Job losses loom as James Warburton remakes Seven West Media

Seven West Media boss James Warburton is set to outline the restructure of his business as early as this week.

New Seven CEO James Warburton. Picture: Nikki Short

Seven West Media boss James Warburton is set to outline the restructure of his business as early as this week as the new chief executive makes his mark on the free-to-air broadcaster and publisher.

Expected in the shake-up to be outlined by Mr Warburton is a flatter management structure as well as a push for greater savings across the media company.

The moves comes two weeks after The Australian revealed Mr Warburton was looking to streamline Seven’s 17 divisions. The Australian understands there will be redundancies and while an exact figure is not known, all divisions are expected to be affected.

A spokesman for Seven last night declined to comment.

Mr Warburton, who was appointed to head Seven last month after the abrupt departure of Tim Worner, expressed his intention to make the business “efficient” and more “effective” following the release of Seven’s financial results. Seven West Media fell a net loss of $444.5m for the financial year to June 30, hurt by the writedown of its television licence and newspaper masthead The West Australian.

Last month, Mr Warburton vowed to turn the business around and pursue merger and acquisition opportunities.

“We will be a hunter and explore M&A opportunities in both traditional media and non-traditional adjacencies that are positive for our shareholders,” Mr Warburton said.

“We will sharpen our focus on being a high-performance audience and sales-led organisation, and we will redefine our working practices, becoming more efficient and effective and making savings which do not impact on ratings.”

The former Supercars boss implemented similar plans in his 10 month stint with APN Outdoor, flattening the business which was then sold to JC Decaux last year for $1.12bn.

The restructure follows a number of recent senior departures, including the head of sport, Saul Shtein. Seven has led Nine Entertainment Co in the TV ratings, headed by its breakfast show, evening news and AFL programming, but has seen regular prime time leaders such as My Kitchen Rules and House Rules soundly beaten by new programming from Nine.

Its Sunday Night current affairs program is also under review after serial losses to Nine’s 60 Minutes.

Major shareholder Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group has previously ruled out supporting a capital raising for Seven West Media.