Nine good reasons for change
A restructure at the media giant is good news, but will it go far enough?
Becoming the story is never a good thing for a news organisation — and Nine Entertainment made the headlines for all the wrong reasons last year.
A report into the workplace culture at the media behemoth led to some initial changes, with some people leaving the business. But, as I and others said at the time, that couldn’t be it; there was more to be done.
There can be no closure or proper recompense for people who were bullied or harassed at Nine unless the perpetrators are seen to pay a real price. And by that, I don’t mean being allowed to leave the building with little fuss and lots of money.
They need to face actual consequences that will prevent them from moving on to repeat their bad behaviour elsewhere. Exposure of the verifiably guilty will also protect those employees who have left, or will leave, Nine for other reasons from being wrongly assumed to be “under a cloud”.
But it’s also the case as I write this that some people who committed or were complicit in bullying and harassment are still in the business.
This situation must be put right as a result of the restructure at the top of the business that was announced this week.
Basically, the restructure splits the business in three:
A publishing division that includes The Age and Sydney Morning Herald (and, presumably, Brisbane Times, although I’ve not seen that spelled out) plus the nine.com.au website. It will be led by Tory Maguire.
A “marketplace” division, including Drive and Domain, led by Alex Parsons.
A streaming and broadcast division with Amanda Laing at the helm, taking responsibility for Stan, 9Now, broadcast TV and Nine Radio.
It’s the last one that interests me the most, because I know that area is in desperate need of change, both in terms of work practices and work culture. And for that reason, it seems appropriate that Laing, who held senior positions at Foxtel and Binge, has come from outside of Nine. A new broom to sweep away a problematic past — but, hopefully, not under the carpet.
From a business perspective, the restructure offers Nine an opportunity to eliminate duplication and enhance cooperation among its divisions.
In the entertainment arena, that would mean merging production resources and budgets to deliver more bang for the buck.
In news, it could mean strengthening the product by pooling the efforts of its television and radio journalists. Joint newsrooms with multiskilled reporters and producers should lead to more authoritative and seamless coverage of big stories and the ability to cover more ground. That could give it a serious edge over its commercial rival, Seven.
Nine Radio offers its own set of challenges. It was the target of the lion’s share of complaints to the independent culture review, and yet it seems to me that little has been done to remedy this situation.
However, 2025 offers the chance to shake things up, on air and behind the scenes.
Among its top-performing stations, Sydney’s 2GB is starting the year without heavy hitter Ray Hadley, a longtime ratings winner who left last year despite having more than a year to go on his contract.
Among Nine’s worst-performing stations, Brisbane’s 4BC is kicking off with a refurbished main studio, yet a ratings situation that could be kindly referred to as “challenging”.
Friend of Mister Brisbane Dan Barrett offers his valuable and insightful thoughts on the Nine restructure here (it’s after his analysis of what’s up with TikTok).
His suggestion of making the talk radio stations available on 9Now is an excellent one. He also addresses the problem of renewing audiences, noting that the Nine offering has little appeal to younger people.
I don’t know what age group Dan is thinking of, but “younger” is subjective. According to the GfK radio survey, the people most glued to talk are over 65. I reckon the core audience is much older, but ageist methodology plonks everyone in the last two-thirds of their lives together. In any case, those stations in the Nine group that have large listener numbers don’t have the “right” kind of listeners for many advertisers.
Lowering the average age by just a decade or two — from the Greatest Generation and older Boomers to Generation Jones and Gen X — could bring in a lot of listeners with no mortgage ready cash to spend on big ticket items such as whitegoods, furniture, cars and travel (not just retirement homes and funeral directors).
There is a lot to put right at 4BC, and I’ve had my say on that (perhaps too) many times in the past. (You can check the archives here.)
As a lover of radio with a special fondness for 4BC, I have renewed optimism because of this strategic move at the very top of Nine.
Time will tell whether there is true commitment to cultural change but, having renovated its studios, 4BC now has the chance to rebuild its on-air presence and its audience base.
P.S. One positive change at 4BC I’m happy to report is the addition of Monique Dews to the newsroom. Dews, who will read the news during Drive, is a well-known voice in Brisbane, having previously worked for Nova and ARN.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz used to do many things, including working for Newscorp and 4BC. Now he’s doing this thing and will soon announce another thing.