Nine Entertainment‘s Chief Sales Officer Michael Stephenson (main picture) and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA)‘s Chief Financial Officer Tim Young have both had their resignations announced today. Tim departs at the end of January 2025. Nine executive Matt James has been appointed to Michael’s role on an interim basis.
Michael was Chief Sales Officer with Nine for almost a decade, with accountability for the company’s advertising revenue across its Total Television, Total Publishing and Total Audio assets.
Nine’s Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Stanton, himself also acting in the role, said:
“Since Michael joined as Director of Sales for ninemsn almost two decades ago, Nine has successfully responded to the changing industry dynamics and consistently performed strongly in the advertising market. During his tenure, Nine has developed the television trading platform 9Galaxy, launched self-serve advertising platform 9AdManager and rapidly grown our BVOD revenue share to 47 per cent in FY24.
We are fortunate that high-calibre media executive Matt James is stepping in to lead the Sales team to ensure continuity for Nine’s key partners and sales team. With experience on both the media and agency sides, a strong background in digital, and extensive knowledge of Nine, Matt is well placed to ensure he hits the ground running with the Sales team during 2025.”
Recruitment to appoint a Chief Sales Officer on a permanent basis will be finalised in the New Year.
Tim was appointed as SCA’s CFO two years ago after more than a decade in senior roles at The Walt Disney Company.
Executive head of finance and transformation, Toby Potter will act as CFO in an expanded role while SCA assesses “the ongoing requirements of the CFO role in coming months”.
This latest change is the third in a week of ASX announcements. On Monday SCA said they have signed heads of agreement for the sale of its television licences in the three aggregated markets of Queensland, southern New South Wales and Victoria to Network 10. The proceeds of that sale will go towards reducing net debt, which in another ASX release a couple of days earlier, they have successfully negotiated the refinancing of its committed syndicated debt facility for another three years.