Why SCA Is Betting on Ruthless Restructuring Post-Merger

Rohan Lund has been in the job for less than a month at Southern Cross Media Group, and he's already making clear what comes next. At the Mumbrella360 conference in Sydney on May 28, the newly appointed CEO didn't soften the message.

"This will scare people at Seven Southern Cross," he said. "Of the top 34 leaders, I think 27 exited in my first month. That was pretty ruthless, as I look back."

For the thousands of staff across SCA's combined TV, radio, and publishing operations, those words land hard. For the media industry watching from outside, they signal that the post-merger restructure has begun in earnest.

What SCA Is Now

The merger that created the current SCA completed on January 7, 2026. Southern Cross Media absorbed Seven West Media in an all-scrip deal valued at A$385 million. The combined company controls 104 radio stations, the Seven Network's national free-to-air TV operations, West Australian Newspapers, and the Listnr audio streaming platform. Annual revenue is approaching A$2 billion.

Lund was appointed CEO in April and officially started on May 1. He's the second person to hold the role since the merger. His predecessor, Jeff Howard, lasted just seven weeks before leaving "with immediate effect."

The Lean Structure Lund Is Building

Lund's stated goal is to strip the corporate layer right back. His target: approximately seven people at group level overseeing three separate divisional heads running TV and streaming (Angus Ross), audio (John Kelly), and West Australian Newspapers (Maryna Fewster).

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"I don't think the media is ready for these horizontal views," Lund said. "TV, radio, and publishing are very different businesses. They have different customer strategies and different cultures today."

The savings target is A$30 million in FY2026/27, mostly from eliminating the duplication created by combining two previously separate corporate structures.

The NRMA Playbook at SCA

Lund's track record explains the board's choice. When he joined NRMA in January 2016, the organization had reported 15 consecutive years of decline. By 2025, membership had grown from 2.4 million to 3.5 million and the brand had expanded into hotels, EV charging, and car rentals.

His view: front-line staff are ready for change but are blocked by layers above them. Remove those layers and the organization moves. Whether that logic applies to a multi-format media business is the question the industry is now asking.

Radio has already absorbed significant cuts. "I can definitely see radio has gone through it more than anyone else in media from what I can see at the moment," Lund said. He didn't rule out further reductions.

Rinehart's Financial Stake and Editorial Independence

News broke the day before Lund's appearance that Gina Rinehart had financially backed former Seven executive Bruce McWilliam's acquisition of approximately 10% of SCA's shares. Combined with Kerry Stokes' 20.3% holding, the Stokes-adjacent group controls around 30% of voting power.

Rinehart was denied a Fairfax Media board seat in 2012 after refusing to sign its editorial independence charter. Former Fairfax board member Roger Corbett drew the parallel: "It would be extremely difficult for Mrs Rinehart to have a significant shareholding in a media company without expressing her views on how that media organisation should report the news."

Lund was direct. "I'm not passing on the complaint to the newsroom," he said of any shareholder calling to complain about coverage.

Industry-Wide Contraction

SCA's restructure isn't happening in isolation. Australian media hiring fell 3.8% year on year in Q1 2026, with content roles down 10.2%. Nine Entertainment cut 20 newsroom jobs in the same period. Are Media has been officially put up for sale.

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The forces driving this are structural: global streaming platforms are capturing audience time and advertising spend that once flowed to traditional broadcasters and publishers. Whether Lund's lean-team model delivers results fast enough is the real question.