Annette Sharp: Will Nine CEO Hugh Marks be replaced by Fetch TV boss?
Life at the top of a major media company is not as rosy as what it once was, with Nine CEO Hugh Marks’s pay last financial year slashed by more than half. It has led some to question who his successor may be, writes Annette Sharp.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Download our app and stay up to date anywhere, any time
- What you get as a subscriber to The Daily Telegraph
“Hollywood” Hugh Marks, CEO of media company Nine, missed out on a potential $1.55 million short-term incentive in the financial year ended June 30, highlighting that life at the top of a major media company is not as rosy as what it once was.
In a year in which Nine was forced to pay a premium price, put at over $100 million, for content for its streaming platform Stan, Marks farewelled two CFOs in unexplained circumstances — and the collapse of sales revenue brought questions about the wisdom of Nine’s top-dollar buyout of John Singleton’s Macquarie Media radio network.
Then last week came the release of Nine’s annual report.
In it, Marks’ take home pay is revealed to have fallen sharply in the year to date. In the year to June, Marks took home $2,161,263 — down from $4,957,638.
Long-term incentives were just $482,521, compared to $2,559,804 for the year to June 2019. Furthermore he received no cash bonus for the year to June 2020 after being awarded $647,000 the previous financial year. That represents a shortfall of almost $3 million.
MORE NEWS
Is one of Keating’s clan ready to come home?
Pete Evans’ spruiked ‘tribal living’ dream canned
Carney finds peace: ‘I’m not ashamed of who I am’
In 2017 QBE boss John Neal had his bonus slashed by $552,500 for failing to notify the board of his relationship with his PA.
Marks was photographed with his personal assistant in a Mosman park earlier this year, just months after it emerged his two-decade long marriage to Gayle, the mother of his four children, had ended.
Meanwhile, industry sources believe a successor for Marks’ job, if Marks were to quit, may have emerged in Fetch TV executive Scott Lorson.
Lorson was CEO of Nine affiliate ACP Magazines in 2007 and prior to that CEO of Ticketek. Sources say he’s a man with Nine DNA in his veins who would be a worthy successor to Marks.