Chris Janz to depart, Nine announces leadership shuffle

News 12 Jul 2021 - 2 min read

Chris Janz to depart, Nine announces leadership shuffle

By Sam Buckingham-Jones - Senior Writer

Nine's leadership team has been reshuffled, after Chris Janz announced he would be stepping down from his role as Chief Digital and Publishing Officer.

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Tags: Nine Mike Sneesby

Months after his key role in negotiating deals with Google and Facebook on behalf of Nine, Chief Digital and Publishing Officer Chris Janz says he is stepping down. Nine CEO Mike Sneesby has announced his role will be split in two, with James Chessell becoming Managing Director of Publishing and Alex Parsons becoming Chief Digital Officer.

What you need to know:

Chris Janz, Nine’s Chief Digital and Publishing Officer, has announced he is leaving Nine after four years leading Fairfax and Nine’s digital, publishing and technology businesses.
James Chessell, Executive Editor of the SMH and The Age, becomes the new Managing Director of Publishing, taking responsibility for all mastheads, including the AFR.
Alex Parsons has been named the new Chief Digital Officer.
Tory Maguire has been named the new Executive Editor of all mastheads.

Nine has restructured its top online and masthead leadership after a decision by Chris Janz to step down from his role as Chief Digital and Publishing Officer.

Janz, the former CEO of Allure Media and HuffPost Australia, has for four years led the innovation and metropolitan publishing businesses for Fairfax and subsequently Nine.

James Chessell, the Executive Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, will step into the role of Managing Director of Publishing, taking responsibility for all mastheads including The Australian Financial Review.

Alex Parsons will be the new Chief Digital Officer, having worked across Nine – most recently overseeing Drive.

Tory Maguire, the former Editor-In-Chief of HuffPost Australia, has been named Chessell’s replacement as Executive Editor for all Nine’s mastheads, including Brisbane Times and WAToday.

In an email to Nine staff, CEO Mike Sneesby, who replaced Hugh Marks earlier this year, said Janz had helped establish the company’s mastheads among “the best performing in the world both froma journalism perspective but also financially”.

“His enormous contribution culminated this year with the finalisation of the deals with the digital platforms Google and Facebook,” Sneesby said.

In a statement, Sneesby welcomed Chessell and Parsons into their new roles: “James and Alex are two exceptional media executives and I have every confidence that they will be more than equipped to help evolve our publishing and digital product to the next level as we continue to drive Nine’s growth.”

Janz will stay with the company until after it announces its full year results, due August 25.