The Channel Nine boss has come under fire after he went on holiday abroad on the same day hundreds of staff were told they would lose their jobs as a cost-cutting measure.
Nine Entertainment chief executive Mike Sneesby flew to Greece with his family last Friday for a week’s holiday, hours after 200 jobs were cut at the media company.
The embattled chief executive was seen in the first class lounge at Sydney Airport, and is believed to have been heading to a family wedding, it was reported. The Daily Telegraph.
It is understood that his annual leave had been planned before the cuts.
But the timing couldn’t be worse for Sneesby, who was already under fire for his handling of harassment allegations by former news director Darren Wick.
A Nine employee said The Australian The trip to Greece was comparable to Scott Morrison’s infamous decision to take his family on holiday to Hawaii during the devastating Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20.
‘The timing is bad. “He doesn’t seem to understand how angry the staff is,” they said.
“He certainly doesn’t seem to understand how much these cuts will affect Nine’s journalism.”
Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby (pictured) has come under fire for taking annual leave on the same day 200 jobs – four per cent of the company’s workforce – are to be cut.
A senior source told The Australian: “It seems as though he has tried so hard to put a positive spin on things that the business has lost all transparency.”
Nine staff were reportedly surprised by an email informing them of the job cuts, which represented four per cent of the company’s workforce.
The bulk of the job losses are believed to be in the editorial arm of Nine, which owns The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday.
It is understood that up to 90 jobs will be cut in the publishing sector and 38 jobs will be lost at Nine’s television studios.
The remainder of the redundancies will be company-wide, prompting media union Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance to table a vote of no confidence against Sneesby and the entire Nine board on Friday afternoon.
Mr Sneesby sits on the board alongside five others, including the new chair, Catherine West, following the recent resignation of her successor, Peter Costello.
He blamed declining advertising sales for job losses when he made the announcement last week.
Sneesby also cited Meta’s decision to abandon any renegotiation of payments for news articles displayed in Facebook feeds.
Embattled Nine boss Mikes Sneesby (pictured) blamed a lack of Olympic advertising revenue as Meta failed to renegotiate payments for Australian news content for the job cuts.
“It’s not something we want to do, but it is something we must do to continue building a successful platform for high-quality journalism and digital subscription growth,” Sneesby wrote.
The network reportedly had trouble selling smaller advertising packages for its Olympic broadcast, although all major sponsors have been secured.
A new enterprise bargaining agreement is still being negotiated after the existing one expired on Sunday.
The new deal is expected to cost the chain significantly more money in staff salaries.
The company’s struggles have weighed on Nine Entertainment’s share price, which fell to $1.37 at the close on Monday, representing a loss of more than 32 percent over the past six months.