The response to Seven’s rejigged news format has been divisive to say the least, but nobody can accuse the network of playing it safe.

On a new episode of the Mumbrellacast, managing editor Neil Griffiths and publisher Adam Lang discussed the changes to Seven News in the last week alone, which not only has seen a shuffle in the staffroom, but the addition of Australian comedian Mark Humphries and a horoscopes segment to the news coverage.

Lang suggested that the big changes under news boss Anthony De Ceglie have come on due to the linear TV model being under “severe pressure” and backed the contentious moves.

“For some time, Nine, Seven, Ten, and other operators have been investing in that technology – streaming, broadcast video on demand, subscription video on demand – and changing their sales team so that they can sell advertising within those realms,” Lang explained.

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“That model has been changing for some time. But the older model, the linear part of that, is being severely disrupted. So, changing that, when the audience are looking for different ways to get their news, changing the story and changing the news is certainly bold.  I wouldn’t have reached for horoscopes off the top shelf myself.

“They’re changing the narrative and it’s getting attention and that should help get some people’s eyeballs onto their news that maybe haven’t been watching in a while. So, test and learn, go hard. I think this is a really good decision to do that.”

Griffiths added: “It’s very clear that they’re doing something different. And what I love about it is that Anthony has been very transparent about it. When the rumours of this horoscope segment were coming to light… he came out and said, ‘We’re giving it a red hot go. We’re going to see if it works.’

“To your point, test and learn. If it doesn’t work, great, we’ll move on and try something else.”

From a brand perspective, Lang said it’s also possible that Seven are looking to build new “benchmarks” to be distinguishable in the ever-changing media industry.

That includes trying to build Mark Humphries and/or horoscopes as distinctive brand assets that viewers want to watch.

“Could that happen?” Lang asked.

“I think in terms of branding and building up, whether they can be successful assets and become distinctively part of the seven news brand, that’s what we’ll be probably looking for.”

Listen to the full episode here.