You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, September thirteenth. The government has stripped combat medals from up to nine current and former officers after they were accused of turning
a blind eye to war crimes by their subordinates. Fatal Opposition Defense spokesman Andrew Hasty, a former SAS captain, says senior commanders have been led off the hook for a lack of moral courage that went all the way to the top. That story is live now at the Australian dot Com three used to be the great powerhouse of TV in Australia. Now it's a bit of a soap opera. We've yet another top executive out the door. So what's
going wrong at the entertainment giant? What was the moment when nine Entertainments jumped the shark?
What have you got to say to the women who've made allegations against you?
Was it when the Australians James Madden and Sophiel's Worth revealed nine's TV news boss was facing unproven misconduct allegations.
Why weren't you upfront about why you left Nine?
Was it when the company's chairman shoved our journalist Lamb Mendez to the ground at Canberra Airport?
Great three, You've just assaulted me, You've just pushed me. It's all on camera, mister Castillo.
Was it when he then tried to deny it.
I did not lay a finger or a fist or anything else.
Or was it when he then left his job good evening?
The former Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has resigned as chair of nine Entertainment.
Maybe it was when the chief executive stayed at a luxury boutique hotel in Paris and ran with the Olympic torch while his staff was striking for better pay. Why don't you just stop and have a chat to us now?
So I'm meeting my family and.
You're a boss of a media business here for work or are you here on a holiday with your family? On Thursday, Mike Sneezebee was out. Here's his statement read by an AI Voice.
In recent months, I have reflected greatly on my plans for the future and in consultation with my family and those close to me, I made a personal decision to consider new opportunities in twenty twenty five.
James Madden is The Australian's media editor. James Mike Sneezbe is considering new opportunities for twenty twenty five. What might they be?
He is, Well, he's certainly not committed to any new job at this early point. I think that's just a comfortable phrase to say when perhaps you're leaving somewhere early than initially planned. But look, he's been three and a half years in the top job at nine as CEO.
The dogs have been barking though for Mike for the past six months, and he made reference to that, I think in his statement this morning where he said it's a year that's really tested the resilience of everyone at nine and acknowledged that it had been a tough period.
He came into this role after the previous CEO, Schu Mars, put his role early after he was accused of impropriety over his relationship with another executive. There was no complaint of misconduct or anything there, But what does that tell us about stability and the culture at nine that this is the second CEO in three years who's had to leave early.
Look, I think what it tells us Claire is that whilst the retric around hu marus departure might have been certainly it's time to clean things up and to improve the culture at Nine, it never really happened. I think it's fair to say that Nine has taken their eye for ball, particularly with regards to the relationship between senior
figures and younger staff. And we saw that play out with the Darren Wick saga and the Darren Wick resignation earlier this year, which in many ways precipitated Sneezbe's departure.
Now Nine is today a very complex business that involves streaming platforms and newspapers, but the core of nine Entertainment is the Nine Television network, which for generations was one of the most stable companies in Australia under the Iron Group of the Packer family. It's quite a remarkable change, isn't it, from this almost institution to something that's now more of a soap opera.
Yeah, it is, and in many ways. The front page picture this week taken by Liam Mendez of ex newsboss Darren Wick, who's obviously at the center of many serious allegations doing a walk of shame, if you want to call it, out of a supermarket car park. The imagery of that was quite striking, given that for so long nine has been so successful in catching people out, calling people to account, and now the spotlight's back on them.
Yeah, famous for elbows out journalism. The current affair really the instigator of the kind of foot in the door journalism that both of these people were pulling victim too For you, what was the moment that it all really went wrong for nine and became inevitable that these people would lose their jobs. Was it pett Castello pushing Liam Mendez to the ground. Was it the allegations against Darren Wick, which of course again are unproven.
I think the allegations against Darren Wick emboldened many staffers to come forward to our newspaper anonymously and to other media outlets as well.
There's a real sense.
Of enough is enough. This is the moment where we're not going to take it anymore. Because Wick and others had been so all powerful in that organization for so long, and many women had left in desperately sad circumstances. Is the truth that felt that they because they didn't comply with the directions and the wishes of certain male bosses, they felt that their careers weren't able to progress. So I think in a sense the dam burst even when
women were talking about their experiences anonymously. The pressure that was brought to bear inside Nine on the culture, particularly the TV and Current Affairs division, was so great that subsequently Peter Corcello couldn't even answer fairly mild questions from Leam Mendez that day at Canberra Airport that once he lashed out, it was almost emblematic of the old guard of the company, metaphorically lashing out at what they perceived to be unfair scrutiny on their cherish culture.
Mike Sneezeby then went to Paris and ran with the Olympic torch while the print division's journalists were on strike here in Australia. What did that moment tell us about Sneezebe's judgment and about his level of focus on print.
I'm sure if he had his time over again, he wouldn't do it.
He did seek to defend the carrying of the torch by saying well Nine was the host broadcast of the Olympics for Australia. He committed to this a long time ago, and he was representing nine as a whole. That may
be true, but optics are everything. And the image of Mike Sneeze be running through the streets suburban streets of Paris in the days leading up to Paris Games while the company was in turmoil at home, particularly at that point the publishing division, who were in the midst of some delicate pay negotiations.
It just sent the wrong message.
The message was really that my priority is not staff, it's over here in Paris having a good time.
Coming up? Should we be sad that this Titanic TV network has fallen so far? Culture is one thing, but nine share price has fallen over the past three years from three dollars to roughly a dollar twenty today. That's very hard to come back from, isn't it, James? And what are the decisions that have been made that have caused that problem?
I think, and this isn't specific to nine necessarily, but a lot of media companies, particularly broadcast companies, were hoping and expecting that the soft advertising market would bounce back sooner than it has now. As we sit here today in September twenty twenty four. It hasn't bounced back, and it's been flat since the end of twenty two, So we're coming up to almost two years of a really flat advertise rising period and there's no turnaround in sight.
I suspect that a lot of companies, including Nine, may be better against the fact that the ad slump was going to continue. So you've seen a significant outlay, particularly on sports rights from Nine in the last two years, namely tennis in the Olympics of the Big two, and with the Olympics, that was an enormous summer of money. They paid three hundred and five million for five Olympic games. We won't really know whether or not that was a
wise investment until Brisbane twenty thirty two. But in many ways it's a back ended gamble because you'd expect they are going to lose money on the four games leading up to Brisbane and are hoping to crall back an enormous sum in twenty thirty two. And of course it's difficult to sit here in twenty four and know what the media landscape's going to look like in twenty thirty two. That's certainly something that's going to be hanging over the company's head for another eight years.
Nine has put in an interim CEO, metst and he's the CFO at Network seven. Their great rival, the bean Counters, are also in charge after several of their executives left for exciting new opportunities as well. What does that tell us about the fate of media companies in twenty twenty four.
Possibly that they want to take a more sober approach to future investments. I suspect seven is also in dire straits in terms of its financials.
Both seven and nine reported very.
Disappointing results in the past few months, and seven share price has been woefully low for many many months now. It's interesting that Matt Stanton's obviously as CFO, been appointed acting CEO. That's not necessarily any indication that he will ultimately be appointed, but I think in coming years the expectation will be that costs will be tight, spending will be tight, and certainly any frills are likely to be paired back.
Is this something sad about that? As a journo, James nine was famous for its largest were high wages for some of its stars, a culture of long lunches and boardroom drinks nights. What's your feeling about the sort of the big shift that we're seeing.
It's sad for those that benefited from such largests, certainly, I don't think it's a surprise in many ways. I think maybe that culture of certain media outlets is simply brought into the modern era where any kind of excess is viewed poorly by shareholders, and I don't think the younger generation who work in the media are expecting that anyway.
It feels like it's a period of change.
It's sandwiches at the desk from now.
On, that's right, and water from the tap.
James Madden is The Australian's Media editor. Thanks for joining us on the front. Our team is Kristin Amiet, Jasper leak leat Semagluk, Joshua Burton, Tiffany Dimack and me Claire Harvey. Forget all the best journalism is in The Australian twenty four to seven