Southern Cross Media: Chief executive Rohan Lund chasing growth in digital markets

Rohan Lund will pursue growth in digital markets for the newly merged Southern Cross Media business after bedding down a restructure in the opening months of 2026.

It comes after a $400 million tie-up with Seven West Media in late 2025.

Seven West included the Seven television network, The Nightly, The West Australian, The Sunday Times, a suite of regional papers, and digital platforms thewest.com.au, Perth Now, 7plus, and The Game; which were brought under the same roof as Southern Cross’ Listnr, Hit Network and Triple M radio and audio brands.

An 11 per cent rise in digital revenue to $320 million for the financial year was the brightest spot in the company’s first results as a combined business.

Mr Lund will take inspiration from overseas to push that number higher.

“It’s a pretty big digital prize out there. It’s a $25 billion market and at the moment we’re (barely) scratching that,” he said.

He pointed to broadcasters in Europe, the United States and United Kingdom that had active strategies commercialising content beyond their networks.

France was an example, where TV channels had signed deals with Netflix and Prime.

“Australia has been slower to recognise content is consumed off network in other platforms, and (decide) how we go about commercialising it,” Mr Lund said.

“We’ll be following rapidly behind what other broadcasters have done in every other market.”

Online audio growth “outpaced” the decline in broadcast television in the year to June, he said. The 7plus platform reported a 17 per cent rise in daily active users.

The rise of artificial intelligence, which has come under scrutiny for producing inaccurate results, might help push viewers and readers back to reliable news sources.

Southern Cross posted a statutory loss of $13m — a figure that factors in nearly $30m of special costs for the merger, restructuring and an updated payroll system.

That was on revenue of $1.1b, up due to the merger.

Shareholders on Tuesday were told a “financial reset is under way”.

Costs were cut about $30m through a major restructure which reduced staff count by about 250. That was supported by synergies from the merger which Southern Cross said had been delivered “ahead of schedule”.

A further $145m of savings will be targeted through a continuing program to reduce expenses by the end of the 2027 financial year.

The company flagged a writedown $65m to $70m writedown of contracts in June. Debts from the two businesses had been refinanced into a joint facility and the ventures portfolio was wound down.

“We’ve done an enormous job over the last few months resetting the group across costs, people, structures, debt and tidying up the balance sheet,” Mr Lund said.

The early signs were positive for the 2027 financial year boosted by coverage of the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

“It was terrific. It surprised everyone on the upside,” he said.

“It was a great production. We’re very happy with the market’s response on the revenue front as well.”