‘It was blatantly obvious’: Ex-Nine chief and Capital Brief CEO slams network’s ‘toxic culture’
(L-R): Lee Lowndes, Chris Janz, Lucky Blakiston, Duncan Greive
Chief executive officer of news publication Capital Brief, and former chief digital and publishing officer at Nine, Chris Janz, has weighed in on the workplace culture of his former employer.
Speaking on a panel at SXSW Sydney on Friday, the long-time journalism and media figure claimed that the “biggest challenge in [his] career” was navigating Nine’s toxic culture.
“I joined Nine as a result of a takeover of the business. I was working in Fairfax when Nine effectively took over the business,” Janz said.
“And it’s now out in the open, you know, a pretty toxic culture… Like, horrifically toxic culture. And one in which there are power games like you’ve never seen.”
A gruelling year for Nine continued when it released the findings of a third-party review into its workplace culture last week.
The report – developed by independent consulting firm Intersection – uncovered “concerning levels of inappropriate workplace behaviours” at the media company. Abuse of authority and power, inequity, reports of bullying, harassment and more were all found to be prevalent within the media company.
(L-R): Lee Lowndes, Chris Janz, Lucy Blakiston, Duncan Greive
“I’m really thankful that it’s now out in the open because I’ve never spoken about it publicly,” Janz said.
Janz said he is hopeful that action will be taken from the report, alleging that there was a “redacted report with a bunch of first person accounts of what happened to them but no one’s been held to account”.
“There’s a bunch of people responsible that are still in that business,” he continued.
“There’s people …who effectively enabled and covered up the behaviour that are still in the business and I’m hopeful that it’s also really looked into the governance failures that have allowed that to exist.
“That’s genuinely the biggest challenge of my career.”
Later in the session, a delegate asked Janz to share an example of the “bad culture at Nine”, and whether or not he thought it impacted the company’s revenue bottom line.
“I think it should,” Janz declared.
“Examples of bad culture… read the report if you want a sense of what is wrong with that particular organisation.
“My big frustration is, it was blatantly obvious that there were cultural issues in that organisation the first day that I walked in there. It’s in plain sight. This didn’t require an independent third party to come in and conduct an investigation that has resulted in a report that doesn’t lead to any consequences.
“It would be quite a simple exercise to create the, ‘Here is the behavior, the repeated behavior, and here are the individuals’. There is a significant cohort.”
In his response, Janz acknowledged that the organisation’s toxicity is confined to a select group of individuals, and is not reflective of every employee.
“There are also thousands of people in that organisation who are bloody excellent journalists, salespeople, technologists. And the problem that I’ve got is that, having come this far, it tars all of them with the same brush,” he continued.
“This is a select group that have used their power in incredibly inappropriate ways over a long period of time.
“And it’s not gender specific. It’s ingrained power imbalances over a very long [time]… it shows itself in the sexual allegations that have been made and it shows itself in a bunch of other ways.
“Do I think it’s hurt the business? I think… when the culture is such that people are concerned about what’s happening within the business, of course, you don’t get the best out of the company.”
As more allegations have surfaced since the report’s release last week, a Nine spokesperson told Mumbrella that the network is dedicated to investigating its culture and “all complaints raised by employees”.
“While not making reference to any individuals, more broadly Nine is committed to investigating all complaints raised by employees with Nine through the channels we make available to our people,” the spokesperson said.
“We encourage our people to respect the process of any investigation. We endeavour to provide as much transparency as we can about the processes involved but we do not, and will not, comment on individual cases.
Karl Stefanovic also weighed in earlier this week
“Confidentiality is fundamental to ensuring a fair and just investigation and reinforcing confidence in our systems and processes. Again, speaking generally, it’s important to note we are alert to and actively looking for inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, and empower our leaders to take action if they observe poor behaviour, even if no complaints are made.”
On Friday morning, one of Nine’s most famous TV hosts, Karl Stefanovic, spoke about the findings on Today, where expressed his sympathies towards the victims, as well as his anger that not enough has been done.
“I can’t imagine how hard that was and the courage that it took. Many people are hurting,” he said.
“They feel like what was the point of speaking out if perpetrators are not called out. I asked the same question yesterday and it’s my understanding several investigations are now underway and we have to be patient for the process of all that. It’s essential and it’s critical.
“I want to say it’s not about us, but there are good men who do work here at Nine, who find what happened absolutely intolerable, who struggle to understand how we didn’t know more and do something, how it grieved you.”
In response to a query from Mumbrella, Nine commented: “While not making reference to any individuals and particular issues, more broadly Nine is committed to investigating all complaints raised by employees with Nine through the channels we make available to our people. We encourage our people to respect the process of any investigation.
“We endeavour to provide as much transparency as we can about the processes involved but we do not, and will not, comment on individual cases. Confidentiality is fundamental to ensuring a fair and just investigation and reinforcing confidence in our systems and processes.
“In our approach, we also consider the welfare of the people involved, with the health, safety and wellbeing of them and everyone in the workplace a priority. The need for care and kindness further underlines the importance of confidentiality in our processes.
“Again speaking generally, it’s important to note we are alert to and actively looking for inappropriate behaviour in the workplace and empower our leaders to take action if they observe poor behaviour, even if no complaints are made.”
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I was also a member of Fairfax who joined Nine during the merger and left due to the toxic culture and bullying. Think a lot of great people were lost during that time through the same treatment.
Feel vindicated from this report – but for some it will just be too little too late.
I think if you are in a senior position with the chance to effect change like Janz was, it’s a lot to sit on a panel years after the event and criticize the culture.
That said, as an ex-employee I am confident he isn’t wrong, but it’s not just the TV business, I saw shocking behaviour in publishing, from the most senior execs and editors in that business unit.