West Australian Newspapers, with its daily newspaper plus the Sunday Times, community and regional titles, isn’t for sale, according to the new CEO of Southern Cross Media, Rohan Lund.
The publications, which came to the company when it took over Seven West Media, were seen to have little relevance to a business operating national television and radio networks.
The assets were reportedly on sale for the right price.
However, Lund told The Australian in an interview the company had no plans to sell West Australian Newspapers.
“A sale is not on my radar at all,” Lund said. “I think we will see a resurgence in mastheads as we seek out news we can trust.”
Lund, the television executive appointed CEO this month, wants to see more hustle on revenue and a core focus on digital.
“We need to hustle for the revenue we deserve,” he said in an internal email seen by AdNews.
“We need to reset our costs quickly so we have the capacity to do what we do best.
“We need to meet our audience on any device, at any time, with the same creative magic in short and long form.
"Digital will be at the core of our thinking.”
The company in February 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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