Mediaweek’s Media Movers charts the biggest people moves in the industry over the past week.
This week includes News Corp to Nine, HWT change and Nine Publishing exits
Former News Corp Australia’s head of sales – NSW independent agencies and major direct, Michael Desiere has been appointed to a newly created partnerships role at Nine, working with its ad platform, Nine Ad Manager.
Desiere left News Corp in early June after 22 years with the business. He confirmed to Mediaweek that his exit was not connected to the wider editorial restructure that also happened during that time.
Run for the Kids chair Tom Salom has stepped down after 17 years spent building the Herald Sun Transurban annual event into a key fundraiser for the Good Friday Appeal.
Herald and Weekly Times chairman Penny Fowler appointed Genevieve Brammall as the new chair.
Nine Publishing confirmed 85 redundancies across its five publications including The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and digital-only titles WAtoday and the Brisbane Times.
Among those to have successfully applied for voluntary redundancies are the AFR’s senior correspondent Aaron Patrick, the SMH’s chief sports writer Andrew Webster, the Herald’s former gossip columnist and one-time Mediaweek reporter Andrew Hornery, senior writer Helen Pitt, North American correspondent Farrah Tomazin, books editor Jason Steger, The Age’s culture editor Osman Faruqi, Indigenous Affairs editor Jack Latimore, and the AFR’s Ben Potter and Michael Pelly.
Veteran SMH cartoonist John Shakespeare is also leaving the company.
7News Brisbane has suffered another significant loss with veteran journalist Steve Hart announcing his departure from the network to join WIN News in Wollongong.
Journalist and newsreader Sharyn Ghidella will return to Network 10 as presenter of Queensland’s 10 News First. Starting in September, she will present Queensland’s 10 News First bulletin from the network’s Brisbane studios.
In 1990, Ghidella was recruited by Brisbane’s Channel 10 newsroom as an on-the-road reporter and update presenter.
Two years later, she transitioned to Nine in Sydney, starting as a reporter before being promoted to present Daybreak, and early-morning news program. She soon became the regular newsreader on the Today Show.
In 2007, she joined the Seven Network and presented the network’s Brisbane bulletin since 2013. Ghidella recently departed Seven after a 17-year tenure with the network.
“Returning to 10 News First feels like coming home,” Ghidella said. “Network 10 provided me my first opportunity to work in a metropolitan newsroom and I have nothing but fond memories of my time there in the early 90s.
“To be returning to present a new local news service, with even more content relevant to Queenslanders, represents an exciting opportunity for me.”