{"id":819394,"date":"2026-07-23T20:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819394\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T20:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:37:29","slug":"backlash-against-mamamias-new-ceo-shut-down-by-leigh-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/819394\/","title":{"rendered":"Backlash against Mamamia’s new CEO shut down by Leigh Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

In classic case of backlash to the backlash, Leigh Sales has had to shut down negative commentary about the appointment of Luca Lavigne as CEO of Mamamia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sales and Mamamia co-founder Mia Freedman have been friends for years. Lavigne is Freedman’s eldest son.<\/p>\n

When it was announced this week that Lavigne will be the media company’s new CEO, the decision was widely scrutinised by the public and media insiders.<\/p>\n

While many have observed that Mamamia – which is an advocate for women – should not be led by a man, accusations of nepotism have emerged as the basis for most of the complaints.<\/p>\n

(As if the media industry in Australia is not founded on nepotism – such as the Packers and Murdochs.)<\/p>\n

The Facebook page for popular podcast Chat 10 Looks 3, hosted by Sales and Annabel Crabb, became a place of outrage, as listeners vented their criticism.<\/p>\n

With many of the comments bordering on nasty, Sales herself entered the chat (pun intended).<\/p>\n

\"mediaweek\"\"MorningThe leading media trade publication in Australia.<\/p>\n

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In response to one person questioning the hate, Sales wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cI heartily agree \u2013 a million male-run family businesses end up with sons or daughters running them and it passes barely remarked.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The veteran journalist later added, “As Crabb and I are friends with Mia and have known Luca since he was a child, I\u2019m going to not allow commenting on this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But one person countered this: “I really respectfully want to be able to talk about how we can have a Facebook chat group whereby we are encouraged to post and have open conversations, but get shut down when moderators are friends with the subjects?\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Isn\u2019t that exactly the point of the original post? I\u2019m really trying to understand this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat some people are looking for is an excuse to pile onto Mia Freedman in an open forum and I\u2019m not here for it,” she responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cClosing down comments here too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Luca<\/p>\n

Luca Lavigne and Nat Harvey. Image: Mamamia<\/p>\n

Mamamia appoints Luca Lavigne as CEO following Nat Harvey exit<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Mediaweek reported<\/a> that Mamamia has appointed Lavigne as CEO, following outgoing chief executive Nat Harvey’s decision to join Southern Cross Media Group (SCA) as its inaugural Chief Revenue Officer.<\/p>\n

Harvey will remain with the business for several weeks before departing in early September to support the leadership transition.<\/p>\n

Lavigne assumes the CEO position after serving as Mamamia’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer for the past two years. He has worked across the business for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Over the past four years, Lavigne has led Mamamia’s transition to a dual advertising and subscriber model, including expanding the business beyond media offerings. He has also overseen the growth of the company’s podcast network and its shift to a video-first strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In classic case of backlash to the backlash, Leigh Sales has had to shut down negative commentary about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-819394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}