Mediaweek’s Media Movers charts the biggest people moves in the industry over the past week.
Alex Cullen
In a shock exit, Today presenter Alex Cullen has permanently stepped down after controversy erupted over his acceptance of a $50,000 gift from billionaire Adrian Portelli.
Today host Karl Stefanovic confirmed Cullen’s departure on-air, describing him as a “terrific fella” and praising his five years with the team. “We’re going to miss him terribly,” Stefanovic said, wishing Cullen and his family all the best.
The drama began after Portelli, eager to ditch his “Lambo Guy” label, offered the cash to the first TV journalist to call him “McLaren Man.” Cullen took the bait during a lighthearted exchange on Today with Karl Stefanovic last Friday, only to face disciplinary action from Nine soon after.
Mia Freedman
Mia Freedman is stepping away from her podcast No Filter.
The Mamamia co-founder made the announcement on both her podcast and her Substack: ‘Mia Freedman’s Babble’. Freedman wrote that “after 10 years, 655 episodes, and 69 million downloads of No Filter, I’m stepping away from the microphone”.
The mother-of-three went on to reveal this isn’t the first time she has attempted to hand over podcast hosting duties to “other extremely capable women” while she took “a month-long break”.
She added: “But this time it’s different. This time it’s permanent.”
The radio and entertainment industry was recently left shocked by the Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) decision to make rising star Mitch Churi redundant.
Mitch Churi
Churi, who spoke to Mediaweek in between a flurry of meetings (“who knew redundancy could be so busy”) said while he was originally “shocked”, he’s since made peace with the decision.
“The way I work is I move on quickly. I do it with breakups, and I do it with, evidently, redundancies,” he said. “I immediately start thinking, how do I make this work?”.
It didn’t take Churi long to ‘make it work’ to his advantage. Since leaving ARN, he’s already wrapped up a plum hosting gig on Nova, that saw him host a national breakfast show while its regular programs were on break. While it was only one show, Churi said that was all it took to remind him how much he loved and missed live radio.
iProspect has promoted national digital performance lead Bonnie Dodemaide to head of digital.
She has been with the dentsu company for over a decade, climbing the ranks from digital performance manager to her current role in that time. In the role, Dodemaide will be responsible for driving the agency’s digital product, innovation, and leadership.
Duncan Campbell will step down from his role at The Australian Radio Network (ARN) following a period of transition within the company.
Campbell’s title will remain as chief content officer until a changeover occurs, with Lauren Joyce, the current chief strategy and connections officer, set to take the reins.
Myrna Van Pelt, Shane Russell and Nicole Phillips
HAVAS Red Australia has promoted Nicole Phillips and Myrna Van Pelt to managing partners of its healthcare and corporate practices, respectively.
Phillips and Van Pelt helm two of the agency’s most strategic practice areas, with HAVAS rapidly expanding its healthcare and pharma communications footprint both globally and in Australia.
DDB Group Sydney has confirmed it will make 15 redundancies this week. In a statement, DDB Group Sydney CEO Sheryl Marjoram called it a “complex time for many agencies”.
“We will be making redundancies within our Group this week. Redundancies within creative agencies are an unfortunate cost of doing business, but they are not just a business matter; they are also a human matter.
Bench Media is strengthening its team with two senior promotions and five new hires to the independent media agency.
Jamison Milessis has been promoted to performance project lead from senior performance manager, a new role focusing on expanding the agency’s marketing consultancy and advisory services. Jamie Auciello has also been promoted to the role of team lead – performance from senior performance manager.
To support the agency’s future growth and expansion plans, Bench has also welcomed five new team members, including media strategists, media planners, and performance managers.
Nick Crowe
QMS has appointed Nick Crowe to the new role of Victorian sales director, independent and direct, and the promotion of two managers into key new positions.
Crowe will join the digital outdoor media company on 31 March from oOh!media, where he has been group sales leader for six years. He has also held senior sales roles at Adshel and Nine Network in Melbourne.
QMS also announced its group business directors, Chris Haintz and Alex Morrison, have been promoted to the new roles of large-format product managers.
Haintz and Morrison will focus on QMS’ rapidly growing digital large format network, with Melbourne-based Haintz covering the Victorian, South Australian and West Australian markets and Sydney-based Morrison the NSW and Queensland markets.