The shifting sands of television news come at a crucial time. Consumption trends show older audiences are beginning to prefer online news websites and apps to television, while younger audiences are increasingly consuming news through social media.

Sitting down to consume the headlines at 6pm has diminished in importance, says Peter Meakin, who has served as director of news and current affairs for each of Australia’s three commercial networks. But Meakin says, the evening bulletin still serves a purpose, particularly for local audiences.

“Most people would be aware of anything important before that time. There is still a demand for it, but the audiences have markedly declined over the last couple of decades.”

News bulletins have outlasted the majority of other free-to-air programming – barring live sport – as the last hyper-local product on screens with budgets shifting elsewhere.

In June last year, the ABC attempted to nationalise its Sunday Night bulletin, replacing state and local services in a slimmed down broadcast output.

Six weeks later, managing director David Anderson reversed the decision “after listening to audience feedback”.

Social media takeover

While free-to-air television remains the primary choice for news consumption for now, both TV and online news will soon be overtaken by social media as the first choice for Australians, according to data from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Twenty per cent of Australians now cite social media as their first port of call for news, according to ACMA’s “How We Access News” report published in February. The report finds that while free-to-air television is still selected by 26 per cent of Australians as the main source of news, the overall consumption of news on the medium is declining.

Nine in ten Australians watch free-to-air TV news each week, with that figure just 30 per cent in the 18-to-24 age group. Overall, 53 per cent of Australians watched free to air TV news in 2023, down from 59 per cent in 2022.

Australians are also getting news from fewer sources – 3.1 sources in any given week in 2023, down from 3.5 in 2022.

Social media was the main source of news for 46 per cent of 18-to-24-year-olds, and 38 per cent of Australians between the ages of 25 and 34. Those age groups more generally consumed news through social media at rates of 70 per cent and 64 per cent.

Metro consumption of the nightly bulletins on the two leading commercial networks, Nine and Seven, declined by 12 per cent between 2019 and 2023, according to OzTAM data. The audience is getting older, too. Audiences in the key demographic of 25-to-54 year-olds dropped 24 per cent in the same period.

Meakin says TV news audiences have been 55-plus for decades.

“There have been attempts, here and overseas to make news style programs that appeal to younger audiences. Most of them, apart from The Project have been a failure,” he says.

“You can chase them, and if someone can find a magic bullet, good luck to them and they’ll be extremely wealthy. But at the end of the day, there’s just not a lot of interest among the younger generation in watching news bulletins.”

Yet despite the declines, television and professional news outlets remain more trusted in a crowded environment. Trust in news remains at pre-pandemic levels in Australia, according to a 2023 study by the Reuters Institute.

Both SBS and the ABC had a trust score of 66 per cent, with 9News (57pc) and 7News (56pc) ahead of all digital news websites. News Corp brands The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and Sky News Australia had the lowest trust scores of those surveyed.

As a result, nightly bulletins retain significant reach despite television audiences declining more generally. On Sunday, the combined audience across evening news bulletins on Nine, Seven, Ten and ABC was 3.7 million.

Ad dollars dwindling

For decades, television could command around half an advertising agencies media budget, a senior advertising executive says, but it’s now a secondary focus.

“We want to be in front of the news, MAFS, Farmer Wants a Wife and live sport, that’s about it,” the executive said, speaking anonymously to preserve their commercial relationships.

In 2015, television netted 46 per cent of all advertising spend in Australia according to Standard Media Index data provided to this masthead. (These figures consider around 60 per cent of all advertising spend, comprising data from all the major agencies).

Fast-forward to 2024, television makes up just 31 per cent of a slightly larger market.

Television’s lunch has been eaten by digital advertising (mostly Google and Meta), which captures 43 per cent of all advertising, up from 23 per cent in 2015. It’s worse for newspapers. The sector’s share has cratered, down from 8 per cent to just 2 per cent, with revenue now reliant on subscriptions amid a protracted battle with the Facebook-owner for commercial compensation ongoing.

Preserving the brand

Seven’s swift decision to jettison McPherson and install De Ceglie shows the importance of preserving the brand. Television’s shrinking share of the ad market puts the company in a volatile position, deriving around 90 per cent of its income from advertising.

“It’s not fatal, but it’s not helpful,” says Meakin of the recent blunders by Seven’s newsrooms, including the misidentification of the Bondi Junction killer, and revelations of the efforts Spotlight went to secure an interview with former Liberal staffer Lehrmann, who was found last month at a civil standard to have raped Brittany Higgins.

“People reading about people being plied with sex workers and cocaine, it doesn’t do your reputation much good.”

“If you’re asking people to trust what they what you’re telling them. You wouldn’t want to have that on your CV.”

Meanwhile, Nine’s search for Wick’s replacement is taking some time. Its television boss Michael Healy isn’t expected to consider external candidates for the role, this masthead was told by two network sources confidentially as the plans are still underway.

Another consideration being mulled over is whether the exhaustive remit would be better split up, uncoupling news and current affairs under the remit of two executives. Names including Melbourne and Sydney news directors Hugh Nailon and Simon Hobbs have been mentioned, alongside Nine Perth’s Gareth Parker, 60 Minutes EP Kirsty Thompson and deputy Sydney news boss Fiona Dear.

All of this is under consideration by Nine’s management after recruiting Morris, a former ABC and Al Jazeera executive to help lead a comprehensive review of its news division.

Like De Ceglie, the ABC’s news boss is another millennial in Justin Stevens. Appointed in 2022 he leapfrogged more senior news figures for the role at just 37 years of age. Previously executive producer of 7.30, he now oversees a team of over 1200 journalists.

Recognisable newsreaders have also helped networks build trust with audiences. Peter Overton has led Nine’s Sydney news since 2009, while Susannah Carr and Rick Ardon at 7News Perth will celebrate 40 years hosting the nightly bulletin next year, a world record.

In 2024, Nine’s Peter Hitchener was replaced as the weeknight anchor in Melbourne after 25 years by Alicia Loxley and Tom Steinfort. In 2024, the show is up 12 per cent, while its competitor in Seven is down 14 per cent across the same period.

Whether De Ceglie can halt or prolong the decline for television news, there is still significant revenue to be made, and audiences to be served.

Despite the expertise he may lack, Meakin says, “news pedigree comes first”, rather than TV pedigree.

And with the rise of TikTok and YouTube, the likes of he and his contemporaries will have to get creative to reach audiences who consider “anything longer than five seconds boring”.

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