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“If Information Corp insists on sacking the majority of their workforce after which working the remaining employees to the bone, they should pay up,” Derrick says.
Information Corp redundancies don’t make information as usually as the opposite firms that make swaths of redundancies in a single fell swoop. When 9 made 200 employees redundant in 2024, employees from throughout the publishing division went on strike for 5 days.
Information is understood for a “dying by one thousand cuts” method, with employees out the door in a relentless movement, which means it will probably keep away from headlines.
“We now have engaged with the MEAA relating to questions they’ve raised about extra editorial shifts and have invited them to tell us of any claims of underpayment, which they’re but to do,” a Information Corp spokesperson stated.
Underpayments and rostering points aren’t restricted to Information Corp. In 2022, 9 back-paid various employees after underpayments throughout a six-year interval. Seven is dealing with a present class motion lawsuit over underpayments, whereas the ABC has additionally confronted underpayment points, and is being challenged within the Federal Court docket over its use of mounted time period contracts.
The company divorce
Recent off his household feud, Lachlan Murdoch has now endured a company divorce together with his most trusted aide and consigliere, Siobhan McKenna.
Only one week in the past, I touched on the juncture in Siobhan McKenna’s profession in a profile for Good Weekend. Transferring on from Foxtel, McKenna was all the time possible she would give attention to extra top-level discussions, reasonably than simply the nitty-gritty of Sky Information.
Final week, McKenna joined the Murdoch’s inside circle in Los Angeles on the annual get-together at Lachlan’s $150 million Beverley Hills mansion, Chartwell.
Melbourne-based Information Corp powerbroker Siobhan McKenna has confirmed crucial to the fortunes of the Murdoch clan.Credit score: Chris Andrew
However on Thursday morning, international Information Corp boss Robert Thomson introduced McKenna was exiting the enterprise, and shortly after, this masthead reported there can be a whole cut up, together with her additionally set to go away Murdoch’s non-public funding car Illyria and its radio firm Nova.
That’s an sudden finish to Murdoch and McKenna’s 20-year working relationship.
At simply 53, McKenna has a few years left in company life. However inside just some months, she’s given up gigs working Foxtel, Sky Information and Nova, leaving her solely outstanding place as chair of Australia Put up. Australia’s busiest govt now has loads of time freed as much as write the second novel she’s been engaged on.
Eager to give attention to non-executive roles, McKenna’s three-year appointment at Australia Put up expires in December. Having finished an honest job, together with protecting it out of the headlines, and with a fan within the PM, it’s possible the federal government will give her an extension (if she desires it), On Background was instructed this week.
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Each Murdoch and McKenna have benefited professionally from their relationship over the previous twenty years. Murdoch may say he’s a profitable businessman in his personal proper, and McKenna constructed her popularity as probably the most highly effective and linked executives in Australia.
There’s little question she’s going to swim, not sink, in life exterior the Murdoch ecosystem. There isn’t a politician or govt within the nation who wouldn’t return her name, apart from perhaps these she’s clashed with previously few many years. Don’t low cost the AFL tapping her up for her broadcasting experience, having brokered its most up-to-date rights deal.
Energy vacuum
The cut up leaves many questions on the desk. Firstly, was there a falling-out between the pair? As reported in Good Weekend, there was hypothesis inside Information Corp she would pay a worth for the household belief case blowing up in each Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch’s faces, however the messaging within the quick aftermath of the settlement deal was that she had been forgiven.
The second query is whether or not Lachlan makes use of this second to promote Nova. It’s a worthwhile firm, certain, however like each legacy media firm, it has its challenges. Discovering a alternative for McKenna is one problem Murdoch hasn’t needed to take care of up to now, and he may use the money after promoting off voting shares in Fox and Information Corp to fund his $5 billion household deal.
Questions have additionally been raised as to the place this leaves the reporting strains of Paul Whittaker, Sky Information CEO, significantly with a transfer to Holt Road scheduled in coming months. On Background has heard hypothesis Whittaker will report back to New York, however that’s unconfirmed.
A vibrant journo Roars once more
When you caught our investigation into the online of firms preventing for management of ailing sports activities web site The Roar final week, you’d suppose the listing of vibrant characters concerned had been match for a gossip or leisure journal.
However there was one other growth within the week since that story was printed. It seems certainly one of Australia’s most well-known journalists (exterior of Australia), Dylan Howard, has popped up as a possible white knight for The Roar, a number of sources inform On Background. Like many elements on this story, it’s unclear precisely what his involvement is.
Dylan Howard within the Oval Workplace in 2017 with Donald Trump throughout Trump’s first time period as president.
Howard is one thing of an enigma in Australian media. A former sports activities journalist from Geelong who made his title at Community Seven, he moved to America to pursue a profession in leisure journalism, gaining a popularity for skulduggery and scoops, and getting accused by Jeff Bezos for extortion after claiming to have a “beneath the belt” (dick pic) of the Amazon founder. He was additionally named as a co-conspirator in Donald Trump’s hush-money legal trial in 2024, so it’s secure to say he’s certainly one of our extra attention-grabbing journalism exports.
He’s reportedly again residing in Australia and runs his personal media firm, however apparently desires so as to add The Roar to his listing of belongings, such is his lifelong love for Australian sports activities.
Contacted about Howard’s potential involvement, Miro Mikrut, the only director of Fan Media, which has operated The Roar “below licence” stated Howard has no intentions to take a position.
Howard additionally referred to as the hypothesis incorrect, including that The Roar “seems to be caught up in a really opaque dispute” and he has little interest in investing.
A brand new highlight
Former 7News Highlight reporter and Sky Information investigative journalist Taylor Auerbach is launching a brand new podcast, The Listening to – his tackle authorized and media information in Australia.
Taylor Auerbach’s new authorized affairs podcast.
He’s no stranger to both topic, having been a late entry into Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial final 12 months. He’s now suing Seven himself, claiming the corporate made disparaging feedback about him following a blow-up between him and his former colleague Steve Jackson, now media author at The Australian, shone a proverbial highlight on the efforts the present went to so as to safe an unique interview with Lehrmann.
