The appointments from Network Ten for their news division, especially the new website, are being spat out almost daily. The CBS cheque book must come in handy to pay for the frenetic spate of hiring — one that is in stark contrast to the ongoing job cuts over at rival Seven Network and Nine.
Late last year Ten snatched Lisa Wilkinson from Nine for Executive Editor of its new website (Ten Daily), co-host of The Sunday Project and other programs. Then everything went quiet over Christmas and New Year while talks with various people continued until February 12. Ten then revealed that Executive News Director John Choueifate had resigned to pursue “several business opportunities”. Choueifate took over the role in April 2016. Looking back, that cleared the way for more changes to come.
Ten then revealed on February 22 that it had hired Mel Cornford as Managing Editor of Ten Daily to work alongside Wilkinson. Cornford joined Network Ten in 2016 as project lead on Ten Daily and has played a key role in developing the new website. Before she joined Network Ten, she spent more than 10 years working in digital editorial production, content, commercial, strategy and staff management for industry-leading organisations, most recently at Yahoo7.
At the start of this week Ten fired up the announcement generator once again and out popped the news that it had found a new sports boss with the appointment of veteran Sydney sports journalist and editor, Andrew McKinlay as Network Sports Editor. McKinlay was previously the Editorial Manager/Chief Of Production at Fox Sports. He has been at Fox Sports since December 2011 and before Fox Sports, he worked at Network Ten from March 2010 to October 2011 as National Sports Editor. He also worked at Nine News in Sydney.
On Thursday we got another one: a new news director in the shape of former Seven and Nine TV producer and director Ross Dagan. He’s been appointed to the new role of Network Director of News Content, effective from early May 2018. He is Executive Producer for News at Al Jazeera English in Qatar, and previously worked as Director of News Brisbane and Seven Queensland at Seven Network, Head of News and Current Affairs at TVNZ, and Director of News Sydney and Brisbane at Network Ten.
Ten said Mr Dagan will be responsible for Network Ten’s news content and operations across all distribution platforms, including TEN Eyewitness News,and news content on Ten Daily. He will report to Network Ten Chief Content Officer, Beverley McGarvey.
And then this morning, Ten revealed in yet another statement that Sydney news host Sandra Sully would take on the additional role of Managing News Editor at Ten Daily. She’s not a new hire, more of a multi-tasker. The Network said Sully will continue “as presenter of the TEN Eyewitness News flagship bulletin in Sydney, and in addition to her editorial direction and management role with Ten Daily, she will contribute to the new website.”
More editorial appointments will be announced soon. The big question is how many journalists will be hired to flesh out Ten Daily and the empires of these new bosses?
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