The Weekend Mumbo: Who will carry the torch for Nine now?
Now that the Olympics are over, Mike Sneesby has decided to pass the torch.
The beleaguered boss handed his resignation to the Nine board on Wednesday afternoon, and as The Australian put it, “it’s understood no one tried to talk him out of it”.
Then, presumably, he went home to catch the end of Tipping Point Australia – or The Chase on Seven if he was feeling particularly perverse.
Chief finance and strategy officer, Matt Stanton, has been appointed as acting CEO while the hunt is on for the next torchbearer.
And maybe Stanton will stay in the role, depending on how well he acts. The Australian media landscape has a recent history of CFOs making the leap to CEO: Seven recently installed its financial officer Jeff Howard as chief, while Southern Cross Austereo’s CEO John Kelly was previously the CFO for Football Federation Australia and, before that, of Network 10.
Then again, Nine stock is down almost 40% since the start of the year, which isn’t a glowing report card for anyone at Nine with an F in their job initialism.
Nine’s chief sales officer Michael Stephenson, who applied for the top job in 2021 when Hugh Marks departed the role, is another hot tip from within the company, as is Andrew Lancaster, Nine board member, CEO of the WIN Corporation, and chief of Birketu, owned by 95-year-old billionaire Bruce Gordon, Nine’s largest individual shareholder. Given Lancaster is Gordon’s representative on the Nine board – he is already in quite a place of power.
But, surely it needs to be a woman, right?
After all, there is a no-doubt-scathing workplace culture review due to be released on October 31 (well dodged, Sneesby). It comes after a two-month investigation by external company Intersection, who installed an anonymous hotline and conducted confidential interviews with current and former staff, all of which came in the wake of more than a dozen complaints of inappropriate behaviour against news boss Darren Wick, who resigned from the company in March as the dominos began to fall.
That report will make for sober reading for Nine’s board, and good subject matter for a future Four Corners report.
So, they need to install a female CEO.
Amanda Laing is the loudest whisper so far, and makes sense, given she basically runs Foxtel.
Laing is the Foxtel Group’s chief commercial and content officer and the managing director of streaming service BINGE. She joined Foxtel in 2018, and resigned this April. She is set to leave the company this month, which times out suspiciously well. She’s also a member of the Australian Sports Commission Board, which is handy, given sports is the most popular TV show on Nine.
She was general counsel for ACP Magazines, responsible for its legal affairs across Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and the UK, before moving to Nine where she handled this same role across the entire company. When Nine listed on the ASX, Laing was given the commercial director role, then made managing director – as well as being on the board of Stan. Then, she left to help Foxtel Group launch Kayo, Binge, Flash, and Hubbl, as well as leading “dozens of negotiations with US studios for content and channel acquisitions”, according to Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany.
Geez! Hopefully, Nine can afford her.
Lizzie Young, the current CEO of Commercial Radio & Audio, spent 12 years at Nine, most recently as the managing director of local markets, group marketing and commercial partnerships. She applied for the role when previous CEO Hugh Marks left, so she’s another chance.
While we’re at it, Nine is looking to fill two empty board positions before November’s AGM, so how about adding two more females there?
The board currently has three females: chair Catherine West, who recently replaced Peter Costello, plus Mickie Rosen — who was once president of the LA Times — and Mandy Pattinson, the former GM of Discovery Australia. Then, there’s Bruce Gordon’s proxy. Even if they add red hot Rhonda Burchmore to the board, it will be a step closer to what we’d all like to see at Nine.
In fact, while we’re planning out this entire thing, why not use the razzle dazzle of the network’s annual Upfront, being held in late October, to announce the new CEO?
You could get Sarah Abo and Karl Stefanovic to make the announcement in a mocked-up Today desk staging, fly Shania Twain in to belt out You’re Still The One (if Sneesby can stay in a French castle during the Olympics, Nine can spring for Shania) and have the new CEO showered in confetti and key changes as she uses her first public speech as Nine’s new CEO to commit to a new workplace culture, to commit to regaining public trust, to commit to funding and supporting quality journalism, and — then, finally! — to commit to a brand new season of the old Nine favourite Australia’s Funniest Home Videos.
Cue Shania kicking into the theme song: Australia, Australia, this is you.
It’s time.
Enjoy your weekend.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Nor should they!
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Nobody internally will get a look in, mark my words.
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