News cuts

The year has ended on another down note for journalists, with Southern Cross Austereo making more changes to its news operations.

This time the axe has been swung in Adelaide, where News Director Monique Crichton has parted ways with the company – her position made redundant last week.

It ends an 18 year association with SCA.  Monique was previously News Director at NXFM and KOFM in Newcastle, before moving to Melbourne to be part of the Triple M/Foxfm newsroom.

In 2000, Monique returned to Adelaide as News Director, while reading news on Triple M.  She was also a two-time ACRA nominee for Best Newsreader FM (Metro).

Of course, SCA is not alone in choosing ‘this time of the year’ to announce structural changes within their newsroom.  Just last year, ARN in Melbourne made wholesale changes to the newsroom ahead of the launch of Kiis101.1.

However, Monique’s departure caps off a tumultuous few months at the broadcaster.  Newsreaders on The Hit network in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide were recently ‘let go’ with the introduction of a nationalised drive news service, presented by Emma Freedman.

With this latest axing, the question does SCA see the need for any further changes?  It might be a case of ‘wait and see’.