Major player: How Craig ‘Hutchy’ Hutchison started building a footy media empire
JOURNALIST and broadcaster Craig Hutchison has always been a polarising figure. But the man who was booted from The Footy Show has reinvented himself as a footy media mogul — and now the major player is bringing in deals worth millions.
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IT was a business plan drawn up on a backyard basketball court in Los Angeles between two mates.
Two journalists who had had enough of the daily grind of chasing down stories.
Not much thought was given, but it was decided Craig Hutchison and celebrity journo mate James Swanwick would become a PR agency.
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In a broken-down old car — “something like from the Flintstones”, as Hutchy puts it — they chased down clients.
“We were a couple of blokes with a phone giving it a go,” he said.
“I was a 30-year-old worn-out footy journo kicking around in the US trying to find what was next.
“We were green as grass and naive — we had more faith in ourselves than we should have.”
The business slowly morphed into selling stories to celebrity websites and magazines until Hutchison found himself in the middle of the Tiger Woods sex scandal in 2009.
His business was approached to sell the story of one of the golfer’s mistresses.
“That began a pretty wild eight days — it opened my eyes to big deals at fast speeds,” he said.
“It reaffirmed to us that’s not what we wanted our business to be.”
Sacked, sued, suspended.
It’s not the kind of triple threat someone would want, yet Hutchison holds it.
Being axed from 3AW’s syndicated pre-match show in 2007 alongside Trevor Marmalade, Liam Pickering and John “Dr Turf” Rothfield, was a signature move in his radio career.
Hutchison, who grew up in Warragul, in Gippsland, saw an opportunity and, within an hour of losing the radio gig, the foursome were in a recording studio — regional radio
now had a two-hour gap to fill.
“I didn’t realise just how powerful country radio was — it seemed like a good opportunity and we had some good fortune,” he said.
Hutchison put his faith in one of the oldest media platforms while everyone else was exploring digital.
Some saw his bid for the AFL radio rights as a “Hail Mary” — but he managed to land the rainmaker in a deal tipped to be worth $10 million.
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He teamed up with media companies Macquarie, Southern Cross Austereo, Nova Entertainment, Pacific Star Network and Grant Broadcasters.
“We had to step up or step down ... it was a wild time,” Hutchison said.
Crocmedia became the umbrella rights-holder in charge of all programming and match-day calling agreements with all AFL broadcasters across Australia, and added afl.com.au to its coverage distribution.
He also landed a deal with Football Federation Australia to broadcast A-League matches to metropolitan and regional radio and online for the 2017-18 season.
Just 10 years on from a pipedream, the Crocmedia venture now makes 140 hours of radio weekly, and broadcasts to more than 200 stations nationally and in New Zealand.
It employs 100-plus full-time staff, 130 part-timers and scores of freelancers to service its 250 clients.
In the latest move, Hutchison’s Crocmedia will merge with Pacific Star Network, owner of sports radio station SEN.
Hutchison will be CEO as part of the $23.9 million stock-only deal.
Crocmedia is also tipped to win the NRL radio rights, giving the company a growing audience in NSW and Queensland.
Hutchison admits making many mistakes along the way, including opening offices in West Virginia, Singapore and Chicago.
“That was a pretty dumb thing to do. It didn’t make any money that’s for sure,” he said, noting he had to return to journalism for a while to keep the business afloat.
More TV shows are now in his sights, with a focus on sports entertainment.
“I don’t switch off — I work better if I am on,” he said.
“I work 100 hours a week. I love it. It’s an addiction for me.”
Hutchison’s offices are now equipped with a TV studio, and he has seven radio studios around the country, with two more being worked on.
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When it comes to Crocmedia, Hutchison’s mantra is a bit like the Bryan Adams song (Everything I Do) I Do it For You — if it won’t help the business, he doesn’t want to hear about it.
Hosting The Footy Show was an exception to that rule.
Hutchison had affiliations with Channel Nine and said he was simply answering an SOS but, just four months into the hosting gig of the under-siege show, he was booted.
The ratings weren’t there and the audience was not on his team.
“It ended fairly abruptly,” he said.
“In life you can only clean up your side of the street.
“My job was to grow the audience and make the show better, and it doesn’t matter why it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen.
“The right thing to do
was to accept it, take responsibility.
“My ego was wounded, there is no question, but you dust yourself off and move on quickly.”
Hutchison has been a polarising figure.
As a journalist he wasn’t liked — he was seen as ruthless and his tactics were often questioned.
He cites his all-time mistake as naming the wrong St Kilda player under investigation for sexual misconduct.
As a businessman he has put noses out of joint — big deals, big money and big personalities.
But he said for the first time in a long time in his professional career he felt “more liked than ever”.
“It takes you to get the arse for people to say ‘You actually aren’t a bad bloke after all’,” Hutchison said.
He still has verbal biffos with others in the media, most recently with former Collingwood boss Gary Pert.
The two aren’t fond of each other, and now Hutchison’s SEN takeover has cost Pert his six-figure pay cheque and a promised key management role.
David Schwarz was also axed, and ABC was annoyed when he stole Gerard Whateley as SEN’s main man.
“I feel for these guys, but there is a new era,” Hutchison said. “I’ve been in that position and know how tough it is.”
But there is only one sounding board that counts.
“If my Dad called and said, ‘You are out of line and making an idiot of yourself,’ I’d be like ‘OK’,” he said.
And he does have a softer side, working with his chosen charity, Ronald McDonald House.
This, he said, would have made his mum proud — she died a month out from his 21st birthday.
“It changes your life forever, losing a parent — it has been a big driver for me ever since. It’s something you never really get over.”
Eddie McGuire was always a target for Hutchison — in his early life he wanted to emulate McGuire.
But now it’s a case of “I’m not Eddie and I don’t want to be Eddie”.
“He’s the king — he’s done it all, I’m just kicking around here trying to do my best — it’s incomparable,” Hutchison said. “When I was 22, I probably wanted to be him.
“He’s the absolute best at what he does and I have full admiration for him, but I am off on a different pathway.”
Much was made of Eddie’s cucumber diet that led to him losing kilograms.
Hutchison’s weight battle has also played out publicly, and he said he was not comfortable with that fact.
He’s back in the gym, but feels less pressure to lose kilos.
“But if you want to be on television, you have to be authentic and real,” he said. “That’s part of my struggle — there’s no point sugar-coating it.”
New York is Hutchison’s escape.
It’s the place that gives him a creative outlet and where no judgment is passed.
“The city unlocks creativity and you feel in awe of the place every day,” he said.
He held onto a pad in the West Village — home to Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Radcliffe — for 11 years and only gave it up in recent months.
Work demands don’t allow him to venture to the Big Apple as often as he wants.
Boys’ trips to the Hamptons and hosting guests at the Super Bowl are still part of his diary — there will always be room for that — but he has managed to reinvent a New York-type lifestyle at home.
He converted a two-bedroom apartment at South Yarra’s Olsen Hotel, where he enjoys sweeping city views.
He’s not sure if it has a kitchen. If there is, he’s never used it.
“There’s this perception it’s the heartbreak hotel, but it’s far from that,” he said.
(His mates James Brayshaw and Billy Brownless stayed there during their marriage bust-ups.)
For Hutchison — with a new woman in his life — it’s no longer the bachelor pad.
But he won’t be drawn on her or their relationship.
“It’s not an area I want to talk about,” he said.
“If you want to be anonymous, work in a bank.
“If you want to be a broadcaster you need to be aware that you are fair game, but it doesn’t mean I have to add to it.”
At 43, he isn’t sure he will have a family.
“It’s hard enough to meet a good woman, let alone expect there will be kids involved, but who knows what the future will hold.”
For a man who admits he is a “very cheesy-pop-style kind of guy” when it comes to his music taste, he is now getting many to beat to his own drum.
He said he was “sounded out” for the Pacific Star merger and it was not of Crocmedia’s making.
“This is not a destination, it’s a starting point.”
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