Seven West Media shuffle staff at WA mastheads following Sunday Times acquisition
Seven West Media has shuffled staff following the acquisition of News Corp’s The Sunday Times and PerthNow, with only one new WA appointment coming from a former News Corp employee.
The appointments, which follow the acquisition of The Sunday Times and PerthNow from News Corp, come after Seven West Media named Michael Beach as editor of The Sunday Times at the end of October.
The company has appointed The West Australian deputy news editor Nicolette Casella and The West Australian features editor Helen Winterton as co-editors of The Sunday Times.
It has also named features editor of the West Australian Mark Mallabone as deputy editor of The West Australian. Mallabone has held a number of roles at the paper including chief to staff, night editor and features editor.
Jenni Storey has been appointed as features editor of The West Australian, having held the roles of special publications editor, day editor and online editor.
Former chief of staff and assistant editor of The West Australia, Ben Martin, takes over as head of digital content for SWM WA and will be responsible for all SWM WA digital products, including thewest.com.au and PerthNow.
Former editor of WAtoday.com.au Simon White has joined SWM WA as senior digital producer and editor of thewest.com.au while former deputy digital editor of PerthNow Emily Moulton has joined SWM WA as senior digital producer and editor of PerthNow.
The appointments come after SWM sought “expressions of interest” from Sunday Times employees ahead of job cuts, according to a report by the ABC.
According to the ABC, in a memo to staff sent at the end of October, WAN CEO Chris Wharton said an “expressions of interest program” had already been rolled out to employees.
The ABC said it was believed only a minority of Sunday Times editorial staff will be kept on, potentially only 15 out of 60.
“We at SWM WA have been working hard to ensure we are ready to proceed once the deal is signed,” Wharton said.
“We anticipate some key staff will join us to assist as we transition The Sunday Times into SWM WA.
“To achieve the greatest efficiencies we envisage some staff will work across both WAN [West Australian Newspapers] and The Sunday Times publications.”
It is unclear how many redundancies have occurred as a result of the acquisition.
SWM and the MEAA have been approached for comment.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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Casella is married to Beach and Winterton took redundancy a few years ago.
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TV guide we don’t like the new TV guide it is to big and cumbersome a suitable size is your old size or the same size as the West Australian edition
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