Yesterday ABC announced a major restructuring of its divisions.
ABC News’ expansion and new Content division are both expected to be fully operational by Saturday, July 1.
ABC News will include regional offices, including regional local radio teams and employees based in capital cities and Australia-wide, as well as Emergency Broadcasting and regional and rural programs such as as Australia Wide AND Country Time.
In a note to staff, ABC News, Analysis and Investigations director Justin Stevens told staff: Importantly, this will be a new news team that we will build together. It is bringing together teams who align and share expertise in order to create a new and stronger ABC News with a greater collective capacity to serve all Australians.”
He outlined the benefits of bringing regional, rural, and metropolitan news teams together as:
Bringing together more journalists and content creators to serve audiences with the most comprehensive local, national and international news – no other media outlet in this country has ABC’s presence.
Keeping regional offices as one team is important for cohesion and collaboration, connecting the dots for audiences on stories that impact communities across the country. Regional local radio is a crucial service to our audience and these teams will continue to work closely with office colleagues.
Continue to elevate rural and regional Australia stories across all ABC news coverage and ensure they are available in multiple formats across ABC and third-party platforms.
The National Regional Reporting Team led by Edwina Farley will work alongside national and international teams led by Deputy Director and Chief, National and International Gavin Fang.
The News Executive, which will include more women than men for the first time, includes:
Deputy Director, National and International Head – Gavin Fang
Head Regional, Rural & Metro News/Operations – Donna Field
Head of Digital News – Lee Glendinning
Head Indigenous News – Suzanne Dredge
Head of investigative journalism and current affairs – Jo Puccini
Head of News Distribution and Strategy – Stuart Watt
It’s unclear how many job losses are impacted by ABC News’ restructuring.
“As a result of the reorganization and the inevitable role changes, we are losing some talented and dedicated managers, and we sincerely thank them for their tremendous input,” said Stevens.
