Email of the week from Nine’s new Westie, Darren (Wickie) Wick:
From: Wick, Darren
To: TCN News Department
Sent: Fri Jun 26 20:48:28 2009
Subject: GOLD STAR EFFORT !!
Hey Team….
Two words to sum up today — GREAT JOB !!
We may not land an immediate blow on SEVEN in the ratings, but that’s not the point — we’re pushing while the opposition is taking a nap. We won’t turn our fortunes around in a day — but they will turn.
I was massively proud of today’s Michael Jackson coverage. To have a packed newsroom watching the 50-minute bulletin was fantastic. But that was the final set in a match that began with rolling coverage from early morning.
You all nailed it. We were a NINE NEWS machine.
Look at how the past 24 hours unfolded. From the middle of the night when Margaret scrambled crews/reporters on the Truck Driver shooting story. Denham Hitchcock and Simon Bouda owned that story … and both were running hard to get the best angles. They blitzed the Opposition. SEVEN began its borefest with still pictures.
When the Jackson story broke, EVERYONE kicked into action — and Sydney saw it FIRST ON NINE. It was just like the promo!!
Special accolades to our editing department — how much pressure have we put you guys under !! Loading you up with new technology wasn’t enough — we even threw in a beefy, sweaty worker smashing his hammer against the wall while you worked. Sorry — that was Slam !! (Just joking Big Guy — you know I love ya !)
Let me praise the LA BUREAU….they were brilliant. As they always are. Noel & Carla made everything so easy for the rest of us. They are simply the best. Aussie Bob Penfold was born for big stories. Rob is a legend to watch and work with, and it’s a joy to have him anchoring our US coverage. Pete Stefanovic and Tom Steinfort excelled in the field.
Back home….huge accolades for everyone, from Kellie Connolly, Fergo & Pete Overton who hosted our programming to all the producers, editors, autocue, studio crew, cameraman and reporters.
How good were the packages from Mark Burrows and Peter Harvey? F-cking GOLD would be the correct answer !!
We did it right — hold your heads high and be proud of NINE NEWS — WE’RE BACK !!
Cheers
Wickie
(For the record, Seven news won on Friday night with 1.56 million viewers tio Nine’s 1.295 million.)
Wonder if his back itches from repeated self-patting?
when posting entire emails, add/replace ” > ” at the start of each line in order to make it look more authentic 🙂
i’m re-reading this, imagining being on staff. just for the fuzzies !!
Nine News you have become a sad little bunch!
You wouldnt need Wickie’s machismo and back-patting if you produced well-sourced, legitimate news with the likes of the ABC and SBS (and Crikey!)
Nice needs differentiation to survive, what i cant understand is benchmarking themselves against the muppets at seven and trying to beat them in a childish game.
If they wanted to differentiate, it would ne great if the big networks considered new intelligent approaches instead of dumbing all their content down so that they can compete with Seven.
Whistling in the dark. Arnold Mousetrouser