‘I was angry that I was given this opportunity and had to clean up someone else’s sh*t’: First priority for Nine’s news boss is to ‘get the trust back’
Nine’s new director of news and current affair, Fiona Dear, has blasted the ingrained culture at the network, and has pledged to “get the trust back” within Nine’s newsroom.
Dear was interviewed in the Women For Media Report 2024, where she pulled no punches, expressing her dismay at taking the top role and then having to spend her energy cleaning up the mess made by previous regimes.
When asked her priorities for fostering gender equity in your newsrooms, Dear answered: “I’ve taken over at a difficult time, not just for Nine, but for commercial media in general. I think my priorities have changed, because of the time I have come in. My first priority with this team is to try and get the trust back.
“A lot of the trust, particularly with women in the newsroom, has been eroded. So, my first priority is to unite us, to get the trust back. And to get the respect back.”
Dear said her first strategy to elicit change is “listening” to her staff.
“People want to have a voice and they want to be heard. That is my very first priority, it’s to give them back their voice because a lot of people here feel like they may have lost their voice over time. 20 years ago, there were men in in all the key seats. They controlled the narrative about what we presented to the audience every night. That has changed. There’s a female EP in the 6.00pm news tonight.
“There’s a female EP in the afternoon news. I know in my direct leadership team there are some very strong women in those positions. So I feel like I don’t have to strategise to even the equation and hire more women. I don’t think I need to actively recruit. I need to better the process when positions come up so all women, regardless of their circumstances, feel like, ‘I can do that job.’”
Dear acknowledged the anger of the women in the newsroom, explaining: “I was angry myself. I worked in the newsroom in that period. I was angry. I was angry as a woman who worked in that environment at that time. I was angry that I was given this opportunity and had to clean up someone else’s shit.
“This sounds selfish, but I was angry. I have worked really, really hard in my career. And I was angry that the time that I get a dream job, there was no time for me to step back and say: ‘Wow, you got that. You achieved that, that’s a pretty significant thing that you just achieved’. There was no time for me to mark that moment.”
Dear stopped short at naming names, only saying she’s “angry at certain people that I feel a bit cheated of that experience”, admitting it “feels selfish” to be angry, but that she also felt “an incredible responsibility, it is now my time to give back and to make lasting change, so that this newsroom that I adore never has to go through that again.”
When asked how she will advocate upwards for change, she said a priority is to “change the culture and to change it within this newsroom, but to also change it up. I want this newsroom to be the poster child for the business. This is how you do it. And let the rest of the business follow our lead.”
Nine’s interim CEO Matt Stanton seems to be on the same page as Dear. In a note sent to staff this week, seen by Mumbrella, Stanton confirmed an “action plan” is in place after last week’s bombshell report from third-party consultancy firm Intersection, which offered up 22 recommendations to improve the workplace.
“There is no place at Nine for the abuse of power, bullying, sexual harassment or inappropriate conduct outlined in the Intersection report or for people who behave that way,” Stanton said. “There will be change at Nine and individuals will be held to account for behaviour of this nature. The Board and management are united in the need to accelerate change to support the workplace reform program.
“Given some of the conjecture within and outside Nine, I also wanted to be clear about what we are doing to hold people to account.
“We currently have a number of active investigations underway into issues raised by employees, some of which are being led by an external investigator whom we have partnered with,” he said, referring to law firm Enterprise Investigation.
“No two cases are the same, and I’m sure you can appreciate these investigations need to be conducted in a manner that follows a just and proper process, which can take time. This will not be influenced by outside interest or public scrutiny.”
Read the entire Women For Media Report here.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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