‘There has never been a better time to be in media, advertising’: Nine head weighs in on when ‘challenging’ market will turn

The Australian media and marketing industry is reeling from challenges like budget cuts and staff redundancies, but one of Nine’s top figures believes the market is close to turning around.

Appearing on the latest episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one series, the media giant’s chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson, believes there is reason for the industry to be optimistic.

“There has never been a better time to be in media. There’s never a better time to be in advertising. And there’s never been a better time to do that in Australia,” Stephenson told host Neil Griffiths.

“When I reflect back over the last 12 months, and I get asked this a lot is: ‘When’s the market going to return? The reality is in the last 12 months, the most challenging of economic times where consumer and business confidence has been low, but the ad market only declined by 1.6 per cent in FY 24.  So, advertising continues to prove that it’s incredibly resilient.”