According to media reports, Nine Entertainment Co. staff have passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in CEO Mike Sneesby and its board after the company publicly announced 200 redundancies across its publishing, digital, and broadcast divisions last week. A weak advertising market and the loss of revenue from Meta’s content deal were named as the reasons behind the cuts.
Shortly after the public announcement, an internal email confirmed that up to 90 jobs were expected to be lost from the media company’s publishing division alone. This includes publications like the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, among other legacy publications once owned by Fairfax.
Members of the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) met shortly after the email was sent, and a union vote of no confidence in Sneesby passed unanimously.
A statement from union members expressed their dismay that many senior editors have been kept aware of the job cuts despite the end of Meta funding being public for months. “We demand an explanation from the company about why the publishing division appears to have been disproportionately targeted for job losses, given the recent strong financial performance by the mastheads in a particularly difficult time for all print outlets and given the fact that the Meta money was spent across the company, rather than just on the mastheads”.
“As a result, staff across The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, WAtoday and the Brisbane Times have today unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby and the Nine Entertainment Company board,” the unionists said.
B&T contacted Nine, who have declined to comment on the matter at this time.
The announcement of job cuts came on Friday morning with Sneesby telling staff that although the business was in a stronger position than its rivals, the economic downturn and loss of revenue from Meta’s content deal elapsing had meant the business needed to find millions in savings.
“Nine is not immune to the economic headwinds which are impacting many businesses globally. In order for us to be able to keep investing in digital growth opportunities across Nine, we must continue to responsibly manage costs through the cycle,” Sneesby said last week. “Last financial year, we were able to improve the efficiency of our operations, but in light of recent market events, we are reviewing key parts of our business to identify further potential savings”.
“Today, we will announce measures in our Publishing business to offset the loss of revenue from the Meta deal and challenges in the advertising market. Unfortunately, this will result in some of our colleagues leaving us in the coming months. It is not something we want to do but it is something we need to do to continue to build on a successful platform of high-quality journalism and digital subscription growth.
“We are also in the process of identifying further savings, including in our Digital and Broadcast businesses. An operational review of these businesses is underway and we will update you with further details about what this means for you and your teams in the coming weeks”.
The news tops off what the MEAA has described as a “horror month for Australian journalism.”
“Any cuts to editorial will … result in a less informed Australian public,” said Michelle Rae, acting director of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
On Tuesday, Seven announced that up to 150 jobs would be made redundant, with chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette, chief marketing and audience officer Melissa Hopkins, and head of sports Lewis Martin among those on the chopping block.
