Seven’s newly-appointed news boss Anthony de Ceglie wants to integrate The Nightly into Seven’s 6pm bulletins, and make the most of having “the best video in Australia”.
When video is “king”, he tells Mediaweek a few days after being promoted to director of news and current affairs, and editor-in-chief, “that should be an advertiser’s and a marketer’s dream.”
“Looking at legacy media in traditional silos like TV, radio or print is a really antiquated and outdated idea,” he says.
“In 2024, it’s about bringing all of that together into one unified voice across all our assets, especially digital. Right now, for example, everyone agrees that video is king. Well, Seven West Media produces the best video in Australia every single day and night.
“It’s about how we create synergies with that video across broadcast and digital, and when I say digital, I mean everything from our mothership 7news website to our TikTok accounts for certain shows or states or regions. There is no one that can beat us on video creation in the country. And that should be an advertiser’s and a marketer’s dream.”
This is a point he’s been focusing on internally, he says, because “there seems to sort of be a disconnect internally and a disconnect externally about what we do with our video … sometimes the digital video is not talking to the broadcast video and vice versa. And I don’t think we’re talking to the market enough about how we have every single day reams and reams of the best quality video you could ever imagine, the best video in Australia.
“Part of what I’ll do with Seven is ensure The Nightly is even more integrated with the 6pm bulletins, which was always the dream.
“There’s certainly nothing stopping us now. There was nothing stopping us before, but I can certainly fast-track it in the new role.”
As for the main point De Ceglie wants to make to the market: “there’s an excellent team at Seven News already.”
“It’s been number one nationally since 2015. And it’s been number one in the metro area since 2016. Sunrise has been number one for two decades, right? So there is an excellent team here. But what I would like to do is innovate.
“There’s a lot of integration between broadcast and digital that can happen. I’m very big on what can we do differently? How can we think differently to capture new audiences? I think we do a very, very good job of holding on to the audiences that we have. But I’d like to see us probably be a bit bolder and a bit braver to capture new audiences.”
In 12 months, he hopes he’s achieved that, and “Seven West Media is a unified voice humming along with a big picture vision that is all about audiences.”
‘When you get stuck on the small things … that can look petty’
De Ceglie was previously editor-in-chief of Seven’s recently-launched digital newspaper The Nightly, plus The West Australian, The Sunday Times, PerthNow plus its suburban newspapers, and 19 regional newspapers. He says he’s always been focused on experimenting – whether by launching a nightly newspaper for the east coast, produced on the west coast, or a short story competition.
There’s plenty he’s learned from his Western Australia roles that he’ll bring with him to Sydney and apply to the new position, which spans 7NEWS, Sunrise, The Morning Show and 7NEWS Spotlight, and 7NEWS.com.au.
“You need to get the big picture right. And don’t get stuck on the small things. I think when you get stuck on the small things, especially as a leader, that can look petty really quickly, and you can get caught in the weeds.
“Figure out the big picture and have a clear strategic vision. And once you have that, people can people know how to follow. You’ve got to make your messages really simple, but people need to know where you’re heading, and why you’re heading there.”
‘I’m all about the future’: On recent headlines
De Ceglie was announced as Craig McPherson‘s replacement at the end of April, becoming the first major appointment since new CEO Jeff Howard took over from James Warburton on 19 April. McPherson stepped down after Seven’s Spotlight program became embroiled in Bruce Lehrmann‘s failed defamation battle against 10 and Lisa Wilkinson. In the wake of ex-Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach‘s evidence, EP Mark Llewellyn also left the network.
A couple of weeks beforehand, commercial director Bruce McWilliam also departed Seven after two decades.
“The starting point is we actually have a really good team. I cannot speak to the last couple of months, that’s the past, and I’m all about the future,” De Ceglie says of the headlines.
Most recently, veteran director of news Shaun Menegola resigned from Seven Melbourne. Menegola said it was “entirely my decision and one I’ve been thinking about for a long time. It’s not one driven by anything else other than the fact that I’m looking to take a break.”
Menegola will “stick around for quite a while” to give a robust handover, De Ceglie explains. “Anyone who knows Shaun knows that his dedication to the news means he won’t be taking his foot off the pedal at all.
“My gut feeling is there’s an excellent team around Shaun and an excellent team around the country. So there’ll be a lot of internal candidates for that. That’s obviously one of the most plum spots in Seven News. So we’ll run a process and make sure the best person possible takes on the job … we’re not wanting talent, put it that way.”
The Nightly set to ‘shoot the lights out’
The Nightly launched in February to serve the “mainstream middle” and those whose “me time” is in the evenings. At the time of its launch, De Ceglie called it his “baby”.
In the three months since its launch, De Ceglie is happy with its momentum and results, but says, “it’s only going to get more impressive. The Ipsos ratings for month two should shoot the lights out.
“Our point of view was always that there was in particular, in Sydney and Melbourne, there was an audience for free, quality journalism, free, long form journalism. And all the metrics are telling us that that’s 100% true.”
The vacancy De Ceglie’s promotion has created is currently being filled by Christopher Dore, who has stepped in as acting editor. A permanent appointment is “up in the air in terms of the exact, specific timing.”
“Christopher Dore is one of the great newspaper editors of the modern era, extremely experienced,” De Ceglie says. “I joke to him that I’m handing over an operation that runs like a Ferrari. And so he’s not going to have to do too much around the edges, which means that he can just focus on the journalism which is what Dorey loves more than anything in the world.”
‘Always destined to return to Sydney’
Upon promoting De Ceglie, Howard said De Ceglie’s “innovative mindset will be just what SWM needs as we continue to build a better media business.
“This appointment reflects our ambition to think differently about the future of media in Australia.”
De Ceglie argues that building a better media business, and thinking differently about media, is all about audience retention and attraction: “What I like to do is break the mould as much as I can. And that doesn’t mean giving up on what’s working, it means holding on to that huge, sizable audience that we have and treating it with respect, but at the same time in parallel, saying, ‘Okay, well, how are we going to get other audiences?’
“My role will be supporting the excellent people around me to do really bold, creative, innovative things.”
De Ceglie explains that his “track record hopefully speaks for itself in terms of leadership.”
“I am big on how I lead a team and how I lead a multi-integrated team across different platforms,” he adds.
“It’s kind of funny to see me labeled as a newspaper person, only because really, more than anything, I’m a digital person. But the truth of the matter is that what I am very good at is leading integrated platforms to speak together cohesively.”
While returning to Sydney from Perth was always on the cards, he’s confident this is the right role to bring him back to the east coast.
“I felt like I was always destined to return to Sydney at some point. And I’m really, really proud and honoured and privileged that the role that I’ve come back for is this role, I can’t think of a more exciting, interesting role than this one.”