 7plus but they’ve only uploaded eleven minutes of it starting after the first ad break.

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Hopefully captured most camera angles and presentation elements.

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Dear Seven,

After so many years of screwed, half-arsed relaunches, you’ve finally gotten something right. Use this format as a basis for your 6pm bulletins and I might feel inclined to watch again.

Content is delivered in a fast-paced but also in depth manner which is pretty good. Graphics are top notch (see, it’s not hard to make your graphics look decent, all you had to do was to erase the blue), backdrop looks stunning. Desk looks huge from the wideshot but is probably more versatile than the 6pm desk. Michael Usher is great.

Overall well done. Now they need to implement this for all their local 6pm bulletins.

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I like the idea of the “Final Frame” - a still image from a big story of the day. It’s a good way to end the newscast and close out the day of news.

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Overall it all looks fantastic to me

I think it makes much more sense to use reporters and technology for live crosses than not use it. Like airlines who try and fly planes for 24 hours a day, operating costs come down the more you use the technology and staff on hand. The days of reporters filing one live cross at 6 are over. It makes no sense. More and more is being asked of journos around the world. File for air. File for social. File for digital. Endless live crosses. Yes, long days - but if that’s what the job requires of them.

Live crosses are much cheaper than written, produced and edited filed pieces that’s for sure.

Would love to see this stay at 10.30 7 nights a week - hell, maybe on Saturdays, Fridays and Sundays it could ever move up at an hour to 9.30 - if there is nothing else worthy.

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However they do need the kind of non existent ad brea they have at 6 “thanks for watching the chase Australia, 7 news starts now”

“thanks for watching the big bash. the latest from 7 news starts now” - cut to open.

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Not a fair comparison.

Your audience is growing past 6pm so it makes sense to build into the first ad break at 6:18pm.

Late at night (particularly coming out of live sport) there is a mass turnoff so there is very little incentive not to take advantage of the eyeballs while they have them. You sacrifice ads at 10:30pm going out to 500k people for ads at 10:45pm going out to 200k people or less even with a continuous flow strategy.

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But of course, it’s not technlogy or the good sense of having live crosses that I was questioning… it’s the human factor, you can’t have reporters routinely working 14 or 15 hour days.

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Love it. Michael Usher has a Huw Edwards from the BBC News at Ten presenting style.

Rest of the bulletin has a very professional vibe. CNN but less sensationalist, except for that odd report about the hoons in Melbourne which was… bleh.

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That is a good thing.

I’m planning on setting up a YouTube channel based on full broadcasts of The Latest. I recorded last night’s bulletin and i’ll be recording them each night over the course of the next few months.

Anyway,as for my thoughts on the bulletin, I haven’t actually watched it yet, so I will save my judgement on the bulletin until I do.

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The theme music bed is a nice piece, but it’s a bit sleepy and slow for a late night bulletin. The 2004-2016 music would sound good, and it wouldn’t necessarily be a backwards step either becuase Seven do still use it in some capacity. The only problem is that you don’t want a theme which sounds too sensationalist because that’s not what the bulletin is like.

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Very similar to The 11th Hour on MSNBC, looks good and different.

After watching that montage from a few posts up, looks like a premium product so that makes me happy. Think I’ll start watching this from tonight. Looks like a solid production. The Celebrity tweets was bleh but other than that looks very good.

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A shame it’s not doing well on the first night. Hopefully it will gain traction as it continues.

I loved it. A great bulletin. As has already been mentioned, more viewer interaction would be good, maybe even a Twitter or Facebook poll about a topic of the day, that would intrigue viewers and allow a bit of advertisement on Facebook. Musher also said let’s look at ‘your tweets’, but showed celebrity Tweets. I’m sure this will change. The photo of the day at the end is a fantastic idea! Love it. Before this they could go through tomorrow’s papers.

Overall, a great product that I will tune into most nights.

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