Former Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood will help review Kerry Stokes’ West Australian Newspapers as it continues to restructure.

Nine owns The Australian Financial Review.
Mr Hywood, who began his career at Fairfax as a cadet at the Financial Review in 1976, returned to the company in 2010 as a director, was acting chief executive before the year finished, took on the role full-time in 2011 and is widely credited for having made the tough decisions that helped save Fairfax from the brink of collapse.
He spearheaded what would be known as the Fairfax of the Future program which pulled out more than $600 million in costs, paid down the media company’s ballooning debt, invested in businesses aimed at producing new digital revenues and reworked the publishing business model.
The West Australian continues to grow its readership across print and digital. Like other newspaper operations in Australia and globally, the impact of COVID on WAN has been significant,” Seven West Media WA chief executive Maryna Fewster said.
“We are therefore looking at all options, and Gregs experience will be invaluable, to ensure we can continue to deliver to audience, client and shareholder expectations.
Seven reached a new enterprise bargaining agreement with its WAN employees, which was registered towards the end of 2019, following a protracted battle over the agreement. It will see redundancy provisions capped at 26 weeks from November this year.
Earlier in June, the Financial Review revealed Seven and Antony Catalano had engaged about a potential deal on WAN, as the Australian Community Media executive chairman was looking to acquire News Corp’s regional and community publishing portfolio.
Seven provided Mr Catalano with detailed financial information on WAN in late March-to-early April. However, talks did not progress.
Since February, Seven has finalised the $40 million sale of Pacific Magazines to Bauer Media Australia and sold its WAN headquarters in WA for $75 million to property developer Prime West as it continues to try to work down its sizeable debt pile. Seven and Nine have also begun a process to sell the joint venture that owns the broadcast towers for free-to-air television, TX Australia.