Southern Cross Media go as part of restructure

Jobs set to go as broadcaster Southern Cross Media undergoes a major restructure in the face of weak advertising.

Southern Cross chairman Peter Bush and CEO Grant Blackley. Picture: John Feder

Southern Cross Media Group has begun a major restructure of its operations as poor advertising market conditions continue to put pressure on the business.

The Australian understands about 90 roles will be affected across the entire company, which runs Hit Network and Triple M, with some staff redeployed into new roles as negotiations continue this week.

Southern Cross’s leadership team, which includes chief executive Grant Blackley, chief sales officer Brian Gallagher and chief marketing and communications officer Nikki Clarkson, will not be affected by the restructure, which spans across the metropolitan and regional parts of the radio and television business.

The company currently has more than 2,500 employees in Australia, meaning the restructure would affect about 3.6 per cent of the business.

A spokeswoman for Southern Cross said the decision to axe the roles had not been taken lightly.

"The entire advertising and media sector is operating in a challenging and difficult market and Southern Cross Austereo has and is being equally affected,” the spokeswoman said.

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"Management, with the support of the board, have conducted a comprehensive review of our workforce structure to provide an effective and efficient organisation for now and into the future. These proposed changes will impact some of our people.

"These decisions have not been taken lightly and we are committed to supporting our people as we work through this process."

Southern Cross declined to comment on the proportion of redundancies in its television division relative to its radio division and whether the changes would affect on-air talent on content directors in regional areas. However there are reports that some functions will be combined across stations and networks.

The restructure follows a trading update from October that warned Southern Cross’s first half earnings would fall as much as 27 per cent, due to the “short” and “volatile” advertising market.

At the company’s annual general meeting in late October, chairman Peter Bush said while there was “value” and “resilience” in regional radio, regional television faced challenges that needed to be addressed.

That same month Southern Cross announced the acquisition of Seven West Media’s regional radio business, RedWave, for $28m, and said it would look for more opportunities to grow its regional broadcasting footprint.

Mr Blackley has previously said his business had “trimmed” costs and “restructured” to ensure front-of-house activities could continue. Southern Cross is currently searching for a chief content officer.

The latest round of job cuts aren’t the first for Southern Cross this year. In August the company announced up to 30 roles would be axed as it outsourced its broadcast transmissions, and cut its struggling breakfast show from Sydney’s 2DayFM, replacing it will an all-music program. The program was believed to have cost the network about $3m per year.

Southern Cross swung to a net annual loss of $91.3m in the last financial year, hit by impairment charges against its television assets, a value loss on assets for sale and the advertising market. While there was growth in metropolitan and regional radio, revenue from television assets fell by 3.2 per cent.

Southern Cross shares closed down 3.68 per cent at 92c.