Nine farewells Mike Sneesby after three years and $3b share price slide

His legacy will likely be remembered in two parts: what he did do at Stan and what he didn’t do when he took charge of the publishing and broadcast giant.

Zoe SamiosBusiness reporter

Sep 12, 2024 – 7.56pm

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A small gesture on the newsroom floor of The Sydney Morning Herald in early 2021 was perhaps the most telling sign of what kind of leader Nine Entertainment chief executive Mike Sneesby would become.

Hours after he was announced as the newest chief executive of the media giant, Sneesby and the company’s then chairman Peter Costello walked through the Nine headquarters in North Sydney to meet and talk to staff. In the middle of a Q&A session to Herald journalists, Costello gently grabbed Sneesby’s arm and pulled it down beside him. Sneesby, mid-sentence, stopped speaking. Costello took over the job of answering the question.

clarification —

A previous version said most of Darren Wick’s payout was statutory leave entitlements. The article has been updated to reflect the fact this was the entire payout.

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Zoe SamiosBusiness reporterZoe Samios covers wagering and the business of sport from the AFR's Sydney newsroom. She was previously the media and telecommunications reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and covered media at The Australian.