‘We had no control over Daily Mail costs’ and it was unprofitable says Nine CEO on exit from JV
Nine’s senior executive team has used the half-yearly investor call to shine new light on its reasons for exiting its joint-venture on news website the Daily Mail Australia.
Marks: “We had no control over the costs of the business”
Today’s profit result saw Nine include a $9.4m write-down in costs, associated mainly with the conclusion of the Daily Mail joint-venture.
When asked by investors about the reasons behind the exit CFO Simon Kelly said Nine’s strategy was to move towards 100%-owned properties: “With the Daily Mail we owned 50% of the business and were diverting our audience to the Daily Mail and only getting a 50% return on that audience.
Classic nine arrogance – attempting to put a spin on the fact they dropped millions of dollars to help launch a digital competitor into this market. NEC is an absolute basket case. it’s like a once great heavyweight champ – now a punchdrunk and shuffling mess, deluded in thinking he still has a shot at the title
Is this a message for the Stan mates?
It’s all a bit of a shambles in at nec right now.
Really?
One program will save the Network?
Who is he kidding – with TEN improving and SEVEN super strong this first half 35- 36 share coming faster than he can count!
There are massive issues inside Mi9. Literally every member of the executive team has left. Yesterday’s announcement was part of a wider strategy to shift the blame to Daily Mail to hide what’s actually happening. A recent Nine brand study conducted internally set off massive alarm bells as it showed there were only two Nine brands that consumers recognised – Channel 9 and Daily Mail Australia. Yet they couldn’t come to an agreement to stick with Daily Mail. Where does that leave NineMSN? Frankly nowhere – it keeps dropping in the rankings and advertisers aren’t buying it like they once did.
If nec was as focussed on it’s audience as it is in positive earnings (only) it would have identified the multitude of opportunities opened up to them by their digital leaders – but maintaining the status quo of the boys club is much more important and we can’t have the tail wagging the dog, can we? Instead we have a bunch of middle-aged (+) TV guys who know nothing of digital and care less for their audiences still oblivious to the self-destructive nature of their arrogance.
Nice diverse executive group there NEC
Someone give these 9/Mi9 insiders their own column already.