New digital masthead The Nightly is set to avoid the reported scores of job cuts incoming at Seven West Media, Crikey understands.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported up to 150 jobs are on the chopping block amid a restructure announced by Seven West on Tuesday that saw senior executives leave the company and a new CFO announced. However sources speaking to Crikey say The Nightly will be left untouched.
Crikey understands every state that Seven operates in has a target of redundancies to be met, with all departments (besides The Nightly) set to be affected.
Chief revenue officer Kurt Burnette and head of sport and Seven Melbourne managing director Lewis Martin are among the biggest names to depart in the shakeup, which The Australian Financial Review reports is part of an attempt to cut $100 million in costs.
The company will be split into three new divisions — television, digital and Western Australia. Chief content officer Angus Ross will helm television, chief digital officer Gereurd Roberts will helm digital, and Maryna Fewster will continue in her role of CEO of Seven West Media WA. Craig Haskins has been appointed CFO, having served as acting CFO since since his predecessor Jeff Howard was promoted to CEO following the departure of James Warburton in April.
As the only major media company in the country without significant alternative sources of revenue, Seven have been particularly exposed to the recent advertising downturn, reporting a 53% drop in profits in February.
Howard told a parliamentary inquiry last week that the withdrawal of Meta from its news publishing deals would mean job cuts.
“The funding has been used to fund the entire news operation and investment in platforms and content. So we’ll be looking across the board if this funding is not available,” Howard said.
The Nightly launched in February to much fanfare, with inaugural editor Anthony De Ceglie promising it would fight for “common sense, mainstream middle and working class economic conservatism”. Its debut editorial claimed that “on almost every issue, extremist fringes have hijacked respectful and meaningful debate”.
