Seven West Media cost cutting bites at The West Australian
Seven West Media is embarking on a series of redundancies at The West Australian, Fairfax Media is reporting.
The cuts, which saw a shake up following the acquisition of the Sunday Times from News Corp in 2016, appears to be part of the cost cutting flagged by Seven West CEO Tim Worner at the company’s AGM in November last year.
At the Annual General Meeting, chairman Kerry Stokes also laid out the company’s plans to merge the Sunday Times and West Australian newsrooms into a ‘one purpose’ Perth facility.
Seven West Media would not comment on the scope of the cuts to be made at The West Australian but a spokesperson told Mumbrella: “The West Australian is taking prudent and proactive measures to manage costs.
“Seven West Media is changing its business model, which includes a focus and diligence on cost right across the company.”
Seven West Media Western Australia chief executive John Driscoll reportedly told staff in an email: “Redundancies are always our last resort and I know a number of departments have been working with very lean teams for some time.”
The company is calling for employees to express interest in voluntary redundancies at this stage.
Over the past year, Seven West Media saw its stock market capitalisation fall below $1bn with its share price falling 24.39%.