Australians' thirst for online news has soared this year, with Nielsen Research showing continuous increases in news consumption across all media.

It is consistent with the research about radio consumption on digital platforms during the pandemic, which has also grown.

News consumption hours in 2020 increased significantly compared to last year.

Two years ago, Bourke community station 2WEB saved the local newspaper from closure and now operates The Western Herald along with its radio station.

Chairman Ian Cole told the CBAA Conference that local news has become more important that ever as other media companies pull away from local reporting.

“Nothing has been left untouched.”

The ABC’s Director of News Gaven Morris explains the strategy behind the recent cut to the 0745 radio news.

In a detailed interview with Steve Ahern, Morris says there is a bigger picture than just cutting a bulletin, the change is part of the rebalancing of priorities to better serve digital audio services, as well as broadcast radio.

During times of crisis, such as the Corona Virus pandemic, News content gains heightened awareness as listeners lean-in to hear details about the threats to health, number of cases, border closures and movement restrictions.

News listening has increased during the pandemic, the content of bulletins has changed, and there are also implications for advertisers. Steve Ahern examines recent research on the issues facing newsrooms during the pandemic.

 

ABC TV and Radio are the most used news brands in Australia, according to this year's annual Reuters Institute digital news report.

The international study reports news attitudes and consumption around the world.

For TV, Radio and Print, ABC's combined weekly usage is 41% of the Australian population, followed by commercial tv channels 7, 9 then 10.

Regional and local newspapers (combined together) are the next most used category, followed by SBS.

Ulrik Haagerup, Founder and CEO of the Constructive Institute for journalism is the keynote speaker today at a Judith Nielsen Institute function titled Constructing Tomorrow's News.

Haagerup is known for his new approach to journalism, which encourages publishers to tell all sides of the story, including solutions and the positive angles.

At the CBAA Conference Abe Killian and Ian Gunn introduced the Collaborative News Network for community broadcasters.

The new system, funded by a special government grant, will link community radio stations with newsrooms together to share content, and will offer the combined content of the community sector’s news activities to smaller stations which do not have the resrouces to make their own bulletins.

“If we share our work we can use the slim resources we have to make better bulletins and increase your audience,” said Killian.

Google plans to give more prominence to original journalism in its news searches, according to the company's VP of News Richard Gingras.

Writing in a company blog last week, Gingras said Google is changing the way it displays search results to "better recognize original reporting, surface it more prominently in Search and ensure it stays there longer."

With newsroom staffing and workflows changing rapidly, newsroom systems are evolving to keep pace.
 
A range of companies displayed their latest radio products at the Darling Harbour Hard Rock Café in Sydney this week. One of those was Burli, which has been supplying Newsroom software for over 20 years.
 
Burli’s Ian Gunn explained to radioinfo how his company’s newsroom system is evolving to keep pace with changes to newsroom workflow.
 

A spokesperson has told radioinfo that the WIN newsroom closures will have "no impact on the company's radio stations."

WIN owns i98 in Wollongong and C91.3 in Campbelltown.

WIN will close NSW newsrooms in Orange, Dubbo, Albury and Wagga Wagga, plus will shut down its newsroom is Queensland's Wide Bay area, which covers Hervey Bay and Bundaberg.

Weekday television news programs in each region will finish tomorrow week, Friday 28 June.