What's New
BY Jen Seyderhelm June 3, 2026
What's New October 2, 2025
Ciaran Davis to step down as CEO of ARN
Reporter
After sixteen years with the company, Ciaran Davis is stepping down as CEO and Managing Director of ARN.
Confirming the news this morning, Davis will depart his role at the end of this calendar year.
Davis will be succeeded as CEO by Chief Operating Officer, Michael Stephenson.
Davis said “It has been a privilege to lead ARN Media over the past 16 years, working alongside a talented and passionate team. With a clear transformation strategy in place and an excellent successor in Michael, I believe now is the right time to step aside. I want to sincerely thank the incredible people at ARN Media I’ve had the pleasure of working with, as well as the Board, our shareholders, and clients for their ongoing support.”
Michael Stephenson said “It is a great honour to lead ARN Media. We have the biggest stars, the best brands, a global streaming platform and an incredible team. We have a bold vision for the future and are well positioned to take advantage of a range of new and emerging opportunities that will benefit our audience, our advertisers and our shareholders.”
“I would like to congratulate Ciaran for his significant contribution to our business over 16 years. We will continue to work together closely over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.”
ARN Chairman of the Board Hamish McLennan said “On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Ciaran for his outstanding leadership and commitment. Under his stewardship, ARN Media has navigated a rapidly changing media landscape and kept the company at the forefront of innovation. We are grateful for his vision and dedication.”
“We are also confident that our strong succession planning ensures continuity for the business. Michael brings deep experience and understanding of our strategy and operations, as well as the broader media industry, making him the ideal candidate to drive the company forward through its next phase.”
Ciaran Davis was born in Ireland and worked in radio there before leaving to begin an international career that took him to Europe and the Middle East, before coming to Australia to lead ARN.
His first venture into an executive role came in 2003 when he was marketing manager at Dublin’s 98FM. The Chief Executive of the company resigned to join a rival independent commercial station and Ciaran stepped into the CEO role at 98fm.
After 98FM, Davis joined the Irish commercial radio company Communicorp and worked across Europe and the Middle East for Communicorp radio stations.
When Bob Longwell left the Australian Radio Network in 2009, the company conducted an international search for a new CEO and selected Davis, who came to Australia in January 2010 to take up the job.
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What's New
BY RadioToday Network June 3, 2026
Abandon ship abandon ship
About time. Cada was an expensive failure. He signed off on the dumbest $200m deal in Australian media history then he couldn’t get the ARN/SCA merger over the line? Oh and the failed Melb KJ launch? This was needed. Some fresh blood at ARN will help majorly.
So if I am correct here… ARN made their Chief Commercial Officer redundant to make space for a COO, who is now going to be CEO. Are they going to hire a new COO? Could they have not avoided a redundancy package if Ciaran stepped down in March with Stepho taking the spot instead of dropping Peter Whitehead in March? Is the board addicted to wasting money?
CFO, CPO and CEO… wonder how big the gash in the bottom of the Titanic is?
Sacked many good radio people, destroyed the share price, and oversaw so many failures and stupid decisions its hard to list them all ( selling 4KQ is up there) – Congratulations on 16 years.
About time.
Yep leaves b4 being pushed out
Although Ciaran Davis’ impending departure from ARN may have been a while in the making, it’s certainly interesting how this announcement has come just one day after Kyle & Jackie O received their latest ACMA breaches and two after the Seven/SCA merger was announced!
With both the outgoing Ciaran Davis’ and already gone Duncan Campbell appearing to be among K&JO’s biggest supporters, it’ll be rather interesting to see how long the $200 Million duo’s antics are tolerated by those left at ARN, especially if ACMA enforcement actions are likely to include licence conditions being imposed on 106.5 Sydney and 101.1 Melbourne.
Tick tock.
Who’s next?
Will make for an interesting off-boarding task for the “IT Team”
No doubt nothing will be done about it as per usual!
Taking a hard-nosed look, ARN is a business, so it’s not about the product or the people, it’s all about the share price. Which reached above $11.60 in October 2009 and is now around 55 cents. So, there’s that…
Couple of things …
1 – The ARN Share price history is not an accurate metric to use. It was historically APN News & Media / Then HT&E and ARN was part of the radio division. You aren’t actually reviewing the same business over the past 16 years.
2 – Anyone who thinks the decision to re-sign K&J on that deal was a bad idea, is a moron who doesn’t understand the nuance of that decision. Anyone in the CEO role, at that time, with all the information they had available, would have done the same thing – K&J acting in bad faith on the contract is the issue here, not the underlying decision to sign them or syndicate them.
3 – ARN has been an absolute cash cow during the vast majority of Ciaran’s leadership. For much of it’s lifetime it had a balance sheet that was the envy of Australian media; It’s sad that people are distilling a 16 year transformation of the company into the past 12 months aka the worst media market we’ve seen in a few decades.
@BrettD; but you can’t even say that.. thats like comparing male vs female… they had APN and a bunch of other things on the books at the time, didnt have Grants, iHeart, etc… ARN having almost 15% share of SCA in 2023 seems like they were going for a hostile take over and something went wrong/leaked,etc
Has @Jamie been sent out by ARN?
Defending the sinking ship?
Sad
As I’ve been accused of comparing apples and oranges, let’s just look at the ARN share price over the past few years. $1 in 2023; 57 cents yesterday. Yes, other media stocks have performed badly, too, and they have had management changes as a result. The failed SCA bid was an unfunny farce and led to a situation where SCA will soon be the senior partner in a merged media group with far greater heft in the market.
Yes, Kyle and Jackie O may have acted in “bad faith” but who couldn’t have seen that coming? ARN signed a contract that gave them the unprecedented leverage they now have. It seems management surrendered both its right/duty to manage its employes, and its legal obligations as publisher. This opened the door to a costly advertiser boycott and widespread job losses across the group.