Seven West Media

Television Seven Network
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##seven West Media signs contract to acquire The Sunday Times and PerthNow

Seven West Media Limited - one of Australia’s best-performing integrated media and content companies – today confirmed execution of a definitive purchase contract to acquire The Sunday Times newspaper and the online site PerthNow. Seven West Media expects the investment to be earnings accretive in its first year and to increase shareholder value for the group. The acquisition was approved by the ACCC in September and is expected to complete early next week.

Under the agreement to acquire The Sunday Times and PerthNow, Seven West Media and News Corporation will also build on a news content sharing agreement for The West Australian with News’ daily brands and mastheads in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and the Northern Territory, and online. News Corporation will represent The Sunday Times and PerthNow advertising in the east coast markets.

Seven West Media and News Corporation are also joint venture partners in the Community Newspaper Group in Western Australia. Under the agreement, West Australian Newspapers will print and distribute The Australian and also Community Newspapers titles in the Western Australian market.

The first edition of The Sunday Times under Seven West Media ownership will be on 20 November 2016.

The new editor of The Sunday Times is Michael Beach. Beach is currently Deputy Editor of The West Australian and Head of Digital Content for Seven West Media WA. He is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and sits on the Walkley advisory board. West Australian Newspapers will also take on some editorial staff from The Sunday Times and PerthNow.

Tim Worner, CEO and Managing Director, Seven West Media, said: “We are proud to have The Sunday Times and PerthNow as part of our company. We have a deep and strong connection with Western Australia through Channel Seven and The West and our regional affiliates Prime. We look forward – as the new custodians of one of News Corporation’s first acquisitions - to a positive future for both The Sunday Times and PerthNow as part of the WAN group and are committed to ensuring both continue to resonate with the people of Western Australia. Our acquisition allows us to compete against the increasing presence of global content and we are determined to be the company that reflects the lives of all West Australians.”

Chris Wharton, Seven West Media WA CEO, said: “We are delighted to have both The Sunday Times and PerthNow in our stable. Both The Sunday Times and PerthNow deliver audiences complementary to those we are delivering with The West, and we intend to build on The Sunday Times and PerthNow’s already strong and deep connections with the people of Western Australia accessing the extensive resources of the integrated newsroom of The West and Channel Seven Perth.”

PerthNow will join Seven West Media’s existing and planned digital platforms in the Western Australian market. The acquisition will see the company expanding its publishing and printing from six days to seven days a week, a move which will deliver improvements in scale benefits and print cost synergies for Seven West Media’s businesses in Western Australia.

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Actually today’s addition was printed from the west

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Good article about the Seven Network’s Director of News & Current Affairs Craig McPherson…

When asked about Seven News:

“Sydney & Melbourne are the two biggest markets, we’re still not winning them… yet”.

FULL ARTICLE [MediaWeek]:

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Link?

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This Monday’s paper still mentioned it was printed by Perth Print at Canning Vale. Also, according to its feature interview with new Sunday Times editor Michael Beach on the same day, the deal was finalised one week ago today (November 16). On Monday and Tuesday last week, The Sunday Times staff packed up their stuff and moved from the Stirling Street office in Perth CBD to The West Australian premises at Osborne Park. The Australian’s Perth office stays at Stirling Street.

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Fantastic turn out to HSV-7’s 60th Anniversary :tada:

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Congratulations to the Seven Network :tada:

Officially the #1 TV network for a decade running (if we all didn’t know it months ago anyway)!

Also having their best year (lead) since OzTam began, dominating every major title.

Highlights:
• #1 network
• #1 key demos
• #1 multi-channel
• #1 program (AFL GF)
• #1 regular series (MKR)
• #1 non-sport program (MKR finale)
• #1 News (national, metro & regional)

Among many others.

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It’s my understanding that Nine is #1 in demos

Nine also has the #1 morning show (today, 5 cities)

And the #1 local news in a few markets

Seven also has the oldest median age of any network

Nine also has #1 demo multi (9Go)

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I will have a topic up for discussion of this soon.

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Let the collective circle jerk commence with some on here.

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Are they #1 in quality programming too?

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[quote=OzTAM]25-54:
Seven: 29.3
Nine: 29.1

18-49:
Seven: 29.2
Nine: 29.2

16-39:
Seven: 29.7
Nine: 28.9
[/quote]
That’s excluding the Olympics.

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Editorial Appointments Announced

New editorial appointments follow Seven West Media’s recent acquisition of The Sunday Times newspaper and the online news site PerthNow. The expansion of the integrated newsroom reinforces Seven West Media’s connection with the people of Western Australia while strengthening their ability to compete against the increasing presence of global content. Following the successful amalgamation, Seven West Media is now home to one of Australia’s most revered editorial teams.

Michael Beach has been appointed as Editor of The Sunday Times. Beach was previously Deputy Editor of The West Australian and Head of Digital Content for Seven West Media WA. He is a Walkley Award-winning journalist and sits on the Walkley advisory board.

Nicolette Casella and Helen Winterton have been appointed as Co-Editors of STM. Casella is a former Chief of Staff of The Daily Telegraph and Deputy Managing Editor of The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and mX. She will work closely with Winterton who has extensive magazine and news experience and a strong commercial background. Winterton has held several senior positions at The West Australian including Features Editor.

Mark Mallabone has been appointed Deputy Editor of The West Australian. Mallabone has held a wide range of senior news executive roles in the paper over the past 14 years including Chief of Staff, Night Editor and Features Editor. Previous to those positions he was a political reporter who spent almost three years reporting from the parliamentary press gallery at Parliament House in Canberra.

Jenni Storey has been appointed as Features Editor of The West Australian. Storey has held the roles of Special Publications Editor, Day Editor and Online Editor for The West Australian, along with other roles within the WA Newspapers group including South West Printing Group Editor and Publishing and Editor of Countryman newspaper.

Ben Martin takes over as Head of Digital Content for Seven West Media WA. Recently awarded a Churchill Fellowship, Martin was formerly Chief of Staff and Assistant Editor of The West Australian and will be responsible for all Seven West Media WA digital products, including thewest.com.au and PerthNow.

Simon White has joined Seven West Media WA as Senior Digital Producer and Editor of thewest.com.au. White was formerly Editor of WAtoday.com.au.

Emily Moulton has joined Seven West Media WA as Senior Digital Producer and Editor of PerthNow. Moulton was formerly Deputy Digital Editor of PerthNow.

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Seven West Media WA has appointed Philip Teale, an audit partner from Ernst and Young, as acting general manager and chief financial officer, while CEO Chris Wharton takes long-service leave. ABC reported last Friday that Wharton and chief financial officer Mark Shelton could both leave the company as part of management changes.

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Seven West Media and Yahoo7 is the number one Australian digital content publisher

Building on its market-leading performance across broadcast television and publishing, Seven West Media and Yahoo7 is the number one media digital content publisher in Australia for the third consecutive month with a unique monthly audience of 11.570 million.

  • Seven West Media combined with Yahoo7 (11.570 million) outperforms Fairfax (10.730 million) and News Australia (10.504 million)*, ABC (7.692 million), Nine Entertainment (5.374 million) and Bauer Media (2.663 million), SBS (2.531 million) and Ten Network (2.204 million) in unique monthly audience in October.
  • Yahoo7 News Websites including 7 News and The West online deliver a monthly unique audience of 2.827 million, a 14% increase in unique audience vs September 2016.
  • PLUS7 is number one in broadcast catch-up apps, with a monthly unique audience of 1.136 million (up 25% on September 2016) – and outpacing ABC iView (0.888 million), 9Now (0.808 million) and TENplay (0.622 million).

Commenting, Clive Dickens, Seven West Media’s Chief Digital Officer, said: “Right across Seven West Media all of our businesses and teams are seeing record audiences online from PLUS7 to 7 News, Pacific to Yahoo7 and The West to 7 Sport. With the return of 7 Tennis next month and the inclusion of Perth Now as part of a totally re-launched WAN platform we expect to widen the gap as number one next year.”

Ed Harrison, CEO of Yahoo7, said: “Yahoo7 is uniquely able to attract new audiences through the combination of global technology and original local content. It’s rewarding to see that Yahoo7’s ongoing investment in a diverse product set including Mail, Tumblr, PLUS7 and Yahoo7 Be, has resulted in significant audience growth, particularly in mobile.”
Kurt Burnette, Seven West Media’s Chief Revenue Officer, said: “These numbers are a clear validation of our strategy in action. It is Australia’s best content delivered everywhere and the audience has clearly followed. The combination of the leading broadcast and publishing assets along with the leading digital audience can only mean the very best of success and outcomes for our advertising partners.”

Source: Nielsen Digital Ratings Monthly 2016
*Investments of News Australia including realestate.com.au and Foxtel has a combined unique audience of 12.182 million.

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Statement from Seven West Media Board

The Board of Seven West Media Limited (Seven) met today in response to the allegations made by a former employee which contain wide-ranging inaccuracies and false statements.

The fact is a confidential settlement deed was entered into more than two years ago with the former employee, Ms Amber Harrison, who was represented at the time by Harmers Lawyers who (Seven understands) have since ceased acting on her behalf. The settlement deed was approved by the relevant board committee of Seven and continues to be binding.

Seven agrees that the inappropriate consensual sexual relationship made public by Ms Harrison is deeply regrettable and the Chairman has always made clear to Mr Worner that the alleged conduct, even though a personal matter, was completely unacceptable.

Separately, Tim Worner apologised at the time and now, for the inappropriate consensual relationship with Ms Harrison, that commenced prior to his appointment as chief executive, and has been working with the Board and Executive to ensure this improper behavior is not a part of Seven’s culture.

Mr Worner said: “This relationship finished some years ago and I apologised at the time, and am still trying to make amends. I am obviously filled with the deepest regret and shame. My focus is to continue to work through this in private and minimise the distress to my family. They are the most important people in the world to me and I will continue to fight to repair the damage I’ve caused.”

In relation to the Company’s enquiries into Ms Harrison’s credit card account, it was noted that concerns regarding misuse of her corporate credit card and personal expense claims she charged to Seven, arose from standard expense reconciliation enquiries prior to management and the Board being made aware of the relationship. These were then confirmed in a report carried out by an independent firm of accountants engaged at the request of the audit committee. Allegations by Ms Harrison that this was a vindictive reaction to the misuse of her credit card or arose other than from normal process and policy are rejected.

Confidentiality (including mutual non disparagement) was agreed by both sides in the interests of both sides who were the subject of the allegations, which were resolved on a “without admissions” basis. The payment, agreed to be made to the former employee in instalments, took into account her solicitors’ strong assertions regarding her needs and fragile emotional stability and were designed to enable her to move on with her life.

Seven is entitled to withhold payment for non compliance with the settlement deed. The former employee failed to progress her complaint in the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Allegations made in her statement which name other employees are rejected totally, including any allegation that other current or former employees have been paid off.

Tim Worner will continue as chief executive.

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Report from Fairfax

Seven’s share price plummets after claims of coke-fuelled affair by boss Tim Worner

Seven West Media is standing by its embattled chief executive Tim Worner despite condemning his inappropriate sexual relationship with an employee as “completely unacceptable” and “deeply regrettable”.

AFR

Seven West shares drop, former employee accuses CEO Worner of workplace affair

Australian Shareholders Association director Stephen Mayne said it shouldn’t have taken Seven so long to make a statement.

“We’ve never seen a market cap of an ASX200 company crash by 8 per cent on an issue like this. It was a communications and a governance failure,” he said.

“There remain many issues to deal with, such as reports of $1 million in legal fees on this matter. It’s fair to say the whole sordid exercise has dented confidence in Tim Worner, Kerry Stokes and the Seven board.”

News

Explicit text messages expose affair between Seven chief executive and former employee

Separately, Tim Worner apologised at the time and now, for the inappropriate consensual relationship with Ms Harrison, that commenced prior to his appointment as chief executive, and has been working with the Board and Executive to ensure this improper behavior is not a part of Seven’s culture.

Mr Worner said: “This relationship finished some years ago and I apologised at the time, and am still trying to make amends. I am obviously filled with the deepest regret and shame. My focus is to continue to work through this in private and minimise the distress to my family. They are the most important people in the world to me and I will continue to fight to repair the damage I’ve caused.”

It always surprises me how poorly communications companies are at communicating when negative stories appear.

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I think this is really a non-news story, I mean is it really news worthy?

As if she thought this would make Seven sack Worner or like the company wasn’t aware?

Australia’s press do love a field day :wink:

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It’s news, so yes.

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