Board blasé after a week of woe for Nine newspapers

So, what did the Nine board make of the two grave errors within its once-proud publishing division in the past week? Nothing to see here, apparently.

Actress Rebel Wilson (left) and The Sydney Morning Herald's editor, Bevan Shields. Pictures: File

Last Thursday, the Nine Entertainment board met at the company’s headquarters in North Sydney.

For the previous few days, the media giant’s publishing division – specifically, its two biggest metro newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – had been attracting headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The SMH was copping criticism from all corners of the Western world for its horribly ill-judged decision to publish a (since removed) gossip item about actor Rebel Wilson’s same-sex relationship, while The Age was dealing with the appearance of one of its star journalists in an advertisement for a gambling company.

The respective editors of the two mastheads – the SMH’s Bevan Shields, and The Age’s acting editor Michael Bachelard – both issued several-hundred-word apologies to their readers.

Such longwinded mea culpas are rare in newspaper-land, but to see two lengthy ‘‘sorry letters’’ from the same publisher, in the same week, is almost unheard of.

So, what did the Nine board make of the two grave journalistic errors in the company’s once-proud publishing division in the past week? Nothing to see here, apparently.

According to sources close to the board, neither the fallout from gossip columnist Andrew Hornery’s article on Wilson nor AFL journalist Sam McClure’s decision to participate in a Sportsbet ad warranted any discussion at board level.

Michael Bachelard, acting editor at The Age. Picture: Twitter

Of course, it’s not unusual for a media company’s board meeting to proceed without advanced discussion of editorial matters of the day, but when the company has suffered considerable reputational damage on two fronts in the one week, it seems odd the scandals didn’t even rate a mention.

But as one source close to the board told The Australian: “The fact that the board didn’t bother talking about either issue gives you a fair idea of how the publishing division is viewed within the company.

“Editorial is way down low on the company’s totem pole. There is no one at the very top with any publishing experience, with the exception of (managing director of publishing) James Chessell. It’s no longer in the company’s DNA.

“The only interest in that part of the business is an appreciation of the profits it’s generating.”

Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby declined to answer questions about the controversial article on Wilson and the fallout, which saw Shields initially defend the newspaper’s handling of the story before an about-face and an unreserved apology last Tuesday.

As for the silence at board level, a Nine spokesperson said: “It is totally inappropriate to make any comment about board discussions.”

A common refrain within Nine’s newspapers is that the publishing division is no longer held in the same internal esteem as it was when it was under the umbrella of Fairfax Media, as the 2018 merger with Nine was seen as favouring the broadcasting side of the business.

And while last week’s errors at the two mastheads didn’t appear to trouble the executives at the top of the company, they were keenly felt on the editorial floor.

Says an SMH insider, who did not wish to be named: “The feeling on the newsroom floor is that there’s no leadership anymore. Journos are angry; everyone is venting to each other about how bad things are.”

Much of the frustration has been directed at Shields. Having spent the past few years in charge of Nine newspaper’s Canberra bureau, followed by a stint as the publisher’s European correspondent, Shields, 36, started as SMH editor in January, after the surprise departure of former editor Lisa Davies in October.

Shields’ appointment was welcomed by most at the newspaper; despite some misgivings about his lack of editing experience, he had a reputation as a good operator. But a number of missteps – most notably a spat with one of his staff over the characterisation of a public transport stoppage that he wrongly insisted was a strike, and then the decision to publish Hornery’s column last week – has seen him lose a sizeable chunk of his initial support.

“He’s lost the (SMH’s) audience with the Wilson story, and he’s lost the support of the newsroom – to lose one is bad, but to lose both … well, it’s a long way back,” said one insider, who declined to be named.

“After all, he’s the editor … ultimately what goes in the paper is his responsibility. That’s his job.”

Journalist Andrew Hornery. Picture: Twitter

But others say Shields, who was appointed by executive editor of Nine newspapers, Tory Maguire, has markedly improved the look and editorial balance of the SMH since assuming the editorship, and point out that most of the criticism has been on social media, “and not actually in the real world”.

A senior figure who was present last Tuesday at a snap in-house meeting called by Maguire said the mood toward Shields was overwhelmingly supportive.

There were about 50 people at the meeting, and no one openly criticised Shields, the source said.

Hornery, who has penned the Private Sydney gossip column since 2005, has also escaped internal censure.

A popular figure in the newsroom who has worked under several SMH editors, including Greg Hywood, Peter Fray, Judith Whelan and Lisa Davies, he raised the ire of some colleagues last week when just hours after publishing an unreserved apology on the SMH website he posted a message on his private Instagram page which took aim at the online “nutters barking at shadows” in relation to the Wilson article.

Several SMH journalists who spoke to The Australian in recent days on the condition of anony­mity, noted the low morale in the newsroom. “We’re at rock bottom,” one said.

The Age has also endured a bruising week, following the revelation by the ABC’s Media Watch program last Monday that AFL journalist Sam McClure – who had previously written stories about how the AFL was ­compromised by links to the gambling industry — appeared in a paid advertisement for Sportsbet.

On Friday, acting editor Michael Bachelard penned an open apology to readers.

“That he paid his fee to a charity does not mitigate the error. For a journalist to spruik the business of a company he has also written about is a clear conflict of interest, and unacceptable,” Bachelard wrote. “The Age, through its editors, also made some errors in this case. We did not spell out early enough and clearly enough to Sam the ramifications of what he was proposing.”

Bachelard also raised The Age’s decision to publish (a shorter) version of Hornery’s column about Wilson. “The Age’s editors were not involved in the decisions around the column’s preparation, but that is no excuse. We published it, and we should not have done so,” he said.

“Giving Wilson a deadline to disclose her new relationship with Ramona Agruma, her first same-sex partner, could have been seen as pressure to do so. The tone of the item complaining about Wilson deciding to announce her relationship on Instagram before it was disclosed in a newspaper was wrong.”

The backdrop is a bitter stand-off between management and staff over the latest Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.

Staff are seeking an annual pay rise of 5.5 per cent (revised down last week from 6 per cent), but an email from Chessell last week outlined “significant “cost headwinds” and labelled the employees’ claim “irresponsible”.

A protracted strike is seen by many within the company as the most likely outcome.

The long-term future of the company’s famous newspapers is less certain. The Rebel Wilson expose was not “an errant misstep. It is an unambiguous statement about its news culture,” former SMH editors Peter Fray and Eric Beecher wrote in an article published in Crikey last week.

“Great newspapers don’t just not publish stories like this – their owners, editors and reporters don’t even think about publishing them. They are the clickbait and bilge water of journalism.”