Nine’s chief sales officer Michael Stephenson, with experienced Nine executive Matt James appointed to the role on an interim basis.
As chief sales officer for almost a decade, Stephenson was a member of Nine’s Group Leadership Team, with accountability for the company’s advertising revenue across its Total Television, Total Publishing and Total Audio assets.
Since he joined the business as Director of Sales for ninemsn almost two decades ago, Nine has successfully responded to the changing industry dynamics and consistently performed strongly in the advertising market.
Nine Acting CEO Matthew Stanton said: “Since Michael joined as Director of Sales for ninemsn almost two decades ago, Nine has successfully responded to the changing industry dynamics and consistently performed strongly in the advertising market. During his tenure, Nine has developed the television trading platform 9Galaxy, launched self-serve advertising platform 9AdManager and rapidly grown our BVOD revenue share to 47 per cent in FY24.
“We are fortunate that high-calibre media executive Matt James is stepping in to lead the Sales team to ensure continuity for Nine’s key partners and sales team. With experience on both the media and agency sides, a strong background in digital, and extensive knowledge of Nine, Matt is well placed to ensure he hits the ground running with the Sales team during 2025.”
Stephenson has had responsibility for total advertising revenue performance across Nine’s broadcast, streaming, digital, radio, publishing and data assets. During his tenure, Nine has developed the television trading platform 9Galaxy, launched self-serve advertising platform 9AdManager and rapidly grown our BVOD revenue share to 47 per cent in FY24.
In October, Stephenson told B&T that Nine was a full funnel media channel that delivered strong ROI, and that it would fund $30 million in independent research to prove its worth to advertisers.
For the past four years, James has been managing director of Nine Melbourne and more recently has worked closely in a senior strategy role across the wider Nine Group, as part of the Nine2028 transformation team.
Prior to taking up the Melbourne role in 2020, he was CEO of global media agency Zenith based in London after previously holding the roles of inaugural Group CEO of Publicis Media and CEO of Zenith Australia and New Zealand. Mr James held senior roles with Nine earlier in his career, including Group Director of the client solutions division, Powered, and Managing Director of Nine’s Digital Media division.
A recruitment process to confirm Stephenson’s permanent replacement is expected to be finalised in the New Year.
