Credit: NASA via Unsplash
More changes are ahead at SCA as Rohan Lund, a television executive and pioneer in digital media, is appointed chief executive.
The appointment puts John Kelly, who ran SCA before the merger with Seven West, who was interim CEO, back running audio.
Chairman Heith Mackay-Cruise announced the changes, after a “highly successful search process” found the right person among the board of directors. Lund joined the SCA board as a non-executive director on March 1 this year.
“This is a very exciting chapter for the organisation,” Mackay-Cruise said in an email to staff.
“We have a strong board and leadership team, as well as a clear vision for our future as Australia’s leading multi-media organisation in which we are all committed to informing, educating, entertaining and inspiring all Australians.”
Lund is a former chief executive of the NRMA, COO of Foxtel, COO of Seven West Media and founding CEO of Yahoo!7, a digital joint venture formed in 2006 between Yahoo! and Seven West Media.
He replaces Jeff Howard who stepped down in February on the eve of the release of the group's December half results.
"Rohan brings deep media experience, digital and technology-enabled transformation capability, and values-driven leadership skills," said Mackay-Cruise.
"He has led complex organisations through significant change, while maintaining a strong focus on culture, trust and long-term value creation."
Lund's base salary is $1.3 million, with short and long-term incentives.
The new CEO has a few major items on his to-do list, including reviving sliding ad sales at the television side of the business, the part which came from Seven West.
Another is the question of the company’s publishing assets, inherited when Seven West media was rolled into SCA.
These are Western Australian based news titles, including The West Australian, The Sunday Times, community newspapers, state regional titles and the Nightly.
The assets are reportedly on sale for the right price.
“In recent weeks, the Southern Cross leadership team has held internal discussions over how a possible sale of its publishing assets, which include The West Australian newspaper and The Nightly, could take shape, according to a source familiar with the discussions,” the Sydney Morning Herald reported today..
“But the company has yet to hold talks with possible suitors, said the source.”
Lund sees Southern Cross Media Group is one of Australia’s “most important media businesses, with great talent, content and impressive scale and reach across television, audio, digital and publishing”.
“I am excited to work with the Board and leadership team to accelerate our digital and operational transformation and continue to strengthen our culture and performance in the interests of our shareholders, partners and people,” he said.
Southern Cross Media Group posted its first combined post-merger results, for both television and audio, with total revenue down 1.5% to $1.008 billion in the half year to December.
Television revenue was down 2.1% to $712 million while audio was up 3.2% to $216.5 million.
No dividends were declared, with the company focused on debt reduction.
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