Nine staff move ‘no confidence’ motion in Sneesby, board

Staff at Nine Entertainment have passed a motion of no confidence in boss Mike Sneesby and its board after he announced hundreds of job losses.

Nine Entertainment chief executive officer Mike Sneesby said the company must cut jobs to “continue to responsibly manage costs through the cycle”. Picture: Martin Ollman

Staff at trouble-plagued media company Nine Entertainment have passed a motion of no confidence in boss Mike Sneesby and its board after he announced hundreds of job losses across its publishing, digital and broadcasting divisions.

Employees from Nine’s publishing division which includes The Australian Financial Review, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, met on Friday with union officials from the Media, Entertainments & Arts Alliance to voice their “dismay” over the widespread job cuts and said “senior editors appear to have been kept in the dark until the last moment about the planned job cuts.”

“We demand an explanation from the company about why the publishing division appears to have been disproportionately targeted for job losses, given the recent strong financial performance by the mastheads in a particularly difficult time for all print outlets, and given the fact that the Meta money was spent across the company, rather than just on the mastheads,” a MEAA statement said.

“As a result, staff across The Age, SMH, AFR, WAtoday and the Brisbane Times have today unanimously passed a motion of no confidence in Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby and the Nine Entertainment company board.”

The board is led by Catherine West who has only been in the role two weeks after she replaced Peter Costello who resigned after he was involved in a physical altercation with The Australian reporter Liam Mendes at Canberra airport on June 6.

Under the cuts about 200 jobs will be lost including between 70 and 90 roles in its print division and 38 roles in broadcast.

In an email to all staff on Friday morning, Mr Sneesby said the company must cut jobs to “continue to responsibly manage costs through the cycle” and look at ways to continue to reduce costs.

He also blamed Meta’s decision to abandon its commercial deals with news outlets as a reason behind the extensive job cuts.

The significant exodus of staff comes amid the company battling ongoing allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and inappropriate behaviour by past and present staff which has prompted an external investigation.

Mr Sneesby told staff on Friday: “An operational review of these businesses is underway and we will update you with further details about what this means for you and your teams in the coming weeks.

“From our nationwide team of almost 5000 people, around 200 jobs are expected to be affected across Nine including some vacant and casual roles not being filled.

“Where possible, we will look for opportunities to redeploy our team members who are impacted and we will support them throughout the process.”

Mr Sneesby also told staff “these are tough decisions and I acknowledge it will be an uncertain period for some of you”.

The cuts also come just weeks before Nine broadcasts the Paris Olympics — the network paid $305m for exclusive rights to the next five Olympic Games, through until the Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.

In the six months to December 31, Nine’s net profit fell to $113.8m, down 40 per cent.

The job cuts will see four per cent of Nine’s workforce exit the business and comes amid the company remaining in turmoil over allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct at the network following the exit of news boss Darren Wick in March.

The Australian revealed Wick had left the company after a complaint was lodged by a female employee relating to inappropriate conduct.

Wick has not spoken publicly since he left the business three months ago.

Wick’s replacement, Fiona Dear, told staff on Friday the jobs cuts will see a “loss of 38 roles around the division, 12 of these positions are already vacant.”

“We are also looking to identify potential savings with casual and freelance roles and new technology,” Dear said.

Nine publishing director Tory Maguire told staff 70 to 90 jobs will go in the print arm of the business.

“This week … the deal with Meta is over and the significant revenue incoming under that deal has ceased,” she said.

“While we are encouraged by our constructive conversations with the federal government about enforcing the code, the only thing currently certain is that we don’t have an ongoing deal with Meta.

“The advertising market remains very challenging and while the publishing and sales teams are working together on a range of new initiatives our forecast for FY25 is reflective of the market outlook.”

Nine Entertainment publishing director Tory Maguire.

She said in the coming weeks Nine’s editors will work on ways to further cut costs including in its newsrooms.

“We will be focused on finding efficiencies where we can, and making prudent decisions so we can continue to invest in growth areas that are driving subs,” Maguire said.

“We are looking at reducing the publishing division headcount by between 70 and 90 staff over coming months.”

Nine Radio boss Tom Malone also told staff at the company’s radio arm that the “softer ad market and the extended uncertainty around the economic outlook puts pressure on our cost base.

“We’ve already taken steps through June to mitigate against the ad market by restructuring our social team, and not replacing some roles following resignations in our news and marketing teams,” he said.

“We all need to have a laser focus on costs to ensure we are not spending on anything that isn’t business critical.”

Mr Malone did not state how many jobs in the radio division – which includes 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR, will go.

Shares in Nine were at $1.40 per share at 11.30am Friday, up 0.7 per cent.