This was published 5 months ago
Nine CEO carries Olympic torch as journalists’ strike looms
By Marta Pascual Juanola
Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby took to the streets just outside Paris to carry the Olympic torch just hours after staff in the company’s publishing wing voted in favour of a strike.
Sneesby smiled and waved at locals lining the streets of Massy, about 16 kilometres outside Paris, on Monday afternoon (Paris time) as he finished his leg of the relay and lit the torch of the next bearer.
Nine CEO Mike Sneesby carries the Olympic torch.Credit: Marta Pascual Juanola
The chief executive was led into a Place de France packed with hundreds of Olympics fans to the tune of reggaeton music and was promptly whisked away after the event without fronting the media.
The planned industrial action threatens to disrupt Sneesby’s plans to offer cross-platform coverage of Paris 2024. Nine bought exclusive broadcast rights to the winter and summer Olympic Games until Brisbane 2032 in a $305 million deal last year.
Sneesby declined to comment when contacted separately by this masthead. A Nine spokesperson also declined to comment.
Staff at the company’s mastheads – the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAtoday, Brisbane Times and Australian Financial Review – voted in favour of striking during the first five days of the Paris Olympics on Monday afternoon after hitting an impasse with management over pay conditions, diversity quotas, and protection against the use of artificial intelligence in the newsrooms.
Nine is facing a strike by journalists from the publishing division. Credit: Marta Pascual Juanola.
The move comes after Sneesby announced that Nine, owner of this masthead, would cut up to 90 jobs from the publishing division in June because of a declining advertising market and the likely end of a commercial deal with Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. The cuts are part of a bid to find more than $30 million in savings across the business.
“These mastheads are strong financial performers, and have a reputation for award-winning journalism, and Nine needs to invest in its editorial front line ahead of its financial bottom line,” the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance wrote in a statement following the vote.
“The decision to go on strike was not made lightly as an event like the Olympics only comes along once every four years.”
Staff and management have been engaged in negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement for several months.
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