Channel Seven’s midday news anchor Natarsha Belling has been told her role is impacted by the media giant’s ‘bloodbath’ of between 250 and 300 staff, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Belling is understood to be among the highest profile names tapped on the shoulder as Seven’s parent company, Southern Cross Media Group, swings the axe across its media properties.

Jobs are expected to be cut at the TV network itself, The West Australian newspaper and the company’s online news website and PDF newspaper The Nightly.

It comes as a companywide town hall meeting with newly appointed Southern Cross CEO Rohan Lund was derailed by a series of technical problems on Thursday morning.

Insiders said the network’s all-staff video call had no audio for the first three minutes of the call. The video feed itself then failed, with the screen going totally blank.

The meeting was then quickly ended, before eventually restarting.

Natarsha Belling, Seven News at Noon anchor, has been told her job has been impacted, insiders said

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One staff member noted the broadcast company failed to hold a livestream successfully even as it ‘sacked 300 of its staff.’

Belling, 56, was hired by Seven’s former editor-in-chief Anthony de Ceglie as the face of Seven News at Noon and has been in the role for about 18 months.

She is also the face of the network’s daily news podcast on the LiSTNR app. Belling was previously made redundant by Network Ten after two decades with the station during a swathe of job cuts in 2020.

Rohan Lund, Southern Cross’s newly installed managing director and CEO, said the changes were unavoidable due to the current economic environment.

‘We must reset our cost base to meet current market conditions and capture the full benefits of scale across our trusted platforms for our audiences and advertisers, now and into the future.

‘Unfortunately, this means saying goodbye to some talented colleagues who have helped build our business. We are deeply grateful for their contributions and we are committed to supporting them through the transition’.

Sales teams and other TV news personalities are also expected to be affected by the cuts.

The Daily Mail has contacted Seven for comment about its consultations with Belling and its livestream fail. Belling was also contacted for comment via her website.

The cuts follow Nine swinging the axe earlier this year – with Sydney TV weathergirl Amber Sherlock losing her job and the network recently cutting at least 20 roles as part of its Future News initiative.

SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.com/tvshowbiz/article-15890697/Inside-Channel-Seven-job-cuts-natarsha-belling.html