‘We’ve had to face some hard truths’: Nine CEO publicly addresses workplace review at Upfronts event
The acting CEO of Nine Entertainment has for the first time publicly addressed the company’s workplace review released last week.
Speaking at Carriageworks in Sydney on Thursday afternoon, Matt Stanton said it has been a year of “change and disruption”.
“As an organisation, we’ve had to face some hard truths and confront systemic cultural issues, which has been incredibly challenging for our people,” he said.
“At all levels of the business, we are deeply committed to embedding meaningful and lasting change at Nine and believe that this difficult yet necessary process will allow more of our people at their best…
“So, looking ahead, we’re focused on setting new benchmarks in content, data and technology. And continuing to lead the Australian market. We are all in this room today with a shared goal to grow our respective businesses.”
The bombshell report – issued by third-party consultancy firm Intersection last Thursday – offered up 22 recommendations to improve the workplace, with Stanton since telling staff in an internal note that “active investigations” are underway, while a law firm has also reportedly been engaged to look into allegations of misconduct.
Stanton’s public address comes after Nine’s new director of news and current affair, Fiona Dear, blasted the ingrained culture at the network, and has pledged to “get the trust back” within Nine’s newsroom.
In an interview for the Women For Media Report 2024 released this week, Dear expressed her dismay at taking the top role and then having to spend her energy cleaning up the mess made by previous regimes.
“I was angry myself. I worked in the newsroom in that period. I was angry. I was angry as a woman who worked in that environment at that time,” Dear said.
Fiona Dear
“I was angry that I was given this opportunity and had to clean up someone else’s shit.”
Meanwhile, speaking at SXSW Sydney last week, chief executive officer of news publication Capital Brief, and former chief digital and publishing officer at Nine, Chris Janz, weighed in on last week’s report.
The long-time journalism and media figure claimed that the “biggest challenge in [his] career” was navigating Nine’s toxic culture.
“I joined Nine as a result of a takeover of the business. So I was working in Fairfax [when it] effectively took over the business,” Janz said.
“And it’s now out in the open, you know, pretty toxic culture… Like, terrifically toxic culture. And one in which there are [power] games like you’ve never seen.”
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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