More mass sackings hit Channel Nine staff
Channel 9 is slashing dozens of jobs in its latest cost cutting drive that will most likely result in five newsrooms in Australia shutting down entirely.
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Channel 9 is slashing dozens of jobs in its latest cost-cutting drive that will most likely result in five newsrooms in Australia shutting down entirely.
On Monday morning, it emerged that the boss of Nine-owned Pedestrian Group, which publishes youth publication Pedestrian, is leaving as part of a major restructure, while as many as 40 jobs are set to go which is about half its workforce.
The media conglomerate also plans to end deals that Pedestrian had in place with five niche publications — Vice, Refinery29, Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Kotaku, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
It is expected that the Australian operations of these media outlets will shut down once the deal ends, and most if not all staff will be made redundant.
It comes just weeks after Channel 7 and News Corp (owner of this publication) also announced restructures across their businesses.
Pedestrian Group’s chief executive Matt Rowley is leaving the publisher.
Pedestrian is understood to employ just under 100 people and between 25-40 jobs are expected to go.
The publication’s new strategy will be to focus on its own brands, Pedestrian and Pedestrian TV, and will drop the deals in place with third party media outlets.
Nine wholly owns Pedesterian, buying up part of the company then the whole lot in 2015 and then 2018 for a total of $49 million.
Workers at Vice, Refinery29, Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Kotaku have been left out in the cold and are already feeling shockwaves.
Zahra Campbell-Avenell, the head of editorial at Refinery29, took to LinkedIn to share the news.
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that I, along with the rest of the Refinery29 Australia team and dozens of my colleagues at Pedestrian Group, have been made redundant,” she wrote.
It also appears that The Chainsaw, a relatively new publication Pedestrian had launched, is also affected.
One worker took to Twitter and wrote “The Chainsaw was my first full-time role out of uni and I gave it my all; I’m so proud of what we achieved with video... It’s abrupt and sh***y but what can you do.”
Some staff are expected to be redeployed.
It’s the latest bad news for journalists at Nine.
Last week, the media conglomerate announced more mass job cuts impacting other parts of the business.
In total, 200 jobs are expected to go, with 90 of those impacting Nine’s newspaper division.
In a note to staff last week, managing director of Nine Publishing, Tory Maguire, wrote: “The publishing division is going to have to make significant savings in FY25, right across the business”.
Nine’s chief executive Mike Sneesby copped criticism for being overseas in Greece last week when the job cuts were announced.
Last month, Nine’s chairman and former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello was filmed in an ugly physical altercation with a journalist at Canberra Airport.
He stepped down days later.
alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au
Originally published as More mass sackings hit Channel Nine staff
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