Channel Nine boss Mike Sneesby under fire for going on holiday abroad on the same day as the redundancies massacre
The Channel Nine boss was criticized after heading abroad on holiday on the day hundreds of employees were told they would lose their jobs due to cost-cutting measures.
Nine Entertainment CEO Mike Sneesby flew to Greece with his family on Friday for a week’s holiday after the media company cut 200 jobs.
The controversial CEO was spotted in the first class lounge at Sydney Airport, presumably on his way to a relative’s wedding. The Daily Telegraph.
It is clear that his annual leave was planned before the cuts.
But the timing could not have been worse for Mr Sneesby, who was already being questioned about his handling of allegations of bullying by former news director Darren Wick.
An employee of Nine said The Australian The Greek trip was similar to Scott Morrison’s infamous decision to take his family on holiday to Hawaii during the devastating Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20.
‘The timing is bad. “He doesn’t seem to understand how angry the staff is,” they said.
“He certainly doesn’t seem to understand how seriously these cuts will hit Nine’s journalism.”
Nine CEO Mike Sneesby (pictured) has come under fire for taking annual leave on the same day that 200 jobs – four per cent of the company’s workforce – will be cut
A senior insider told The Australian: “It seems like he has tried so hard to put a positive spin on it that the company has lost all transparency.”
Nine staff were reportedly surprised by an email informing them of the redundancies. This involved four percent of the company’s workforce.
Most of the job losses are expected to be at Nine’s publishing arm, which owns The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, the Brisbane Times and WAtoday.
There are expected to be 90 job cuts in the publishing sector and 38 positions at Nine’s television studios.
The remaining layoffs will take place across the company. That’s why media trade union Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance tabled a motion of no confidence against Mr Sneesby and Nine’s entire board on Friday afternoon.
Mr Sneesby sits on the board with five others, including new chair Catherine West following the recent resignation of her successor Peter Costello.
When he made the announcement last week, he blamed declining ad sales for the job losses.
Mr Sneesby also cited Meta’s decision to refrain from renegotiating payments for news articles appearing in Facebook feeds.
Controversial Nine boss Mikes Sneesby (pictured) blamed the lack of Olympic advertising revenue and Meta’s failure to negotiate payments for Australian news content for the job losses
“It’s not something we want to do, but it’s something we need to do to continue to build on a successful platform of high-quality journalism and digital subscription growth,” Mr Sneesby wrote.
The network reportedly had difficulty selling the smaller advertising packages for the Olympic broadcasts, even though all major sponsors were already secured.
A new enterprise agreement is still being negotiated after the current agreement expired on Sunday.
The new agreement is expected to cost the network significantly more money in staff salaries.
The company’s troubles have impacted Nine Entertainment’s stock price, which closed at $1.37 on Monday, a loss of more than 32 percent over the past six months.
