Seven News
Seven News (stylised 7NEWS) is the television news service of the Seven Network and, as of 2021, the highest-rating in Australia.[1]
Division of
"The Mission" by John Williams (1988–present)
1958
- National Administration (Head Office):
South Eveleigh, Sydney, New South Wales - National Operations (Broadcast Centre): Docklands, Melbourne, Victoria
Australia
- Australian Television News (ATVN) (1963–1970)
- Seven National News (1970–1988)
- Seven Nightly News (1988–2000)
- Sunrise
- Weekend Sunrise
- Sunrise Early News
- Seven Morning News
- Seven Afternoon News
- Seven News at 5
- Seven News
- The Latest: Seven News
National bulletins are presented from Seven's high definition studios in South Eveleigh, Sydney, while its flagship 6 pm Seven News bulletins are produced in studios based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. The network also produces local news bulletins and updates for the Gold Coast, as well as regional markets in Queensland, New South Wales (including the ACT), Victoria and Western Australia.
It draws upon the resources of ITN, NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery, CBC, CNN, APTN and Reuters for select international coverage. The network's Director of News and Current Affairs is Craig McPherson.
National bulletins[edit]
Sunrise Early News[edit]
Sunrise Early News airs at 5 am on weekdays and is presented by Edwina Bartholomew, and includes news, business, finance, sport and weather. It airs from Seven's Eveleigh studios. Fill in presenters include Shaun White and Monique Wright. The bulletin is followed by Sunrise.
The bulletin first aired on 14 July 2008 as Seven Early News, presented by Simon Reeve, with sport presented by Mark Beretta. Reeve presented the first bulletin as Natalie Barr was hosting Sunrise at the time.[24]
In January 2016, it was announced that Jodie Speers would replace Natalie Barr and Mark Beretta due to Sunrise starting at 5:30am. The bulletin also moved to the earlier time of 5am.[25][26]
In March 2024, Jodie Speers announced her resignation from the Seven Network.[27] The bulletin was renamed Sunrise Early News and Speers was replaced by Edwina Bartholomew.
Seven Morning News[edit]
Seven Morning News airs at 11.30 am on weekdays in three separate markets:
Capital-based bulletins[edit]
Afternoon news[edit]
Hour–long local editions of Seven Afternoon News were launched periodically in the capital cities, replacing the previous national bulletin in full. Melbourne and Brisbane launched local afternoon bulletins in August 2015.[36] In July 2017, Adelaide launched their own local edition,[37] while the previously half-hour Perth bulletin was extended to replace the national bulletin in full.[38] At this time, the national bulletin was replaced by a Sydney bulletin.
Presently, Seven Afternoon News is aired at 4 pm on weekdays in five separate local editions:
Regional bulletins[edit]
Regional Queensland[edit]
Local news bulletins for Regional Queensland are broadcast each weeknight at 6 pm, in all seven regional areas: Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Wide Bay, Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast and Rockhampton. They are followed by a shortened 30-minute version of Seven News Brisbane.
The bulletins are presented by Rob Brough, with Joanne Desmond co-anchoring the Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton and Toowoomba editions. Sport is presented by Nathan Spurling and weather is presented by Livio Regano. Fill-in presenters include Emily Steinhardt and Adam Straney (news), Luke McGarry (sport), Rosanna Natoli (weather).
Reporters and camera crews are based at newsrooms in each of the seven regions with studio presentation for the Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Darling Downs, Rockhampton and Wide Bay bulletins pre-recorded at STQ studios in Maroochydore. The Sunshine Coast edition of Seven News is broadcast live, but may also exchange it to any of the six pre-recorded regions at certain circumstances (e.g., cyclone coverage in the nearest region of immediate concern). News editing is undertaken by the local newsrooms, and sent to the main Maroochydore studios for transmission.
The most successful local edition is broadcast on the Sunshine Coast. In early 1998, WIN Television launched a competing service publicly stating that it would beat Seven in the ratings within six months. At the end of the 1998 ratings season, after a new station head (Laurie Patton) had overseen a comprehensive re-vamping of the program and its external promotions, Seven Local News had actually increased its audience share by six ratings points.
In early 2004, Seven Local News was re-introduced in the Townsville and Cairns sub-markets as a result of regulations regarding local content on regional television introduced by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.
On 5 March 2007, Seven Local News bulletins commenced production and broadcasts in a widescreen standard-definition digital format. Seven Local News was the first regional news service in regional Queensland to convert to widescreen.
On 22 November 2010, Seven Local News launched a sixth edition for the Rockhampton/Gladstone and Central Queensland region.
On 2 November 2015, Seven Local News launched a seventh edition for the Toowoomba and the Darling Downs region. With the said launch, Seven News became the only news service to cover all regional centres of Queensland since the axing of WIN News in the Mackay region in May 2015. This lasted until July 2017, when rival Nine News began to roll out local composite bulletins for their statewide affiliate Southern Cross Television (which carried Nine programming from July 2016 until July 2021). When the composite Nine News bulletins for Mackay and Toowoomba/Darling Downs were axed on 15 February 2019, Seven News once again became the only news service to cover all regional centres of Queensland.
From 11 July 2016, these editions are consolidated with the Seven News branding, though the openers of these editions remained to address as Seven Local News. The Local News branding was completely phased out on 5 September 2016 in favour of the Seven News brand.
Formerly, there were two bureaus located in Hervey Bay and Gladstone covering their respective regions, but they were closed due to budget reasons.
Gold Coast[edit]
Seven News Gold Coast is presented by Amanda Abate and Steve Titmus. Sport is presented by Sally Pearson, and weather is presented by Liz Cantor (Monday) and coastal expert Paul Burt (Tuesday - Friday), with coastal, beaches and fishing reports from Paul every Thursday and Friday.
The bulletin airs on weeknights at 5.30pm on BTQ-7's Gold Coast relay transmitters, ahead of the main 6pm news from Brisbane, placing it in direct competition with rival Nine Gold Coast News. The bulletin does not air when Australian Test cricket matches are scheduled.
On 4 July 2016, a new local bulletin for the Gold Coast was introduced, produced and broadcast live from Seven's Surfers Paradise studio. Long-time presenter and Gold Coast native Rod Young became the first presenter of the local bulletin.
From its launch, weekend bulletins were also produced, which made Seven the only network to produce local Gold Coast bulletins seven days a week. However, weekend bulletins were axed in November 2017, citing cost-cutting measures. In February 2018, Amanda (who formerly presented the axed weekend edition) joined Rod in presenting the weeknight local bulletin as well as reading sport.
In July 2019, after three years on air, Seven News Gold Coast officially became the number one news bulletin on the Gold Coast, winning twenty-one weeks to the rival Nine Gold Coast News' one week.[65]
In 2021, Rod stepped down from the bulletin, as he formally announced his retirement from television news.[66][67] He was then succeeded by Steve Titmus, who became a fill-in presenter for the Brisbane and regional Queensland bulletins before the appointment.
In February 2022, Sally Pearson was appointed sport presenter for the bulletin.[68]
Fill in presenters include Liz Cantor and Tamra Bow (weather).
Regional New South Wales[edit]
Local news bulletins for Regional New South Wales are broadcast each weeknight at 6 pm, in five regional areas: Albury and the Border, Wagga Wagga and the Riverina, Central West (Dubbo and Orange), the North Coast (Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Taree) and Northern Rivers (Lismore), and Tamworth and the New England.
Most of the local bulletins are followed by a 30-minute complementary bulletin named Seven News at 6:30, which is a half-hour statewide bulletin with Daniel Gibson covering national and international stories usually seen in metropolitan markets. Albury does not receive this bulletin, instead showing a shortened 30-minute edition of Melbourne's 6 pm news, as the New South Wales-Victoria border (which Albury is located) leans closer to Melbourne than it does to Sydney.
The local bulletins are presented by Madelaine Collignon and Nick Hose.[69] Sport is presented by Nick Hose and weather is presented by Kirstie Fitzpatrick. Fill-in presenters include Kirstie Fitzpatrick (with Daniel Gibson presenting the Border & North East bulletin) (news) and Dani Sharp and Craig Moore (weather).
Reporters and camera crews are based at newsrooms in each of the five regions with studio presentation for the Border, Central West, Riverina and the New England regions pre-recorded at Seven's CBN studios in the Canberra suburb of Watson. The North Coast edition is broadcast live, also from Canberra. News editing is undertaken by the local newsrooms, and reports are sent to the main Canberra studios for transmission.
Regional Western Australia[edit]
Seven News Regional WA is broadcast each weeknight at 5:30pm. It is followed by Seven News Perth.
The bulletin is presented from Seven's newsroom in Bunbury by Noel Brunning (news and sport) with weather presented by rotating Bunbury-based reporters. Weather had previously been presented by Shauna Willis until her departure in October 2022 with no permanent replacement.
Reporters and camera crews are based at newsrooms across regional and remote areas of the state. News editing is undertaken by the local newsrooms, with studio presentation and reports sent to Canberra for transmission via satellite and microwave.
Under the previous Golden West Network and later GWN7 branding, the bulletin was presented and transmitted from the previous Bunbury studios in Roberts Crescent. Master control was shifted to the Canberra headquarters of Prime Media Group in 2018 — Prime had purchased GWN in 1996 and was itself purchased by Seven West Media in 2021 — with local presentation moved to the current Bunbury newsroom.
Former shows[edit]
Seven News at 7[edit]
Seven News at 7 aired at 7 pm on weeknights and was presented by Melissa Doyle from Seven's Martin Place studios, with weather presented by David Brown from the Melbourne studio. The bulletin aired on the Seven Network's secondary channel, 7two across Australia and it first aired on 5 August 2013 and was first presented by Mark Ferguson,[70] with Doyle taking over a week later.
Western Australia had its own local live version of Seven News at 7, also presented from the Martin Place studio in Sydney by Sally Bowrey with weather presented by Angela Tsun from the Perth studio.
On 28 April 2014, the bulletin was removed from the schedule.[71]
Controversy[edit]
Outing of David Campbell[edit]
In 2010 Seven News, and in particular its news director Peter Meakin and reporter Adam Walters, came under heavy criticism for airing a story on New South Wales Transport Minister David Campbell as homosexual.[72] Campbell, a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for over two decades, resigned after Meakin chose to air a story by Walters showing Campbell leaving a gay bathhouse. Amid criticism of the story, former NSW Labor Premier Barrie Unsworth condemned Campbell's actions, saying that he had "frequented places where he's easily recognised".[73] Seven's decision to run the story was derided by other politicians and several rival media outlets.[74][75] Michael Kirby called the incident an act of "pathetic snooping" and "naked homophobia".[76] Seven's justification for airing the story was initially that Campbell had misused his ministerial vehicle;[72] however, this allegation was shown to be untrue by other media outlets, as New South Wales ministers have full private use of their ministerial vehicles.[77]
The Australian Communications and Media Authority initiated an investigation into Seven's conduct in this matter, under the industry's self-regulated code of conduct. It accepted the public interest justification put forward by Seven that Campbell's actions left him "vulnerable to compromise or blackmail".[78]
Young Achiever Awards[edit]
The 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards are a group of awards, run by Awards Australia and sponsored by 7News, that "acknowledge, encourage and most importantly promote the positive achievements of all young people" aged 29 years and under. There are separate awards for New South Wales & Australian Capital Territory; Victoria; Queensland; South Australia; and Western Australia.[79] Each award is run with a number of state-based co-sponsors.[80]
Awards Australia, an organisation founded in 1989, also run Young Achiever Awards for Tasmania and Northern Territory, and run Community Achievement Awards for all states and Northern Territory.[81] The awards have had different sponsors and had different names in the past, for example in South Australia, they were formerly sponsored by the Nine Network (from 2004 to 2018), and called "Channel 9 Young Achiever of the Year" Awards.[82]