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How Nine jumped the shark · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, September thirteenth.
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  Speaker 1: The government has stripped combat medals from up to nine
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  Speaker 1: current and former officers after they were accused of turning
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  Speaker 1: a blind eye to war crimes by their subordinates. Fatal
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  Speaker 1: Opposition Defense spokesman Andrew Hasty, a former SAS captain, says
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  Speaker 1: senior commanders have been led off the hook for a
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  Speaker 1: lack of moral courage that went all the way to
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  Speaker 1: the top. That story is live now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com. Doreue used to be the great powerhouse of
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  Speaker 1: TV in Australia. Now it's a bit of a soap opera.
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  Speaker 1: We've yet another top executive out the door. So what's
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  Speaker 1: going wrong at the entertainment giant? What was the moment
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  Speaker 1: when Nine Entertainments jumped the shark?
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  Speaker 2: What have you got to say to the women who've
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  Speaker 2: made allegations against you?
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  Speaker 1: Was it when the Australians James Madden and Sopheels wereth
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  Speaker 1: revealed nine's TV news boss was facing unproven misconduct allegations.
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  Speaker 3: Why weren't you upfront about why you left Nine?
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  Speaker 1: Was it when the company's chairman shoved our journalist Lamb
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  Speaker 1: Mendez to the ground at Canberra Airport. You've just assaulted me,
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  Speaker 1: You've just pushed me. It's all on camera, mister Castillo.
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  Speaker 1: Was it when he then tried to deny it. I
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  Speaker 1: did not lay a finger or a fist or anything else.
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  Speaker 1: Or was it when he then left his job good evening?
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  Speaker 4: The former Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has resigned as chair
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  Speaker 4: of nine Entertainment.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe it was when the chief executive stayed at a
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  Speaker 1: luxury boutique hotel in Paris and ran with the Olympic
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  Speaker 1: torch while his staff was striking for better pay. Why
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  Speaker 1: don't you to stop and have a chat to us now?
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  Speaker 3: So I'm meeting my family and you're a.
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  Speaker 1: Boss of a media business here for work or are
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  Speaker 1: you here on a holiday with your family? On Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: Mike Sneezebe was out. Here's his statement read by an
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  Speaker 1: AI Voice.
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  Speaker 4: In recent months, I have reflected greatly on my plans
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  Speaker 4: for the future and in consultation with my family and
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  Speaker 4: those close to me, I made a personal decision to
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  Speaker 4: consider new opportunities in twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: James Madden is The Australian's media editor. James Mike Sneezbe
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  Speaker 1: is considering new opportunities for twenty twenty five. What might
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  Speaker 1: they be?
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  Speaker 2: He is, Well, he's certainly not committed to any new
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  Speaker 2: job at this early point. I think that's just a
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  Speaker 2: comfortable phrase to say when perhaps you're leaving somewhere earlier
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  Speaker 2: than initially planned. But look, he's been three and a
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  Speaker 2: half years in the top job at nine as CEO.
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  Speaker 2: The dogs have been barking though for Mike for the
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  Speaker 2: past six months, and he made reference to that, I
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  Speaker 2: think in his statement this morning where he said it's
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  Speaker 2: a year that's really tested the resilience of everyone at
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  Speaker 2: nine and acknowledged that it had been a tough period.
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  Speaker 1: He came into this role after the previous CEO, Chu Marx,
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  Speaker 1: put his role early after he was accused of impropriety
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  Speaker 1: over his relationship with another executive. There was no complaint
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  Speaker 1: of misconduct or anything there, But what does that tell
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  Speaker 1: us about stability and the culture at nine that this
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  Speaker 1: is the second CEO in three years who's had to
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  Speaker 1: leave early. Look.
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  Speaker 2: I think what it tells this Claire is that whilst
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  Speaker 2: the reetric around Hu Marxist departure might have been certainly
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  Speaker 2: it's time to clean things up and to improve the
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  Speaker 2: culture at Nine, it never really happened. I think it's
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  Speaker 2: fair to say that Nine has taken their eye for ball,
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  Speaker 2: particularly with regards to the relationship between senior figures and
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  Speaker 2: younger staff. And we saw that play out with the
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  Speaker 2: Darren Wick saga and the Darren Wick resignation earlier this year,
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  Speaker 2: which in many ways precipitated Sneezbe's departure.
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  Speaker 1: Now Nine is today a very complex business that involves
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  Speaker 1: streaming platforms and newspapers, but the core of nine Entertainment
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  Speaker 1: is the Nine Television network, which for generations was one
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  Speaker 1: of the most stable companies in Australia under the Iron
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  Speaker 1: Group of the Packer family. It's quite a remarkable change,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it, from this almost institution to something that's now
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  Speaker 1: more of a soap opera.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, and in many ways. The front page
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  Speaker 2: picture this week taken by Liam Mendez of ex newsboss
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  Speaker 2: Darren Wick, who's obviously at the center of many serious
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  Speaker 2: allegations doing a walk of shame, if you want to
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  Speaker 2: call it, out of a supermarket car park. The imagery
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  Speaker 2: of that was quite striking, given that for so long
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  Speaker 2: nine has been so successful in catching people out, calling
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  Speaker 2: people to account, and now the spotlight's back on them.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, famous for elbows out journalism. The current affair really
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  Speaker 1: the instigator of the kind of foot in the door
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  Speaker 1: journalism that both of these people were victim to. For you,
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  Speaker 1: what was the moment that it all really went wrong
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  Speaker 1: for nine and became inevitable that these people would lose
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  Speaker 1: their jobs? Was it Peter Castello pushing Liam Mendez to
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  Speaker 1: the ground. Was it the allegations against Darren Wick, which
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  Speaker 1: of course again are unproven.
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  Speaker 2: I think the allegations against Darren Wick emboldened many staffers
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  Speaker 2: to come forward to our newspaper anonymously and to other
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  Speaker 2: media outlets as well. There's a real sense of enough
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  Speaker 2: is enough. This is the moment where we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to take it anymore. Because Wick and others had been
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  Speaker 2: so all powerful in that organization for so long, and
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  Speaker 2: many women had left in desperately sad circumstances.
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  Speaker 3: Is the truth that felt that they.
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  Speaker 2: Because they didn't comply with the directions and the wishes
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  Speaker 2: of certain male bosses, they felt that their careers.
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  Speaker 3: Weren't able to progress.
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  Speaker 2: So I think in a sense the dam burst even
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  Speaker 2: when women were talking about their experiences anonymously. The pressure
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  Speaker 2: that was brought to bear inside Nine on the culture,
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  Speaker 2: particularly the TV and Current Affairs division, was so great
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  Speaker 2: that subsequently Peter Corcello couldn't even answer fairly mild questions
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  Speaker 2: from Lem Mendez that day at Canberra Airport that once
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  Speaker 2: he lashed out, it was almost emblematic of the old
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  Speaker 2: guard of the company, metaphorically lashing out at what they
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  Speaker 2: perceived to be unfair scrutiny on their cherish culture.
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  Speaker 1: Mike Sneezby then went to Paris and ran with the
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  Speaker 1: Olympic torch while the print division's journalists were on strike
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  Speaker 1: here in Australia. What didn't that moment tell us about
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  Speaker 1: Sneezbe's judgment and about his level of focus on print.
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure if he had his time over again, he
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't do it.
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  Speaker 2: He did seek to defend the carrying of the torch
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  Speaker 2: by saying well, Nine was the host broadcast of the
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  Speaker 2: Olympics for Australia. He committed to this a long time ago,
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  Speaker 2: and he was representing nine as a whole. That may
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  Speaker 2: be true, but optics are everything. And the image of
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  Speaker 2: Mike Sneeze be running through the streets suburban streets of
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  Speaker 2: Paris in the days leading up to Paris Games while
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  Speaker 2: the company was in turmoil at home, particularly at that
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  Speaker 2: point the publishing division, who were in the midst of
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  Speaker 2: some delicate pay negotiations.
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  Speaker 3: It just sent the wrong message.
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  Speaker 2: The message was really that my priority is not staff,
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  Speaker 2: it's over here in Paris having a good time.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up? Should we be sad that this Titanic TV
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  Speaker 1: network has fallen so far? Culture is one thing, but
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  Speaker 1: nine share price has fallen over the past three years
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  Speaker 1: from three dollars to roughly a dollar twenty today. That's
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  Speaker 1: very hard to come back from, isn't it, James? And
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  Speaker 1: what are the decisions that have been made that have
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  Speaker 1: caused that problem?
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  Speaker 2: I think, and this isn't specific to nine necessarily, but
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  Speaker 2: a lot of media companies, particularly broadcast companies, were hoping
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  Speaker 2: and expecting that the soft advertising market would bounce back
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  Speaker 2: sooner than it has now. As we sit here today
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  Speaker 2: in September twenty twenty four. It hasn't bounced back, and
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  Speaker 2: it's been flat since the end of twenty two, So
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  Speaker 2: we're coming up to almost two years of a really
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  Speaker 2: flat advertise rising period and there's no turnaround in sight.
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  Speaker 2: I suspect that a lot of companies, including Nine, may
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  Speaker 2: be better against the fact that the ad slump was
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  Speaker 2: going to continue. So you've seen a significant outlay, particularly
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  Speaker 2: on sports rights from Nine in the last two years,
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  Speaker 2: namely tennis in the Olympics of the Big two, and
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  Speaker 2: with the Olympics, that was an enormous summer money. They
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  Speaker 2: paid three hundred and five million for five Olympic games.
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  Speaker 2: We won't really know whether or not that was a
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  Speaker 2: wise investment until Brisbane twenty thirty two. But in many
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  Speaker 2: ways it's a back ended gamble because you'd expect they
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  Speaker 2: are going to lose money on the four games leading
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  Speaker 2: up to Brisbane and are hoping to crawl back an
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  Speaker 2: enormous sum in twenty thirty two. And of course it's
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  Speaker 2: difficult to sit here in twenty four and know what
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  Speaker 2: the media landscape's going to look like in twenty thirty two.
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  Speaker 2: That's certainly something that's going to be hanging over the
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  Speaker 2: company's head for another eight years.
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  Speaker 1: Nine has put in an interim CEO, Matt Standar, and
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  Speaker 1: he's the CFO at Network seven. Their great rival, the
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  Speaker 1: bean Counters, are also in charge after several of their
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  Speaker 1: executives left for exciting new opportunities as well. What does
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  Speaker 1: that tell us about the fate of media companies in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 2: Possibly that they wanted to take a more sober approach
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  Speaker 2: to future investments. I suspect seven is also in dire
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  Speaker 2: straits in terms of its financials. Both seven and nine
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  Speaker 2: reported very disappointing results in the past few months, and
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  Speaker 2: seven share price has been woefully low for many many
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  Speaker 2: months now. It's interesting that Matt Stanton's obviously as CFO,
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  Speaker 2: been appointed acting CEO. That's not necessarily any indication that
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  Speaker 2: he will ultimately be appointed, but I think in coming
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  Speaker 2: years the expectation will be that costs will be tight,
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  Speaker 2: spending will be tight, and certainly any frills are likely
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  Speaker 2: to be paired back.
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  Speaker 1: Is this something sad about that? As a journo, James
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  Speaker 1: nine was famous for its largest were high wages for
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  Speaker 1: some of its stars, a culture of long lunches and
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  Speaker 1: boardroom drinks nights. What's it feeling about the sort of
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  Speaker 1: the big shift that we're seeing.
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  Speaker 2: It's sad for those that benefited from such largest certainly.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think it's a surprise in many ways. I
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  Speaker 2: think maybe that culture of certain media outlets is simply
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  Speaker 2: brought into the modern era where any kind of excess
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  Speaker 2: is viewed poorly by shareholders, and I don't think the
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  Speaker 2: younger generation who work in the media are.
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  Speaker 3: Expecting that anyway. It feels like it's a period of change.
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  Speaker 1: It's sandwiches at the desk from now.
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  Speaker 3: On, that's right, and water from the tap.
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  Speaker 1: James Madden is The Australian's Media editor. Thanks for joining
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  Speaker 1: us on the front. Our team is Kristin Amiet, Jasper
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  Speaker 1: leek leat Semaglue, Joshua Burton, Tiffany Dimack and me Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: Get all the best journalism is in The Australian twenty
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  Speaker 1: four to seven.