SCA restructures Listnr leadership team
Grant Tothill
SCA has reshuffled the executive deck at its audio streaming platform Listnr, with three promotions and a structural overhaul that sees a key role reporting in to both revenue and operations execs.
Grant Tothill, former executive head of Listnr’s audience and growth, will now take on the role of executive head of Listnr operations and audience. This expands his remit to cover content, commercial, and operations.
Tothill will report to SCA chief operating officer Stephen Haddad, who will be in charge of overseeing the Listnr operation.
Grant Tothill
Sam Cavanagh, former executive producer of Hamish and Andy’s radio show and podcasts, will become head of content at Listnr, overseeing the creation and commissioning of its original podcast slate. He will report directly to Tothill.
Finally, Mike Williams — ABC radio veteran and Listnr’s executive producer of original podcasts since joining SCA in 2022 — has been promoted to head of entertainment and culture, leading the entertainment vertical. He will report to Cavanagh.
SCA built and launched the Listnr platform in 2021, replacing the company’s online audio player PodcastOne, which had been a partnership with the US company of the same name.
Unlike major competitor, ARN, who have a long-term licensing deal with iHeart at the centre of its local podcasting play, SCA decided to turn away from licensing and built its own IP.
Sam Cavanagh
The platform had what CEO John Kelly called a “remarkable” growth period, breaking even in the second half of 2024, turning a $100,000 profit on revenue of $22.1 million.
This break-even point had been forecast in a company’s results presentation in 2023, which declared “major digital investments are complete, improving both experience and commercial opportunity.”
SCA’s accounts showed investment in Listnr continued to the tune of $16.4 million in non-revenue related costs for the final six months of calendar year 2024.
Listnr’s $42 million revenue for the 2024 calendar year was up 48% from 2023. The platform now boasts 2.25 million signed-up users, with more than 10 million monthly listeners across its podcasts. Kelly estimated that around 70% of these downloads were for Listnr-owned content.
John Kelly
“We have the highest revenues of the local [podcast] players by some distance,” Kelly told Mumbrella in March. “We’re growing [at a rate of] double the market.”
“It’s already 10%, or thereabouts, of our revenue and really growing – at very strong double digits.”
SCA has in recent weeks been troubled by activist investor Sandon Capital, who is seeking to roll Chair Heith Mackay‑Cruise and directors Ido Leffler, Carole Campbell and Marina Go. Sandon has been critical of what it describes as an unrealistic executive remuneration scheme and dividend payouts it says are designed to shore up investor support.
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I wonder what the combined salaries of Grant Tothill, Sam Cavanagh and Dave Cameron would be at a time when SCA are axing junior staff amid falling profits and continual poor ratings?