Up to 200 jobs expected to be axed across Seven Network

Up to 200 jobs are expected to be axed across the Seven Network in the coming days. The Age reports some staff in the network’s television newsroom have been informed their roles will be affected this week, according to several sources with knowledge of the matter who are not authorised to speak publically. Some staff at West Australian Newspapers have been asked for expressions of interest for voluntary redundancies. The reports come just shy of a month after Rohan Lund began his tenure as the new chief executive of Southern Cross Media – comprising of the newly merged Seven West Media and Southern Cross Austereo. Mr Lund had earlier spoken of his desire for a “lean” corporate structure across SCA during an appearance at the Mumbrella360 conference. Asked about recent and future redundancies in the radio division of the company, Mr Lund acknowledged they had been through a lot of “pain” but reiterated it was “just the nature of the business”. “Amazon’s still one of the fastest growing companies in the world, and they let go 30,000 people. We see that across all of the world’s growth businesses too,” he said, per Mumbrella. “There’s a natural resetting of your cost base, and responding to cyclical conditions. “And it’s hard, and it’s awful when that happens, but I can definitely see radio has gone through it more than anyone else in media from what I can see at the moment.” “And in our business, I’ll be looking at the cost base. I don’t want hide from that, and I’ve told staff that. I had it as one of the things I’ll focus on, resetting the cost base.” Seven has been contacted for further comment about the redundancies. In February, SCA chief executive and managing director Jeff Howard abruptly exited the company “effective immediately”. Mr Howard was the former boss of Seven West Media and took on the role following the $400m merger. In a statement released on the ASX at the time, board chair Heith Mackay-Cruise said he had assumed the role of interim executive chair. “All business unit leaders and corporate services will report to him,” he said in the statement. “The Board has appointed an executive search firm to undertake a global search for SCA’s next CEO.” Mr Mackay-Cruise thanked Mr Howard for his time and “efforts across the period of transition”. “The board is confident in our team’s capability to apply the financial discipline and industry-leading expertise to drive scale and performance for Southern Cross Media Group going forward,” Mr Mackay-Cruise continued. More to come