Nine news boss Darren Wick resigned after complaint from female staffer

Nine Entertainment’s most senior news boss Darren Wick left the media company following allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward a female staff member.

Darren Wick’s departure from Nine comes after allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Nine Entertainment’s most senior news boss left the media company earlier this year following allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward a female staff member.

The network’s director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick, quit his role on March 15 after taking extended leave over summer, issuing a statement in which he told of his exhaustion after “four decades of working as a journalist”, including the past 13 years at the helm of Nine’s news division.

But what 60-year-old Wick didn’t disclose – and what Nine’s communications department was at pains to distance itself from at the time of his resignation – was that he had recently been the subject of a complaint from a female staff member, who had alleged that the news boss had behaved inappropriately towards her.

The allegation was discussed at the most senior echelons of Nine, including by the seven-person board, which is chaired by former federal treasurer Peter Costello.

Nine’s chief executive officer Mike Sneesby also sits on the board.

It is also understood issues relating to Wick did go to Nine’s human resources department, and parties have signed non-disclosure agreements pertaining to the matter. 

The Australian is not suggesting that Wick did behave inappropriately to a female member of staff; it is simply noting that a formal complaint was made against him.

Former Nine News chief Darren Wick. Source: Supplied

The revelation of the complaint comes just a fortnight after The Australian revealed Mr Sneesby had spoken in an “overly aggressive, inappropriate” manner to a female journalist at one of Nine’s newspapers in October 2022.

Wick took extended holidays from mid-January this year and when The Australian asked on March 9 about his whereabouts, a Nine spokesperson said he was simply “on leave”, and that there had been no discussions about him departing the company.

Furthermore, the spokesperson refused to answer questions at the time “on the various pieces of unsourced scuttlebutt going around spread by whoever, for whatever reason”.

Six days later, Wick announced his resignation. Wick said he was not retiring, but was rather “going to take a very long break”.

“I’m tired and need a rest,” he said in his email to staff.

“Some of you are aware that I have taken a few weeks off to think about my future.

“And after many long beach walks and even longer conversations, I know in my heart that this is the right time for me to step down and leave Nine.”

When Wick resigned in March, one of his associates told The Weekend Australian that the veteran was one of the last “Nine news dinosaurs” from the “good old days of the ’90s”.

The Australian made multiple approaches to Wick on the weekend, but he could not be reached for comment.

A Nine spokesman declined to comment on the weekend.

Mr Costello was also approached for comment but did not respond.