Bauer Xcel makes ‘structural changes’ axing head of operations role and four more
L:R Silva and Newby to depart.
Bauer Media’s digital arm Bauer Xcel has culled five positions, including general manager of operations Marcelo Silva, with managing director Carl Hammerschmidt saying the roles have been cut as the company shifts from a delivery phase to an operational phase.
Marcelo Silva has been Bauer Xcel’s general manager of operations for the past 10 months, previously heading up video, mobile and strategic partnerships for the company.
Kiff Newby, head of digital marketing, who had been in his position for the past two-and-a-half years, and a further three positions were made redundant. Bauer Xcel declined to provide more details on those positions.
Speaking to Mumbrella, Hammerschmidt said: “We’ve come through a massive period of delivery. You tool your business up based on your needs at any given time. We’ve stood up a scaled digital business in under two years which takes many businesses five or six years to get to.
“We’re moving from a delivery phase into an operational phase and we’re optimising the business based on what those operational needs are and we’re going to continue to do that in the future. That’s digital: you build; you learn; you refine and ongoing we’re going to continue to change the shape of our teams, invest in resources in different areas.”
Hammerschmidt:”We are on track for a successful 2016″
Hammerschmidt said: “Significantly, in the last six months we’ve looked at scaling some of the delivery areas and looked at scaling up some of the operational areas. We’ve invested significantly in sales, native content capability and editorial capability, which are the areas the business needs to scale itself now we’re in market.
“As a result it has been necessary to make some structural changes which has resulted in a small number of redundancies being made. I want to thank them all for their contribution and hard work in helping build the Xcel business in Australia which is now just over one year old. Our audience, revenue performance and product roadmap remains strong and we are on track for a successful 2016.”
The redundancies come as the company celebrates its one year anniversary of bringing back its digital assets from Mi9.
Yesterday Bauer Media appointed former Pacific Magazines boss Nick Chan as CEO.
Related links:
- What does Bauer Media need to do to become a real force again?
- ‘Mistakes can happen’: Bauer’s stand-in CEO Andreas Schoo opens up on the future of Australia’s biggest magazine publisher
Miranda Ward
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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So, my first question if I was being interviewed by Bauer Xcel would be, “How do I know you won’t get rid of me within less than a year? You keep getting rid of your staff after they’ve done all the hard work.”
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I’m not fluent in management gibber…can someone please translate the following quote: “We’re moving from a delivery phase into an operational phase and we’re optimising the business based on what those operational needs are and we’re going to continue to do that in the future. That’s digital: you build; you learn; you refine and ongoing we’re going to continue to change the shape of our teams, invest in resources in different areas.” Hang on, I’ll take a stab: “we don’t know the meaning of the word ‘nimble'”
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So, you’re “moving from a delivery to an operational phase” but getting rid of your head of Operations? That makes sense – Not. And I would have though marketing would be part and parcel of any business’ day to day operations – and yet the Marketing Manager is going too. What poppycock – Mr Hammerschmidt needs a more logical, believable explanation than this for these cuts. And one more thing: if you’re moving from delivery to operational, does this mean you consider job done in terms of building new digital stuff? Because most people would consider that Bauer has a long, long way to go in terms of its digital proposition.
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Selling demos as a network was a fuck up. Unwinding all that to go back to masthead sales.
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Seriously, if you really need to PR shafting people (and I question you do), can we at least cut the crap? If you’re firing people, you’ve ‘built’ something that not enough people wanted.
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