Channel Nine staff are left reeling as top executive is suddenly axed in mysterious circumstances
EXCLUSIVE
Nine has axed its second high-profile news director in as many weeks as the brutal killing season continues at the embattled broadcaster.
The network’s long-serving Sydney news director, Simon Hobbs, was the latest senior executive to be given the chop after being unceremoniously dismissed on Wednesday afternoon.
His shock departure comes less than a week after Nine’s Queensland news director, Amanda Patterson, was unexpectedly fired during a video hook up with the channel’s newly minted news boss Fiona Dear.
No reasons have been offered public for either Patterson or Hobbs’ departure.
While a terse email to staff notified Patterson’s office that she had been officially moved on, many journalists in Hobbs’ rattled newsroom are yet to be addressed.
‘We don’t know the circumstances of his departure, just that he’s been axed,’ one insider told Daily Mail Australia.
Other staff were called into a meeting where they were simply told he was ‘no longer’ in charge.
Simon Hobbs has led Channel Nine’s Sydney news operation for almost 13 years but was unceremoniously axed on Wednesday
Hobbs had been leading Nine’s Sydney operation for almost 13 years after rejoining the company in 2012 after working as a producer in the US for six years.
Although their exits come just weeks after the bombshell findings of an independent investigation into the network’s toxic newsroom culture, there is no suggestion either of the news executives axed by Nine were linked to the report.
Nine staffers had been bracing themselves for more heads to roll after Patterson was summoned into a meeting with the network’s Brisbane-based People and Culture representative last Thursday only to be told her three-decade career at the network was over.
After being informed of the network’s decision, she was escourted immediately out of the channel’s Mount Coot-tha studios without being allowed to return to her office or address staff.
The Nine veteran, who had been in the top job since 2016, has not commented publicly on her dismissal but has since retained the services of celebrity workplace lawyer John Laxon in an indication she is prepared to fight her dismissal.
Hobbs’ departure comes less than a week after his Queensland counterpart Amanda Patterson was also given the chop
In an email confirming her departure, Dear said: ‘I wanted to let you know that QTQ News Director Amanda Paterson has finished up with Nine today.
‘While we formalise and internal and external recruitment process to replace the role, Kate Donnison has agreed to step in on a short-term basis until QTQ EP Brendan Hockings returns from the US and his annual leave.
‘Brendan will then act in the role until we finalise the recruitment process to ensure stability in leadership during this time.’
