At a staff meeting this afternoon, which has just concluded, ARN staff were told of more job cuts to come across the company.
Between seventy to one hundred jobs will go as ARN outsources various jobs to off shore locations.
All the jobs are believed to be behind the scenes jobs in head office. No regional producer, presenter or journalist jobs are believed to be involved. It is believed that Finance, Sales Support (known as ‘media services’ within ARN) and Technology services will be amongst those outsourced.
Staff who will be affected by the cuts were told in advance of the staff meeting.
ARN Media CEO and Managing Director Ciaran Davis has told radioinfo it has been a “difficult decision” to make.
“ARN’s transformation program continues as we reshape our business to invest more deeply in the areas driving our future growth – content creation, cross-platform distribution, and advanced commercial solutions. As part of this, we are changing the composition of our team to become leaner and more efficient, which will involve the relocation of some roles and unfortunately, a reduction in headcount.
“This is a difficult decision and has not been taken lightly. We are deeply grateful for the contributions of those impacted and are committed to supporting them through this transition with care, respect, and practical assistance.”
Online finance systems and AI functionality have made remote finance services possible in many industries. Advances in cloud technology mean that the need for technicians is also decreased.
This morning Kyle Sandilands addressed comments made by the MFW around a segment involving team member Cooper Johns and also about his and Jackie O’s on air roles at ARN’s KIIS 101.1 in Melbourne saying:
“I’ve told our management this, we’re not going to super serve Melbourne and ignore our Sydney audience. Here’s something I haven’t even discussed with Jackie, if we don’t rate better by the end of this year, I’m pulling the carpet out. I’ll just take the show off Melbourne.”
ARN’s annual general meeting is next Thursday May 8. GfK Radio 360 Survey 2 is out tomorrow morning, May 1, at 9:30am.