From TV to NRL: Why Kerry Stokes' prized executive has joined V'landys
It's hard to argue that the closest thing Western Australia has to royalty is King Kerry (Stokes). So given his appointment (some would say anointment) of young prince Anthony de Ceglie just over a year ago to run the news department at Seven Network, media watchers were understandably stunned by the announcement that he is swapping TV land for sports.
It's Perth's own version of Prince Harry's royal estrangement and escape to the US.
While his stint as head of Seven's news operations has been short, De Ceglie is leaving behind a fair bit of baggage that watchers of Seven News won't forget in a hurry. The introduction of a comedy spot and a nightly horoscope segment may have been shortlived, but they have left their mark.
De Ceglie's alternative programming innovations at Seven, such as fortune-tellers and celestial sign readers or that weekly bit of satire, were widely panned. Although history doesn't record whether Stokes appreciated a Friday night chuckle or what his future held, both were ultimately dropped.
Presumably, Stokes was undoubtedly less impressed with the ratings slide that Seven News has experienced during de Ceglie's reign.
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De Ceglie had previously been editor-in-chief of Stokes-controlled newspaper The West Australian, and had clearly impressed the proprietor to such a degree that he was parachuted in to run news and current affairs for the Seven Network.
In addition to helming The West Australian, he launched national digital paper The Nightly and created sports streaming platform Streamer.
That said, de Ceglie was brought into Seven in the wake of the Spotlight scandal – allegations that its former producer Taylor Auerbach had spent $10,000 on a corporate credit card to order two Thai masseuses to his home after a boozy dinner with former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann.
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