Nine CEO Mike Sneesby has stepped down following a turbulent period in which allegations of widespread sexual harassment and toxicity in the company’s newsrooms were aired.
In an email to staff on Thursday morning, seen by Crikey, Sneesby announced his resignation, calling 2024 “one of the most challenging in his career”.
Sneesby noted the “intensity of the scrutiny” that the company was under, and said he had “made a personal decision to consider new opportunities in 2025 after seeing the important work we are doing around our workplace culture and the outcomes of the culture review”.
“Recently when our board opened a discussion with me about my tenure, we agreed that the timing was right to commence a leadership transition,” he wrote.
Sneesby will finish up on September 30. Nine’s chief finance and strategy officer Matt Stanton will step in as acting CEO the following day, while the company begins recruitment to fill the role.
Nine staffers, speaking to Crikey, said editorial staff were relieved about Sneesby’s resignation.
“Can’t say I’ll miss him,” one staffer said, adding that the executive had stayed in “palatial accommodation” for the Paris Olympics “while his employees went on strike for basic pay increases and were made redundant”.
Another described it as a “great morning”.
One former staffer reflected on The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald’s decision to ban staff from covering the Israel-Palestine conflict if they had signed an open letter criticising Australian media’s coverage of the war.
“Journalism under Nine’s ownership at the two mastheads [under Sneesby] is being stifled, it’s a mess,” they told Crikey.
Staff at Nine received an update on the progress of the ongoing workplace culture review the day before Sneesby’s announcement, with chief people officer Vanessa Morley writing that the company expected to release the findings by the end of October.
In May, reports of widespread toxic behaviour, sexual harassment and bullying in Nine newsrooms were reported by News Corp, with former news director Darren Wick at the centre of a number of allegations of “drunken, lecherous” behaviour towards women in the workplace. Wick resigned in March after a period away from the company, writing in a note to staff that “after many long beach walks and even longer conversations”, he was “tired and need[ed] a rest”. Wick left with a reported settlement of close to $1 million on his departure — more than a year’s salary.
During the Paris Olympics — an event Nine paid $305 million for the rights to (the deal continues through to the 2032 Brisbane games) despite it being criticised as a “vanity broadcast” — Nine staff went on a five-day strike after rejecting a pay offer on the eve of the opening ceremony. During the strike, Sneesby was doorstopped while in Paris entertaining the likes of Racing NSW chair Peter V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo.
