Nine News boss Fiona Dear has given an interview to Mediaweek about Nine bulletins and ratings.
Although it avoids quotes of the complaints which have surrounded the news division she did offer generous thoughts regarding changes being introduced by Anthony 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 and 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 OK 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.”
You can read more at Mediaweek
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