must agree by now that Seven West Media is the Kerry Stokes show. The West Australian billionaire owns a commanding 40.2 per cent of the media company through Seven Group Holdings, has chaired the company since 2008, and speaks to its executives all the time.
It is less than 1 per cent of Seven Group’s worth, but must take up far more time than that for the 83-year-old and his son,James WarburtonFormer Seven West Media CEO James Warburton.Outgoing CEOs will usually have non-disparagement clauses written into their contracts, but in Warburton’s case, it really wouldn’t have been necessary.
On Thursday, Seven’s embattled board met for the first time since all hell broke loose in the form of former. Auerbach claimed Seven paid for drugs and prostitutes to secure an exclusive interview with noted rapist. The board was said to be blindsided by the allegations, which exploded in court earlier this month., Seven’s embattled director of news and public affairs, was not questioned about what he knew about Auerbach’s allegations.
This lack of live grilling means McPherson’s role is either utterly secure – or he is already gone. The board then farewelled Warburton, whose planned April 18 departure was tainted by the coverage, and welcomed Seven’s new CEO,Howard has already raised eyebrows with his first all-staff email on Friday, managing to come across as both a tough guy and a wet blanket. “I’ve never smoked. I don’t do drugs. Never have, never will,” he said. “Call me boring, but I don’t even drink coffee.
After acknowledging the bad apples, Howard then hit out at rival media companies for pointing them out. “Our peers want to work more closely with us to make our industry more competitive with the relatively unregulated large tech giants,” he wrote. “While we expect to be held accountable for the things we do, the coverage of Seven over the past couple of weeks is a very strange way to indicate a desire for partnership.”is the media and marketing reporter at The Australian Financial Review.