In a quiet but significant move, the news editor of the Ten Network’s Sydney news, Jason Morrison, has jumped ship and returned to John Singleton’s 2GB with a new title of current affairs director.

It sounds like a job that was invented for him – and it was. Morrison had been at Ten for for years after moving from 2GB and apparently wanted to get out of the troubled Ten newsroom in Ultimo.

The Ten newsroom continues to be the source of most of the mobile audition tapes in Sydney TV news. There are around six audition tapes from ten reporters doing the rounds amid continuing reports of tension and dissatisfaction at the Ultimo-based Network.

It seems that they are an unhappy bunch at the moment. 20% of their reporter positions are vacant. Weekend chief-of-staff John Wilson got punted, so did Michael Reid… and ratings are weak and down on last year.

It seems that News Director David Breen struggles and will miss Jason Morrison as News Editor (which is not a bad thing – Morrison knows how to get a story and is well connected). Breen keeps stalling on making staff replacement decisions. His most impressive stall cost them Danny Wielder who is really kicking goals over at Nine. Apparently Breen didn’t think he had enough TV experience to cut it.

The capable John Wiseman sits atop this mess, which is bit perplexing, with no-one quite able to figure out why he hasn’t changed things and left it to Morrison to run Sydney news for him, or grabbed the whole thing by the scruff of the neck personally. Too late now. Morrison has gone, so watch this space.