Who is Hamish McLennan?
He’s known as Hamish The Hammer and former colleagues suggest he’s a ‘clinical henchman’, but can Ten’s new CEO Hamish McLennan walk the walk or is it all talk? Marcus Casey finds out in a feature that first appeared in Encore.
He’s a good friend of Lachlan Murdoch and has spent the past year working side by side with his dad – the media mogul Rupert – but newly appointed Network Ten CEO Hamish McLennan insists he is his own man.
Ten chairman Lachlan Murdoch oversaw McLennan’s appointment last Friday, when former golden boy James Warburton was unceremoniously pushed from his job after just 13 months. He had ambitiously left the leading Seven network to helm the third-rating Ten.
With Warburton gone, the young Murdoch announced former adman McLennan, 46, as the new captain of the listless ship that Ten has become.
Television is a brutal business. It’s not for the feint-hearted. The only things that matter are ratings, revenue and profit. So, if Hamish is the ‘clinical henchman’ some claim him to be, he might just prove to be the best choice Ten could’ve made.
Just shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic. Until they start screening programmes people can bear to watch, they’ll keep on going backwards.
so basically, his first round will be to eliminate all the high salaried hires that James did in year one.
can you be called an ‘adman’ if you’ve never actually made an ad in your life?
Good luck Hamish. I look forward to seeing ten build its share.
Mr McLennan,
Here is now to keep your job beyond 13 months:
1- don’t every commission a show like Lara Bingle again.
2- understand young people (or cool people of that is what you are after) do not want to hear the opinions of idiots in breakfast show formats
3- the Simpsons is old now. time to move on
4- 10 news is a bit of a joke. Make The Project the main news show at night with crosses to a serious news desk.
5- remember that you are asking people to let you into their lounge rooms!