Political fundraiser a mistake, Nine chair admits.
At its AGM on Tuesday Nine was asked about political fundraisers and Karl on front pages.
- Published by David Knox
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At Nine’s Annual General Meeting yesterday, Chairman Peter Costello acknowledged a fundraiser for the Liberal Party on Nine’s Willoughby premise had been a mistake.
“The board has discussed its role and has decided we will not be holding any political fundraisers at our premises,” the former federal treasurer confirmed.
Costello said it was CEO Hugh Marks’ decision and he had “openly admitted” it was a mistake.
The board was also asked about the editorial decision to run a front page Sydney Morning Herald story about Karl Stefanovic’s return to the Today show on the weekend, and not bushfire currently coverage.
Marks denied any influence by management.
“First assurance, neither Peter nor myself would know anything about the editor’s choices as to what they decided to run on the paper on that day. It’s not something that’s subject to editorial interference,” Marks said.
“In terms of the general editorial intention for the mastheads, we continue to drive towards a revenue model more based on the subscriber, or what we call reader revenue, whether that be circulation or subscriptions and that very much depends on the integrity, quality, depth of coverage, things like the importance of media freedom are all relevant to the future of those mastheads.
“Will the editors get it right every time? No. they’re all human. Will they get it right more often than not? I expect so.”
Nine reported weak trading conditions and predicted ‘low single digit growth’ for FY2020 earnings before EBITDA.
Company shares dropped by more than 7 per cent after TV ad revenue fell by 6.4 per cent in the first quarter.
Nine however indicated Stan is performing ahead of expectations, including profitability and cashflow.
In a note to staff CEO Hugh Marks said, “Nine’s television business – driven by the strength of our program slate – is still outperforming our traditional TV competitors, and we believe we are well positioned to capitalise on this strength when the market recovers. Our digital and publishing business continue to grow its reader revenues and digital advertising revenues, with 9Now continuing to be a real stand out in terms of its growth. Stan continues to see positive momentum in subscribers, revenue and profitability. And Domain is well positioned to benefit from the current positive lead indicators in the housing market.”