Nine News

Nine News

Slogan	See it First
Division of:	Nine Network
Opening Theme:	Cool Hand Luke
Founded:	1956
Headquarters:	Head Office: Willoughby, New South Wales, Australia
Area served:	Worldwide
Formerly called:	Channel 9 News (1956–1970) National Nine News (1970–1976) 9 Eyewitness News (1976–1980) National Nine News (1980–2008)
Broadcast programs:	Today Weekend Today Inside Story Nine News: Early Edition Nine Morning News Nine News Now Nine Afternoon News Nine News First at Five Nine News A Current Affair 60 Minutes
Parent:	Nine Entertainment Co.
Website:	http://www.9news.com.au

Nine News is the national news service of the Nine Network in Australia.

Its flagship program is the hour-long 6:00pm state bulletin, produced by Nine's owned-and-operated stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin, Adelaide and Perth.^[1]

National bulletins also air on weekday mornings and every afternoon. In addition, a supplementary regional news program for the Gold Coast in Queensland also airs each weeknight. For many years National Nine News was the dominant news service provider in Australia, however lost their way through the mid 2000s, before regaining the lead in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane by 2013. The network's Director of News and Current Affairs is Darren Wick.

National bulletins

Nine News: Early Edition

Nine News: Early Edition is a half-hour bulletin airing at 5:00am on weekdays, presented from the network's Sydney studios by Lara Vella.

The bulletin was originally pre-recorded and was presented as the "AM Edition" of the Qantas Inflight News, a daily news bulletin for passengers of Qantas airways. Early morning bulletins were introduced in the early 1990s as Daybreak and, later, National Nine Early News until 2003 when Today was extended to begin at 6am. The Early News resumed for a brief time at 6am in 2005 and was presented by Sharyn Ghidella and Chris Smith before again being cancelled. Amber Sherlock and Alicia Loxley have previously presented the bulletin. In mid-2014, Julie Snook replaced Belinda Russell to present. After two years in the role, Julie Snook was promoted to the sports department and Lara Vella replaced her.

In October 2014, a new era of the bulletin launched with its contract ending with Qantas. The bulletin was renamed Nine News: Early Edition with a dedicated 9news.com.au news feed on the right of screen, finance and weather flipper at the bottom, a look-ahead to Today and the presenter taking up less than three-quarters of the screen. There was a look at the newspaper front pages which showed the front pages of the two Sydney and Melbourne papers, The Australian, The Courier Mail and The Advertiser. There was even a live cross in which the bulletin prior to October was pre-recorded. Sylvia Jeffreys, Kate Creedon, Vicky Jardim and Tim Davies are fill-in presenters.

Nine Morning News

Nine Morning News airs at 11:30am on weekdays in two separate editions:

• The National bulletin is presented from the network's Sydney studios by Jayne Azzopardi (Monday – Thursday) and usually Deborah Knight (Friday) with sport usually by Erin Molan or Julie Snook. Fill-in presenters include Deborah Knight, Jayne Azzopardi, Peter Stefanovic, Brett McLeod and Natalia Cooper (news).
• A separate Queensland edition is presented from the studios of QTQ Brisbane by Eva Milic (Monday – Thursday) and Alison Ariotti (Friday), sport is presented by Sam Squiers or Tom Mitchell. The local edition provides up to date news for the state, especially during Daylight Saving Time in the country's South East Coast.

The morning bulletin, originally known as National Nine Morning News, has been broadcast since 1981 and was originally presented by Eric Walters. The bulletin was extended from 30 minutes to a full hour on Monday 4 May 2009.^[2] From 2004 to October 2008 the bulletin was known as the Morning Edition, and until May 2009, was branded the AM Edition.

Nine News Now

Nine News Now is a news magazine program, airing at 3pm on weekdays and presented from the network's Sydney studios by Amber Sherlock (Monday – Thursday) and Belinda Russell (Friday). Fill-in presenters for the bulletin include Sylvia Jeffreys, Lisa Wilkinson, Amber Sherlock, Deborah Knight, Ross Greenwood and Ken Sutcliffe.

The program mixes news coverage with entertainment news and topical discussions.

Nine Afternoon News

Nine Afternoon News airs at 4:00 pm on weekdays in four separate editions:

• The National bulletin is presented from Sydney by Jayne Azzopardi (Monday – Thursday) and usually Deborah Knight (Friday), sport by rotating presenters with weather presenter Livinia Nixon. Fill-in presenters include Amber Sherlock, Deborah Knight, Peter Stefanovic, Brett McLeod and Natalia Cooper (news).
• The South Australian edition is presented at 5:00 pm from the studios of NWS9 in Adelaide by Rob Kelvin with Warren Tredrea (sport) and Virginia Langeberg (Weather).
• The Western Australian edition is presented at 5:00 pm from the studios of STW-9 Perth by Emmy Kubainski with Michael Thomson (sport) and Scherri-Lee Biggs (weather).
• The Queensland edition is presented from the studios of QTQ Brisbane by Eva Milic (Monday – Thursday) and Alison Ariotti (Friday), sport is presented by Sam Squiers or Tom Mitchell, Traffic is presented by Jay Lane and Garry Youngberry on weather.

The program was initially launched in 2004 as Afternoon Edition at 4:30pm in response to the launch of a 4:30pm bulletin on Seven the year before, brought about by extended coverage of the invasion of Iraq. On 29 June 2009, the bulletin was replaced by an hour long news magazine program, This Afternoon, which was axed after 12 programs due to poor ratings. The half-hour bulletin returned on 15 July 2009 and was extended to 60 minutes in November 2010.

A separate edition for Western Australia was introduced on 14 March 2012 and is simulcast on WIN Television in regional WA. Regional news coverage is incorporated into the bulletin following WIN's decision to end separate WIN News bulletins for regional Western Australia.^[3] The local bulletin was axed in July 2013 but latterly reintroduced on Monday 7 October 2013.

Another edition for Queensland was introduced in 2014. It was the networks initiative of building live news coverage.

Past presenters of the bulletin include Georgie Gardner (2004), Mike Munro (2005–2006), Kellie Sloane (2006–2008), Leila McKinnon (2008), Wendy Kingston (2008–09), Alicia Loxley (2011), Mark Ferguson (2009), Wendy Kingston (2009-2012), Amelia Adams (2012–2014) and Davina Smith (2014–2016).

Nine News: First at Five

Nine News: First at Five airs at 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays, presented from the network's Melbourne studios GTV9 by Alicia Loxley (Saturday) and Brett McLeod (Sunday) and Sport is presented by Clint Stanaway.

The bulletin was launched in January 2010 in response to Network Ten's decision to move its weekend evening bulletin to 6pm - the network reintroduced a 5pm news two months later. Nine's 5pm bulletin does not air in Sydney and Brisbane on Sundays during the NRL season or when cricket is airing nationally in its timeslot. The bulletin was originally presented from TCN by Peter Overton and Ken Sutcliffe but moved to GTV9 in 2015.

Nine News Updates

Short localised updates are presented during the afternoons by various state-based reporters or presenters.

National evening updates are presented on weeknights from Sydney's TCN 9 studios. Late updates on weekends are presented from Perth's STW-9 studios.

Online presence

Nine News' website is named 9news.com.au. According to third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb, it is the 76th and 158th most visited website in Australia respectively, as of August 2015.^[4][5] SimilarWeb rates the site as the 19th most visited news website in Australia, attracting almost 4.8 million visitors per month.^[5][6]

Ninemsn Newsroom

Ninemsn Newsroom^[7] was an online bulletin streamed at 12:30pm on weekdays, presented from Sydney. The bulletin was also available to be downloaded as a vodcast from the Ninemsn Newsroom website. The bulletin was cancelled and replaced in 2013 with Nine News Now which airs on the network from 3.00pm.

Live streaming

In June 2008, live streaming of the 6pm bulletins in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane was introduced to the Nine News website. These bulletins can be viewed nationwide, regardless of the home market of the viewer. Nine Morning News and Nine Afternoon News (and later Nine News Now) are also streamed live online. As of 2014, Adelaide and Perth 6pm bulletins can also be viewed online. The ability to view live press conferences, and live feeds from various Nine News helicopters from around the country during a breaking or developing story was also added to the Nine News website.

Nine Newsbreak

Nine Newsbreak is an iPhone and iPad app that was launched in 2011. The app is constantly updated with videos from Nine's newsrooms around the country and overseas along with specially produced 60-second video reports and full video packages taken from Nine News bulletins. There is also a user generated functionality, enabling consumers to take a photo or video and send it via the app, direct to Nine's newsrooms. In 2013. Nine Newsbreak was merged into the Nine Network's 9Now app.

State bulletins

Sydney

Nine News Sydney is presented from TCN-9's Sydney studios by Peter Overton (Sunday - Thursday) and Georgie Gardner on (Friday and Saturday), with sports presenters Ken Sutcliffe (Sunday - Thursday) and Erin Molan (Friday and Saturday), and weather presenter Amber Sherlock.

The bulletin is also simulcast on local radio station Hope 103.2^[8] and throughout regional southern and central New South Wales and the ACT on Southern Cross Nine and is shown to Griffith via WIN Television. The main fill-in presenters for the bulletin are Deborah Knight and Peter Stefanovic, Tim Gilbert and Erin Molan are fill-in sports presenters. Belinda Russell, Natalia Cooper and Vicky Jardim are fill-in weather presenters.

The Sydney bulletin was presented by Brian Henderson for 38 years – a record that still stands today. Henderson retired in November 2002, with then Sunday and weekend presenter Jim Waley taking over as weeknight anchor. After falling ratings Waley was replaced three years later by weekend presenter Mark Ferguson,^[9] by which point National Nine News had lost its long-time ratings lead in Sydney to the rival Seven News.

Peter Overton became Nine's main Sydney anchor in January 2009, with Ferguson returning to his former weekend role^[10] (replacing Michael Usher and his predecessor Mike Munro^[11]) for seven months until his decision to leave for the Seven Network saw him replaced by Georgie Gardner.^[12]

During 2011, the 6pm Sydney bulletin overtook Seven's Sydney news in the ratings for the first time in seven years, winning 21 weeks compared to Seven's 14 weeks.^[13]

Melbourne

Nine News Melbourne is presented from GTV-9's Melbourne studios by Peter Hitchener on weeknights and Alicia Loxley on weekends with sports presenters Tony Jones (weeknights) and Clint Stanaway (weekends), and weather presenter Livinia Nixon (weeknights) and Justine Conway (weekends).^[14] The bulletin is also simulcast on local radio station 89.9 Light FM, throughout regional Victoria on Southern Cross Nine, to Mildura through Mildura Digital Television and to Tasmania through Tasmanian Digital Television every night.

The late Brian Naylor presented National Nine News Melbourne for 20 years from 1978 to 1998. Following his retirement, he was succeeded by Peter Hitchener as weeknight presenter, while Jo Hall took over from Hitchener as weekend presenter. Hall scaled back her work with Nine to news updates and fill-in duties in November 2011, with Weekend Today newsreader Alicia Loxley taking over as weekend presenter.

Fill-in presenters for the 6pm bulletin include news presenters Tony Jones, Jo Hall and Brett McLeod, sports presenters Clint Stanaway and Corey Norris, and weather presenters Sonia Marinelli and Madeline Slattery.

In March 2011, GTV-9 moved their base from Bendigo Street, Richmond, to a new building in Bourke Street, Docklands.

Brisbane

Nine News Brisbane is presented from QTQ-9's Brisbane studios by Andrew Lofthouse and Melissa Downes on weeknights and Darren Curtis and Alison Ariotti on weekends. Sports bulletins are presented by Wally Lewis on weeknights and Sam Squires on weekends with weather forecasts presented by Garry Youngberry on weeknights and Luke Bradnam on weekends.

The 6pm bulletin is simulcast in Brisbane on commercial radio station River 94.9, across regional Queensland on Southern Cross Nine and throughout remote eastern and central Australia on Imparja Television. Regular fill-in presenters for the bulletins include news presenters Darren Curtis, Alison Ariotti, Eva Milic and sports presenter Tom Mitchell.

Bruce Paige and Heather Foord co-anchored the 6pm bulletin from 1995 until 2002, when Foord joined Mike London as a weekend anchor and Jillian Whiting replaced her on weeknights. London resigned in June 2003 after allegations emerged that he had organised a female friend to complain about the presentation of weeknight anchor Bruce Paige.^[15] Foord and Whiting swapped positions in 2004 with Melissa Downes taking over as weekend anchor in 2006. Despite these position changes, Nine News Brisbane retained a long-standing ratings lead until it was overtaken by the rival Seven News Brisbane bulletin in 2007.

Foord resigned as weeknight anchor on 5 December 2008^[16] and was replaced by Melissa Downes on weeknights with Eva Milic and former ABC newsreader Andrew Lofthouse fronting weekend bulletins. A year later, Bruce Paige retired as a weeknight anchor (to be replaced by Lofthouse) and Heather Foord returned to present weekend bulletins solo for two years. Paige returned to full-time newsreading in January 2012, fronting Nine Gold Coast News.

Adelaide

Nine News Adelaide is presented from the NWS9's Adelaide studios by Kate Collins and Brenton Ragless on weeknights with Will McDonald presenting on weekends. Sport is presented by Warren Tredrea on weeknights and Tom Rehn on weekends, with weather being presented by Virginia Langeberg on weeknights.

The weeknight bulletins are simulcast on local radio station 107.9 Life FM and nightly across the Riverland and South Wast regions of South Australia on WIN Television and is shown in the Spencer Gulf and Broken Hill in New South Wales on Southern Cross Nine.

Rob Kelvin and Kevin Crease presented the Adelaide edition of National Nine News from 1988 until 2007, one of the longest serving news presenting teams in Australia. Caroline Ainslie previously presented the news with Kelvin until 1987. Throughout the 1990s, Deanna Williams was the main fill-in presenter and state political reporter. Following Kevin Crease's death in 2007, Kelvin was partnered with Kelly Nestor, whose contract was terminated two years later. Kelvin retired on New Year's Eve 2010, but was brought out of retirement in 2014 as the presenter of the local afternoon news bulletin.

Perth

Nine News Perth is presented from the STW9 Perth studios by Tim McMillan and Emmy Kubainski on weeknights and Louise Momber and Liam Bartlett on weekends, with sports presenters Michael Thomson (weeknights) and Shaun McManus (weekends). Weather is presented by Scherri-Lee Biggs on weeknights.

The 6pm bulletin is simulcast each weekday on local radio station Sunshine 98.5FM and nightly across regional Western Australia on West Digital Television. Fill in presenters include Tracy Vo (news), Simone Luker (sport), and Rebecca Johns (Weather).

Dixie Marshall presented the weeknight bulletin between 2002 and May 2011, alongside Sonia Vinci as Australia's first duo female news presenting team for five years until early 2008, when Vinci was replaced by Greg Pearce. Sharlyn Sarac and Matt Tinney previously presented weekend bulletins until Sarac resigned in 2010. Tinney left a year later to present WIN News in regional Western Australia.

Natalia Cooper was a weather presenter for Nine News Perth until her resignation in June 2008.^[17] A year later, she joined Seven Perth to replace retiring veteran Jeff Newman as its weather presenter.

In November 2012, Greg Pearce resigned as weeknight presenter. He was later replaced by Tim McMillan.

In September 2016, the bulletin moved into a new studio, alongside launching new graphics.

Gold Coast

Nine Gold Coast News is a regional news service for the Gold Coast, presented by Bruce Paige and Wendy Kingston, sport is presented by Dominique Loudon and weather is presented by Courtney Pattinson. The bulletin airs at 5:30pm on weeknights as an opt-out broadcast on QTQ-9's Gold Coast transmitters, before the main 6pm Brisbane edition of Nine News. Produced from the network's studios at Surfers Paradise, Nine Gold Coast News is also simulcast on local Gold Coast radio station Juice107.3. Darren Curtis and Dominique Loudon are the main fill-in news presenters, with Libby Stone and Luke Bradnam fill-in weather presenters.

Previous presenters of the bulletin have included Karl Stefanovic, Natalie Gruzlewski, Rob Readings, Jillian Whiting, Carly Waters, Frank Warrick, Melissa Downes and Eva Milic. Paul Burt presented the weather until joining Seven News Brisbane.

Darwin

Nine News Darwin is presented from the network's NTD-8 Darwin studios by Jonathan Uptin on weeknights and Amy Culpitt on weekends. Sport is presented by Jake Hauritz on weeknights. The 6pm bulletin is also simulcast on local radio station Territory FM.

Regional bulletins

As part of the affiliation relationship formed between Nine and Southern Cross Austereo in 2016, three new bulletins will be gradually rolled out on regional Nine stations in 2017 in Queensland, Australian Capital Territory, southern New South Wales and Victoria.^[18]

In August 2016, the director of Nine's news & current affairs division, Darren Wick announced that Queensland news director Mike Dalton had been appointed to head the new Nine News Regional division to initiate Nine and Southern Cross Austereo's new regional news service in 2017.^[19]

At Nine's 2017 Program Launch held at Sydney's Star Casino in November 2016, the three presenters of Nine's regional bulletins were announced. Former WIN News presenter Samantha Heathwood will present the regional Queensland edition of Nine News, former ABC News Breakfast weather presenter Vanessa O'Hanlon will anchor the ACT and southern New South Wales edition while former Nine News Melbourne presenter Jo Hall will be the face of the regional Victorian edition. The bulletins will be presented from Nine's existing studio facilities in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.^{[20] [21]}

According to Dalton, Canberra will be the first market to see the new NSW/ACT edition of Nine News bulletin in the first week of February 2017, before its rolled out to Wollongong in the second week, followed by Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo in the third week, and Wagga Wagga in the fourth week.^[22]

The regional bulletins will be similar to NBN News, the nightly bulletin presented from Newcastle which airs across Northern New South Wales on Nine affiliate NBN Television in that it will be a combination of national, regional and local news tailored to each individual market.^[23]

Current affairs

Today

Today is the network's breakfast program, consisting of talk, entertainment and human-interest stories and airs weekdays from 5:30am to 9am, live from Nine's Sydney studios. The program is hosted by Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson with news presenter Sylvia Jeffreys, sport presenter Tim Gilbert, weather presenter Steve Jacobs and entertainment news is presented by Richard Wilkins.

Weekend Today

Weekend Today is the network's breakfast program, consisting of talk, entertainment and human-interest stories and airs Saturdays and Sundays from 7am to 10am, live from Nine's Sydney studios. The program is hosted by Peter Stefanovic and Deborah Knight with news presenter Jayne Azzopardi and weather presenter Natalia Cooper.

A Current Affair

A Current Affair is a populist tabloid current affairs program broadcast on the Nine Network at 7pm on weeknights and it is presented by Tracy Grimshaw.

60 Minutes

60 Minutes is a Nine Network current affairs and investigative journalism program which airs on the Nine Network on Sundays at 7.30pm. The program is currently presented by Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Allison Langdon, Peter Stefanovic and Charles Wooley.

Ellen Fanning and Karl Stefanovic are casual reporters for the program with Peter Overton presenting a weekly "Mail Bag" segment following the death of Peter Harvey which now goes live each week at the end of 60 Minutes.

Former programs

Nine News at 7

Nine News at 7 was a short-lived bulletin, airing weeknights at 7.00pm on Nine's high definition multi-channel GEM. The bulletin launched in August 2013 and was initially presented by Peter Overton from Monday to Thursday and Deborah Knight on Friday. It was launched both in response to the Seven Network's similar bulletin Seven News at 7.00 and to provide additional coverage of the unfolding 2013 Federal Election.^[24] The bulletin was axed on 28 October 2013.^[25]

References

External links

• Nine News