SCA boss John Kelly confirms further redundancies
Southern Cross Austereo made a number of redundancies on Thursday, with SCA’s chief John Kelly informing staff, in an email seen by Mumbrella.
It is understood that roughly 8% of its 1,700-strong workforce have been laid off, with insiders telling Mumbrella the marketing team, regional breakfast shows, and Triple M were hit the hardest by the downsizing.
In the email, Kelly referred to “the challenging economic conditions and structural challenges being experienced by the Australian media industry” in the email, with a pointed remark regarding “recent corporate activity where SCA was the target of other Australian media operators.”
John Kelly
This refers to the failed takeover attempt by ARN, which saw SCA’s FY24 profits dive by 49.2% due to the “significant costs” incurred by all parties, as ARN’s CEO and managing director Ciaran Davis put it to Mumbrella in August, after its profits were also impacted by the abandoned merger attempts.
SCA managed to offload the bulk of its regional TV assets to Ten in the final weeks of 2024, and axed multiple staffers in its internal corporate communications and PR team, including Kelly Stambanis, head of corporate communications and PR.
In September, the company removed its head of distribution and audience growth, Chris McWilliams; digital growth developer HIT and Triple M, Matt Belotti; head of community and engagement for LiSTNR, Dierdre Fogarty; and digital music content director, Adam Williscroft.
Despite these cuts, Kelly said the company is required to make “further cost reductions across areas such as discretionary spend, programming, corporate overheads, and regrettably our workforce,” in order to continue momentum gained through “a combination of improved across-the-board performance and a reduction in our operating cost base.”
Kelly writes: “My role as CEO and our role as a broader leadership team is to stand up and make difficult decisions by prioritising and investing in areas critical to our future, while optimising areas that do not directly support commercial outcomes. That said, this is the most difficult part of my job and of our leaders and my thoughts are with those impacted today.
“We are focused on revitalising and future proofing our business and we are confident in our direction and progress to deliver on this commitment. Our people are critical to the realisation of our plan and we thank you for your ongoing support as we work together to ensure a strong and sustainable future for SCA.”
SCA delivers its half-year results next Thursday, February 27.
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
It’s not just SCA or the media industry, but particularly in Australia businesses are run by accountants or ex-accountants or sometimes by ex-Management Consultants (many of whom were once accountants, bankers or engineers). Check out the details of senior execs in any major listed company.
In many cases they don’t have extensive experience of a particular industry apart from the numbers, it’s their broader financial skills that can be applied from place to place. And they get advice on “transformation” from said management consultants who crunch numbers and decide who has to go. So creativity or engaging presentation is not the decider.
Not sure what the process was here, but the modern style of Australian management is particularly stark at Austereo given it was a company that was created and grown by old-school radio people. And now is run by an ex-COO/CFO. Just like the ex CFOs running Seven West, SBS and until recently the ABC.
It’s hard to know if decisions would be different but speaking generally I preferred the older era when people were specialists in an industry not specialists in “skills” that could equally be used to run a supermarket chain, a tractor importer or a bunch of radio licences. Would someone who knows how to appeal to listeners decide that less live and local is the way to go when anyone can listen to a curated or automated playlist through Spotify.
Though I do wonder whether the same applies to more junior roles (do you need experience in media sales to run a radio sales team or is it ok if you used to sell cement b2b)?
User ID not verified.
I will never listen to mmm again. Luke bona was fantastic, If he pops up again I will surely give him a go. but not mmm. wan kers:::
User ID not verified.
Have your say