Within a decade, Kerry Stokes' Seven West Media has gone from the top of Australia's media mountain to a shrunken old-media company. The 79-year old billionaire mogul’s media empire needs a rapid turnover or risks being left behind.
Seven has a difficult road ahead as the media landscape has rapidly changed around it. Viki Lascaris
As the Australian share market shed nearly $230 billion caused by coronavirus panic leaking into global markets last week, Kerry Stokes' media empire fell to record lows. Worth more than $3 billion in 2011, Seven West Media's market capitalisation finished Friday at $199.9 million.
The story of Seven over the past decade is one of pride, missed opportunities, failure to diversify and to use its traditional media assets to grow new digital assets such as real estate businesses REA Group and Domain. On top of that add a run of poor prime-time programming, bad luck, and the crashing waves of change in media landing it in an unenviable position.
Max MasonSenior courts and crime reporterMax Mason covers insolvency, courts, financial crime, cybercrime and corporate wrongdoing. A Walkley Award winner, Max’s journalism has also received awards from the National Press Club of Australia, the Kennedy Awards and Citibank. Message Max on Signal https://tinyurl.com/MaxMason Connect with Max on Twitter. Email Max at max.mason@afr.com
