The Nine Network has handed its Perth newsreaders a sobering Christmas present by giving them both the flick.

It was revealed in an internal email, leaked to the media late last week, that Tim McMillan and Emmy Kubainski had not been re-signed for 2018.

“This is difficult news to pass on, but I want to let you know that Nine Perth is making changes to the News team as part of a broader change of direction for our bulletin in 2018,” the leaked email read.

“I’d like to thank both Tim and Emmy on behalf of the Newsroom for the contribution to Nine and wish them well for the future.”

It is unclear what the stated “change of direction” for the Perth news entailed, with Nine still to announce its local news line-up for 2018.

Perth-born McMillan had been with Nine News in Perth since 2013, having previously worked at Nine and at ABC in Melbourne.

As well as reading the 6.00pm news, he also had a stint as presenter of Nine’s early morning Perth Today News.

Kubainski had joined Nine in 2015 after working at ABC and at Seven in Perth, including reading Seven’s weekend news bulletin for five years.

While Nine News dominates the 6.00pm ratings on the east coast, over in the west it has long struggled to come anywhere near beating rival Seven News, which has been anchored for over 30 years by popular pair Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr.

Nine has tried various newsreading teams in Perth over the years in the hope of gaining an edge over Seven, with past presenters including Peter Barlow, Russell Goodrick, Peter Waltham, Greg Pearce, Anne Conti, Liam Bartlett, Tina Altieri, Peter Holland, Terry Willesee, Dixie Marshall and Sonia Vinci.

Source: PerthNow