Channel Nine is set to cut 20 jobs in Melbourne next year as its news division prepares to undergo a major restructure.
Staff were reportedly briefed on the changes last Thursday, when they learned two dozen of their colleagues would be made redundant in the near future.
To add salt to the wound, workers heard of the job cuts while caterers served them ‘sushi and sandwiches’ to soften the blow, according to the Herald Sun.
‘Morale isn’t good at the moment. The ratings have been shaky lately, too, with the race tightening up with Channel 7,’ one Nine insider said.
‘We got sushi and sandwiches while receiving the news that 20 of our colleagues were being made redundant,’ said another Nine employee.
Meanwhile, other insiders are said to have been left disgruntled by the news after Nine switched their 6pm bulletin to a two-star reporting team.
Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort have had their faces splashed across Melbourne in an expensive billboard advertising campaign, after they replaced Peter Hitchner in 2024.
‘In an era of downsizing, they’re persisting with two well-paid newsreader contracts. Other markets – like Sydney – survive with one,’ a Nine veteran said.
Daily Mail has reached out to Channel Nine for comment.
Channel Nine announced a major restructure of its news division last week, with every role set to be impacted and 20 positions on the chopping block.
Executive director of news and current affairs Fiona Dear warned all TV news staff would be affected, with every role facing changes, retraining or a title change.
The overhaul will dramatically simplify the newsroom structure, cutting more than 100 separate job titles across news and current affairs down to just nine broader roles.
Under the new model, staff will be grouped into multi-skilled positions such as story editor, digital story editor, rundown editor and multimedia journalist.
Staff affected by the cuts will be offered voluntary redundancies, with the Sydney and Canberra newsrooms to be hit first.
Dear said the job cuts are being driven by the replacement of outdated technology in TV newsrooms.
‘We are in the midst of a bold and ambitious multi-year transformation program that will differentiate Nine news and current affairs from our competitors and entrench us as a global news leader,’ she said.
‘This represents the largest investment in Nine news and current affairs in decades, with new technology, systems and workflows revolutionising the way we produce and deliver news.’
In November, Channel Nine announced 50 roles within the streaming and broadcast division would be cut and teams merged.
Nine’s head of streaming and broadcast Amanda Laing said at the time she could not rule out further redundancies.
‘That is a delicate dance. If you cut too deeply on the cost, you will injure the things that are required to drive the revenue,’ she said.
‘It’s not just a matter of, ‘Can we get more juice out of the fruit?’
‘It’s actually about growth. It’s about true growth, growing the subscribers, growing the revenue, growing the EBITDA contribution from these businesses.’
An internal email was sent to staff that month, where Laing revealed the operating model was being reviewed.
She said it was an attempt to ‘reduce duplication, drive greater collaboration and deliver commercial growth for the Nine Group’.
‘While only some teams and individuals are impacted by this, I ask you to be cognisant and mindful of your colleagues as we navigate this change,’ she wrote.