The after-hours call that spelled Sneesby’s end at Nine

After months of mounting pressure at Nine Entertainment, the valve was finally released on Wednesday evening with a call between Mike Sneesby and the board after the market closed, confirming he would exit in three weeks.

The announcement came less than a week after Nine’s successful month-long Olympics and Paralympics coverage concluded and with a tough set of financial results in the rearview mirror. With Sneesby leaving the business by the end of September, the fallout from the looming cultural review (due late October) will be handled by chief financial and strategy officer Matt Stanton, who takes over in the interim.

Nine chief Mike Sneesby will exit in September.Credit: Michael Quelch

Sneesby has been the public face of a bruising five months for Nine, the owner of this masthead. Tabloid paparazzi had been stationed outside his house for months, and he had often had to enter the company’s North Sydney offices from the basement car park. He cut an emotional figure on Thursday morning after sharing the news he will leave Nine after three and half years as chief executive, according to colleagues who spoke to this masthead privately.

Sneesby has faced calls to resign since a full-blown crisis erupted over Nine’s culture stemming from its handling of the alleged sexual harassment complaints made against former news and current affairs boss Darren Wick. While the majority of Wick’s alleged behaviour was before Sneesby’s elevation to company chief executive, the handling of historical complaints and his quiet exit were on his watch.

The chief executive appeared to return with renewed enthusiasm from a much-publicised trip to Paris, where he faced scrutiny over the optics of carrying the Olympic torch amid a looming strike from publishing staff.

But after Nine’s full-year results – a 31 per cent drop in annual net profit and revenue slipping 3 per cent to $2.6 billion – conversations between Sneesby, the chair and the board over his departure picked up steam. Once a decision was made, the only question was the timing, with newly minted Nine chair Catherine West opting to rip off the BandAid instead of a dragged-out exit.

Nine’s new chair Catherine West.Credit: Louie Douvis

West is only three months into the role, elevated after the objectively embarrassing end to former Nine chair Peter Costello’s tenure, where he allegedly pushed over a News Corp journalist in Canberra Airport who was asking if he still had faith in Sneesby.

Meanwhile, the cultural review findings are set to be delivered in late October by the independent firm Intersection after twice being delayed. Nine’s annual Upfronts event, where the company previews its content and ad product for the year to secure major deals in advance, is also scheduled for the last week of October.

Nine is also searching for two new directors to join its depleted board (which currently only has five directors), hoping to announce them by its annual general meeting in November. Announcing a new chief executive by then seems unlikely, however.

West, still relatively unknown to Nine’s 4753 staff, said on Thursday morning that Sneesby’s achievements included guiding the company out of the COVID-19 pandemic, progressing Nine’s digital revenue and earnings contribution, securing major content and sporting rights partnerships (including the Olympics) and instigating the cultural review process.

In the short period between her appointment and Sneesby’s trip to Paris, the pair embarked on a nationwide tour of Nine’s office, visiting each state to introduce the chair to the company’s major stakeholders.

While it is considered to have gone smoothly, multiple insiders have noted an at-times tense relationship between the two since then.

Four current and former colleagues of Stanton, who replaces Sneesby in the interim, described him as a “decisive” leader, a quality which contributed to his recent appointment to the board of Domain. The appointment, suggested by Sneesby, was an attempt to move forward Nine’s strategy for Domain, which has languished in comparison to News Corp’s REA Group,and suffered from a tense relationship with digital real estate business chair Nick Falloon and Peter Costello.

Chief financial officer Matt Stanton will be interim chief executive.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Stanton joined Nine in August 2022 and was central to securing the decade-long Olympics contract. He was appointed managing director for Nine’s Olympics and Paralympics coverage. Armed with cross-industry commercial experience, an ally of Stanton’s, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested he would take the job if offered.

Other early contenders, according to Nine insiders with knowledge of the candidates, include former Foxtel executive Amanda Laing and Nine’s chief sales officer Michael Stephenson, who applied in 2021.

The board may also consider influential director and WIN Corporation chief executive Andrew Lancaster, who acts as a representative for the board’s largest shareholder, Bruce Gordon.

Whoever is appointed on a permanent basis will have to contend with structurally challenged advertising and audience headwinds, as well as a full slate of governmental policy issues. These include reforms to privacy laws, the looming breakdown of the news media bargaining code, recent changes to the anti-siphoning legislation, likely changes to Australia’s content production industry, with quotas for international streaming services, and the exit of significant advertising dollars as part of reforms to the gambling sector.

In his note to staff on Thursday, Sneesby struck an optimistic tone, saying he continued to believe Nine was Australia’s best media business, with premium assets and the sector’s leading media professionals.

“Nine is in a strong position to execute the next phase of its transformation and I remain very confident in the future of the business,” he wrote.

Nine shares, down over 40 per cent for the year, closed the trading day at $1.21.

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