Blackley exit won’t impact LiSNTR rebrand as equity in SCA falters
Grant Blackley stepping down as CEO of Southern Cross Austereo won’t derail plans for a proposed rebrand to LiSTNR, Mumbrella understands, set to go ahead within the year.
The move has been long touted by industry insiders, and publicly teased by Blackley over the past year, as the media company places its digital brand at the centre of its strategy, two years after its launch.
LiSTNR was launched under Blackley
Sources close to SCA have said the rebrand for the ASX-listed company to LiSTNR will happen in either Q4 this year, or Q1 2024, with new John Kelly set to take Blackley’s seat at the end of next month.
When asked if his departure will disrupt the proposed plans, outgoing CEO Blackley told Mumbrella: “Our overarching strategy for the next fiscal year remains firmly in place.
“Respecting LiSTNR is key to our strategy and given the significant progress to date, we expect momentum and advancement towards our core goals will only gather momentum under incoming CEO John Kelly.”
Blackley has previously commented on the brand, with the company adopting a “digital first strategy”. Blackley has continued to be bullish on the prospects of digital audio during his tenure, stating LiSTNR will be the “most dominant audio app” in five years.
With Seb Rennie, who joined earlier this year as executive head of LiSTNR commercial, now appointed as chief commercial officer across the entire company this morning, further fuel has been added to the speed of the transition.
Incoming MD and CEO, John Kelly
An industry commentator told Mumbrella last week that “everyone knows there is no positive equity left in the [SCA] brand”.
The company’s share price today sits at $0.81, down 49.4% in the past 12 months,
In July last year, Blackley hinted at the change in name as LiSTNR increasingly becomes the growth centre of the business.
“When I joined the company seven years ago, there was a TV company called Southern Cross, and then a radio company called Austereo, which then became Southern Cross Austereo,” he said. “I said while I was in Europe that I could see a world in (where) if LiSTNR is the centre of our universe and it is driving all of our growth and ambitions, maybe there’s a natural extension of the company being called LiSTNR and not SCA.”
LiSTNR has increasingly become an area of focus for growth for SCA, yet the digital audio service remains a small slice of the company’s overall revenue.
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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