Beloved veteran newsreader Jane Doyle rarely lost a ratings night in her long career behind the desk, helping to entrench Seven as the most-watched television news service in Adelaide.

But few industry insiders dared to predict, even privately, that in the year following Doyle’s retirement after more than 30 years, the bulletin would actually increase its dominance of the local market.

The official OzTam figures are startling: Seven hasn’t lost a single 6-7pm timeslot this year and has recorded the highest market share since electronic TV ratings began in 2001, increasing its average viewership at a time when television news viewership is falling.

The longstanding gap between Seven and its commercial rival in the timeslot, Nine, is now a chasm.

Seven News’ Adelaide market share in 2023 is 49.8 per cent, up from 44.5 per cent in 2022.

This compares to Nine’s share of 28.1 per cent, down from 32.7 per cent in 2022.

In terms of total viewers, Seven News averaged 113,000 (up from 110,000) while Nine averaged 64,000 (down from 81,000) – and Seven’s average lead has increased in the last half of the year.

Seven often more than doubles its nearest rival’s viewership.

For Seven’s news director Chris Salter, the performance can be sheeted home to careful planning, including Doyle’s involvement in the transition to the new team of Rosanna Mangiarelli and Will Goodings.

Doyle had flagged her retirement more than 18 months ahead of time.

“Jane, being the professional she is, wanted to give us time to settle on the new line-up and, more importantly, she was keen on an orderly handover for the sake of our viewers,” Salter tells InDaily. “That was very important to her and us.”

Stability was a key consideration for Salter, who figured that the longevity of Doyle and past presenters John Riddell and Graeme Goodings was a driving force behind Seven’s success this century.

Salter, who is also a big believer in dual news readers, always knew he had half of his team already in the building – long-term weekend newsreader and former Today Tonight host Rosanna Mangiarelli.

Even before Doyle had talked about her plans behind the scenes, Salter had someone in mind to join Mangiarelli on the weeknight news desk.

In 2019, Salter attended the Mid-Winter Ball – the ultimate insiders’ event where journalists, politicians and businesspeople let down their hair for charity – and while media aren’t supposed to report on what goes on Salter is happy to talk now about at least some of what happened that night.

The event’s hosts are often taken from rival media organisations, which was the case in 2019, when Seven’s Mangiarelli was joined by Will Goodings, son of newsreading veteran Graeme Goodings, who was making his own way in TV after being appointed Ten’s local sports anchor in January that year.

Salter says Goodings and Mangiarelli knew each other, “but you wouldn’t say well”.

“From the moment they took to the stage at Adelaide Oval, the chemistry was evident,” he recalls. “They shone and it planted a seed in my head. A little later, I remember putting their pictures side by side and showing my wife, asking what she thought.”

The plan had a long gestation.

Salter didn’t sit down with Goodings to talk about his idea until late 2021.

“We had lunch down at Melt at Henley Beach and spent a couple of hours talking about the industry, the Seven newsroom and his ambitions. I was basically sounding him out, seeing if it was worth even having the bigger discussion,” he says.

“Not long after I brought him into the circle and told him about Jane’s plans and we began talking properly, knowing there was no rush.”

Then, one night after most of the staff at Seven’s Hindmarsh studio had gone home, Goodings was brought in for a screen test.

“He blew me, and the studio crew, away,” Salter says. “When he speaks, you listen.”

The contract was signed on Valentine’s Day 2022.

“Then general manager Andy Kay, Will and myself toasted the new union on a Henley Beach restaurant balcony – surrounded by love birds oblivious to it all,” Salter remembers.

The next step in the plan was for Goodings and Mangiarelli to read weekend bulletins for the last three months of the year, while Doyle was still around as the main weekday presenter.

“It was a chance for viewers to get to know the new pair, before they took over the Monday to Friday role,” Slater says.

“So for six months we kept the secret and put it to the back of our minds. There were probably four or five people who knew and, in a town where little is secret, we did a pretty good job to keep it under wraps.”

Doyle told viewers about her plans to retire in November. A fortnight later, Seven announced the new pairing.

“Jane approved of her successors,” Salter says. “It was important to me that she did – I wanted her to leave knowing everything she’d built up was in safe hands. Without hesitation, she appears in a news promo supporting Will and Rosanna to take over her coveted role. I got a sense it was Jane’s way of telling viewers ‘it’ll be okay’.”

Goodings and Mangiarelli were on set at the end of Doyle’s final bulletin.

The long handover was complete.

While Salter insists the new team “hit the ground running”, he also points out that Seven’s marketing campaign about the new team was relatively subdued.

The set and on-air graphics remained the same – again, part of the steady, transitional strategy.

“Craig (network news director Craig McPherson), Andy and I thought if we could keep our loyal viewers and maintain our number one ratings position, then you’d consider that a win. But deep down I hoped the publicity surrounding the new pairing would result in some new viewers tuning in – and hopefully liking what we saw. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen,” Salter says.

Like all news directors, Salter sets his watch by the daily drop of ratings numbers at 8.29am.

The proof of the strategy’s success was immediate – and the ratings have only improved as the year has rolled on.

Over at Nine, stability is also valued.

The perennial number two station now has the most experienced on-air pairing in Adelaide – Kate Collins and Brenton Ragless – but they are fighting against entrenched viewing habits developed over a generation, at least in the traditional free-to-air setting.

Nine News director Jeremy Pudney is taking a broader view – and pinning some hopes on a revamp of how TV ratings are gathered.

“Nine News Adelaide is focused on delivering South Australians their news when and where they want it,” he tells InDaily.

“And we are constantly monitoring the shift of viewers from traditional TV – measured by the traditional ratings system – to the large number of people who watch their news on Smart TVs or mobile devices. All of this will be measured together, for the first time, under the new Total TV ratings system in 2024.

“This will coincide with the introduction of Nine Adelaide’s new weekday programming lineup – Nine Adelaide’s Afternoon News at 4pm, followed by the new Tipping Point Australia at 5pm and then Nine Adelaide’s nightly 6pm News with Brenton Ragless and Kate Collins.”