Matt Thomas
Karl Stefanovic's removal from Nine and ARN had little to do with public outrage, and everything to do with advertising dollars, according to reputation expert Matt Thomas.
Stefanovic, who hosted Today on Nine and co-hosted The Long Weekend podcast with ARN, was dropped from both roles after an episode of his independent podcast, The Karl Stefanovic Show, where he interviewed far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Matt Thomas, founder and chief catalyst at Stake: The Reputation Company, a firm specialising in crisis management, reputation and PR, said both broadcasters were operating in an environment where mitigating advertiser risk had become essential.
"You just need to look at some of the job cuts that are happening, particularly in broadcast media, to understand that those advertising dollars are tight," Thomas said.
"Publishers are operating in an environment where they can't afford to take on unnecessary risk.
"Advertisers are increasingly focusing on the fact that their sponsorship of particular shows through advertising is essentially an endorsement of the editorial policies of that publication."
Thomas said Stefanovic's editorial choices could have been perceived by brands as Nine's implicit alignment with and approval of his conduct.
"Because of our complex media landscape, it's too easy for those things to be misconstrued, and so the association becomes problematic," he said.
"The nature of this interview, in terms of the reputation of the interviewee, means that the host publications are having challenges around the degree to which it's perceived as editorial decisions that they've made."
On the future of Stefanovic's independent podcast, Thomas said finding the right advertising partnerships could pose some difficulty.
"The Today Show has a different audience set to Karl's podcast, and therefore it's going to attract different advertisers," he said.
"He's probably not going to be bringing some of those advertisers who had invested in his brand at Nine, with Today, across to his podcast.
"That doesn't mean that there aren't other people who are interested in investing in spaces where there's more controversy and discussion.
“That's probably a narrower niche of brands, so it's probably narrowed the field of the types of brands that might be intentionally advertising on his podcast — but that doesn't mean there's not a target audience for that content and advertisers who are willing to come along on that journey."
Thomas said there could be some merit to industry speculation that Stefanovic may have intentionally sought to break his contracts with both organisations.
"He's taken a much more controversial line in terms of the people that he has been interviewing on his podcast.
“He was playing a slightly risky game in terms of his main employment, so I suspect he had to have some level of awareness that there was a risk there.
"Whether or not he was doing that intentionally to get out of a contract, that's harder to speculate on.
“But he's a smart operator, and he knows the industry, and he had to have some awareness of how his employers would respond to his editorial choices."
AdNews has approached The Karl Stefanovic Show for comment.
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