Sam Chisholm has wasted no time in filling
the corporate communications director gap left by the departure of
Jenni Gilbert by poaching respected columnist Christine Lacy from The Sydney Morning Herald’s business section.

But
her first effort spinning for Nine should have been stamped on the head
by Fairfax. This is very naughty and unbecoming. Here’s the item, from
her CBD column today:

Nine sales boss Vance Lothringer, who proved to CBD last
week he likes his glass of bubbles full and French, is the king of
one-liners. Maybe the network should give this bloke his own show.
Finding himself the topic of hot speculation at the end of last month
as to his tenure at Willoughby under new (old) boss Sam Chisholm,
Lothringer was frank as he sought to counter talk he was set to
permanently leave the office.’I’m still the sales director – an hour
ago I was buying a microwave at Harvey Norman.’ Big advertiser Gerry
would have been pleased with that.

Plus, elsewhere, this:
‘I’ll be here on Friday. Well, actually I’ll be playing golf.’ Lucky
Lothringer. But, despite his best endeavours to hose down the talk,
rumours persisted last week, promoting a rapid fire of calls to his
bunker. ‘Someone saw me cleaning up my very messy desk and then all of
a sudden it was being reported I was cleaning out my desk,’ Lothringer
disclosed to an online industry newsletter at the end of his week. ‘I
sent around a memo [Thursday] saying that while some of my colleagues
will be upset, I won’t be leaving today and yes, I’ll still be here
Monday too.’ In the gossip-hungry world of the box, Lothringer said he
was at a loss as to where the rumours began. (Perhaps he should ask his
media buying mates.) ‘These things surface from time to time. But,
nothing’s changed, I’m still here.’ Maybe he should have said: ‘still
the one.’