Seven West Media announces new general counsel to start in September
Seven West Media has announced the appointment of a new general counsel.
As reported by the AFR, the network has recruited Emma McDonald for the position, who has previously worked a number of high-profile roles including director of public affairs at the ABC, director of business affairs at ITV Studios Australia and corporate counsel at Fairfax Media.
Most recently, she held several senior executive positions at Minderoo Foundation.
Seven confirmed the move when contacted by Mumbrella, though pushed back on reports that McDonald will be replacing former commercial director, Bruce McWilliam, insisting that McDonald’s role is different.
McDonald is scheduled to start in September.
The news comes amidst speculation by The Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Confidential that some of Seven’s bigger names will or have taken a pay cut in order to keep their position at the media giant.
Amongst the names rumoured to be moving on include long-term anchor, Mark Ferguson, as well as David Koch, who’s contract reportedly ends this year.
The Seven newsroom has not only seen heavy movement in staff, but also its content, with the recent additions of Australian comedian Mark Humphries and a horoscopes segment to the news coverage.
On the latest episode of the Mumbrellacast, publisher Adam Lang suggested that the big changes under news boss Anthony De Ceglie have come on due to the linear TV model being under “severe pressure” and backed the contentious moves.
Mark Humphries
“For some time, Nine, Seven, Ten, and other operators have been investing in that technology – streaming, broadcast video on demand, subscription video on demand – and changing their sales team so that they can sell advertising within those realms,” Lang explained.
“That model has been changing for some time. But the older model, the linear part of that, is being severely disrupted. So, changing that, when the audience are looking for different ways to get their news, changing the story and changing the news is certainly bold. I wouldn’t have reached for horoscopes off the top shelf myself.
“They’re changing the narrative and it’s getting attention and that should help get some people’s eyeballs onto their news that maybe haven’t been watching in a while. So, test and learn, go hard. I think this is a really good decision to do that.”
Listen to the full episode here.
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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Anthony De Ceglie
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Emma McDonald
Mumbrellacast
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Get Rid of that NONSENSE astrology segment IMMEDIATELY. it is made up. Tom Elliot on 3 AW pointed out uselessness of it. I WILL NOT WATCH CHANNEL 7 News AGAIN. Try to elevate people with truth & kindness.
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Horoscopes and “comedy” have no place in any News program.
Whoever at 7 introduced these should be the first to have their contract terminated.
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