Well, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Usually the buck stops with them, regardless of direct involvement or not.
Only in this instance, you’ve had multiple separate though not inextricably unrelated incidents, publicly, with a PR disaster, one the chairman of the company’s board also foolishly implicated himself in.
It’s pretty pathetic isn’t it. As thick as thieves, the two companies, for as long as they both shall live.
Good ol Mr Snessby!
They’ve been at each other’s throats since at least the 1980s. But I like a bit of spiciness!
But they also work together well when the occasion calls for it, like simulcasting fundraising relief concerts.
Not to mention the handling of the allegations against as well as the departure of Adrian Foo (Stan’s former publicity chief).
And these are the people that supposedly signed off on Tom Morris (racist, homophobe and sexist) getting a contract let alone chief AFL reporter at GTV, following his disgrace termination from Foxtel and the aftermath. Today’s development’s, not him obviously, but reigniting it all again. Just look at the public sentiment towards him.
Interesting opinion piece from one of Nine’s own newspapers.
That someone who has spent more than 30 years as a public figure and has been chairman of a major media company’s board for eight years couldn’t handle a persistent journalist’s questioning with greater equanimity says something about the degree of stress within the Nine Entertainment boardroom created by the way the board and management of the company responded to allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Nine’s former television news head, Darren Wick.
Doesn’t sound like much has changed at Nine since Kerry Packer’s days.
Change will be good but I hope it is not going to lead to most middle aged white guys leaving Nine. It has happened elsewhere like the public service and universities where whole areas have no middle aged men and some of the young women rightly think they can have any man they dislike removed from the workplace by just making a vexatious sexual harrassment complaint - yes it does happen
SMH Editorial
Includes
It was simply untenable for the chair of a media company that employs hundreds of journalists to seemingly shove a reporter to the ground, laugh, walk off and carry on in the boardroom as if nothing happened.
Costello will not be mourned by the majority of those who work at Nine. Indeed, the Herald believes his tenure is a case study in why ex-politicians often do not make good company directors.
Costello was not a particularly strong champion of journalists …
His presence on the Nine board was also a source of concern for loyal subscribers suspicious of the influence a former Liberal treasurer would have over the company’s mastheads, and source of frustration for editorial staff who had to frequently reassure readers and stakeholders that our independence remained a guiding principle of how we operate.
From last night’s Media Watch.
ACA:
"that should have been one of our team violently shoved to the ground”
Seven is also hoping to air Costello’s rampage as part of a very special episode of Today Tonight that will see Naomi Robson return for one night only, while Ten is hoping to play the footage on The Project, underneath a scintillating Waleed Aly monologue about Costello’s agenda of labour market deregulation during the early ’00s.
The entire article reads like a badly-written media fanatics’ dream.
Mumbrella must have poached some of the team from Betoota
It must be said that Dr Mumbo is a weekly column on Mumbrella which takes a humorous look at all things media and marketing.
Now, having amassed a 25 per cent economic interest in Nine Entertainment, he wears the crown, and in large part holds the fortunes of new chair West (let’s call her Cersei for Game of Thrones fans) and the rest of the board in his hands.
The current media ownership rules restrict Gordon from voting his full stake – his power in this regard is limited to 15 per cent because a regional station he owns in the Northern Rivers overlaps with Nine. But this 15 per cent still makes him the largest and most powerful investor in Nine.
And if Gordon was to sell this one relatively small TV station, there is nothing stopping him from voting his 25 per cent stake and buying more if he was inclined to make a takeover offer.
Both SMH and AFR have pointed this out today in substantially similar stories. Makes me wonder if someone is gearing up for a tilt at a larger slice
That would have to be some long game he is playing at then.
Hopefully not too long, he’s 95.
Wonder if it’s part of building a transition strategy. The value of the media elements of the WIN empire won’t be appreciating at the moment, clean out the deadwood (like what we’ve seen with MDT) and the edge bits (radio stations, NNSW), then secure the future of the rest through NEC.
The article also makes it sound so easy to resolve what is currently a considerable stumbling block. Poor valuation and projections for regional television already sunk one deal this year - while the WIN NNSW licence is valuable in regional TV terms, finding a willing buyer is going to be tough.
WIN bought NRN from SCA for $55 million. That included some land and transmission assets which can easily be sold, but for the most part it’s going to be hard to find anyone willing to take it on for free let alone anywhere close to what they paid for it.