Popular Mamamia host's axing sends shockwaves through company. Now, insiders reveal big changes to podcasts, the managers pushing AI - and what they really think of Mia Freedman's children being on the payroll

By JOSEPH SCRIMSHIRE, SUBSCRIPTIONS EDITOR, AUSTRALIA Published: 10:51, 18 May 2026 | Updated: 10:56, 18 May 2026 It says a lot about today's media landscape that you can be number one and still need to slash jobs. In April, Mamamia reached an all-time high for monthly audience with its flagship series Out Loud - now in its eleventh year - and yet a handful of staff members were quietly let go in recent weeks. We know of four, but there are believed to be more. One axed staff member, Claire Murphy, wrote frankly about her redundancy and funereal last days at the women's media company in a blog that has been widely shared among current and former staff. In her post, Murphy wrote of her initial shock at being laid off, only to note the usual warning signs were there: falling advertising revenue, cuts to the radio business, AI being pushed 'like it was life or death'. Murphy was no faceless junior writer. She was a known Mamamia personality with a fanbase, having hosted The Quicky, Well. and True Crime Conversations - the latter being maternity leave cover for Gemma Bath. Her exit came as a shock internally, as well as to fans of the podcast network, with many 'Out Louders' expressing their disappointment. We note that listener comments acknowledging Murphy's exit appeared to be deleted from the Out Loud Facebook group. The redundancy of Mamamia podcast personality Claire Murphy came as a shock internally, as well as to fans of the women's media network In April, Mamamia reached an all-time high for monthly audience with its flagship series Out Loud, and yet a handful of staff members were quietly let go in recent weeks Staff noted it was strange and a bit sad seeing leadership pay tribute to Murphy in the past tense on her last day. Founder Mia Freedman was said to have been apologetic. But despite the solemnity of her exit, it's understood that Murphy was glad to receive a proper send-off. Other staff cut during the same round of layoffs included Leah Porges, Jacob Round and Kersherka Sivakumaran. Why the bloodletting when the numbers are looking rosy? An advertising downturn, obviously - which is an industry-wide issue and far from unique to Mamamia. Another is the pivot from traditional podcasting to video-led podcasts. Mamamia is going through the same teething process as many podcast companies right now in response to Apple's structural change to go video-first, and as YouTube emerges as a leading podcast platform. Inevitably, audio jobs are going and video specialists are being hired in their place.  However, we have heard rumblings within. Not everyone wants established podcasts with deep-rooted listener relationships being reborn as shiny-lights-and-makeup productions, with the best bits hacked and repackaged for TikTok. There has also been an aggressive AI push within the walls of Mamamia's Fenton & Fenton-designed new digs in Woolloomooloo, spearheaded by CEO Natalie Harvey (pictured) The fact that one of Mamamia's biggest podcasts is called 'No Filter' is now seen as a little ironic given that its output is becoming more filtered than ever. Tellingly, Freedman herself expressed some regret over the direction of podcasting last year, writing on her Substack that podcasts' viability depends on the whims of tech platforms that now prefer short-form video. 'The cost of it, the time it takes, the way it can change the fundamentals of what you’re doing… We try exceptionally hard not to let it impact the essence of the show but I'd be lying if I tried to say the landscape hasn't changed and we want to always be ahead of those changes,' she wrote.  Meanwhile, there has also been an aggressive push for artificial intelligence within the walls of Mamamia's Fenton & Fenton-designed new digs in Woolloomooloo. It is being spearheaded by chief operating officer Natalie Harvey, who is said to be enamoured with its potential. This puts her in the same club as Are Media CEO Sally Eagle and Nine's managing director of publishing Tory Maguire, who are similarly enthusiastic about our future robot overlords and casting a jaundiced eye on reporters who aren't using AI enough. Chief operating officer Luca Lavigne, the 30-ish son of founder Freedman, is by all accounts, an AI true believer, too. That was always to be expected; staff say he has long had an air of Silicon Valley about him. One former Mamamia staffer told Inside Mail that the laid-off employees are unsure if AI played a role in their redundancies, and we note that Lavigne previously told Mediaweek it wasn't meant to replace human creativity. However, months of senior leadership urging staff to use the tech wherever possible has left some with the sinking feeling they might be training their replacements. Speaking of artificial intelligence, we are told that the publisher's internal generative-AI copilot 'Mai' seems to have been quietly mothballed a while ago. Instead, staff are using the usual programs - Gemini, Perplexity and the like - to streamline processes, depending on the department. Of course, the safest jobs in the company presumably belong to Freedman's family.  COO Luca Lavigne, the son of founder Mia Freedman, is also said to be an AI advocate. While the hiring of family members has drawn scrutiny in the past, sources tell Inside Mail that Freedman's children 'make a real contribution' to the company The hiring of Freedman's children has drawn some scrutiny in the past, but inside the bunker we're told the vibe isn't negative. Quite the opposite, in fact. One source told us: 'If I ran a media company, I'd have my family on the payroll too. The Packers and the Murdochs did it. 'I've never understood the obsession with her hiring family - it's a family-run company. The fact is, she's doing what men in business have been doing for centuries, so you have to assume there's some sexism in that [the criticism].'  With Luca now occupying a senior business role - having progressed from a Merivale bartender to writer to business development manager to head of product and chief operating officer - attention has more recently shifted to his younger sister Coco, who is also on the rise. A Mamamia staffer we spoke to on the condition of anonymity said that Coco, a graduate of SCEGGS Darlinghurst, is 'very switched-on' and acutely aware of her position in the company. 'She knows there is a perception of why she's there, so she puts the work in,' they said. 'She even changed seats in the office once to avoid the perception that she was "head of the table". 'The kids [Luca and Coco] do make a real contribution.' Mamamia was contacted for comment. The full edition of Inside Mail - the must-read media and politics column exclusive to DailyMail+ subscribers - is out Thursday. Read last week's column here. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. 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