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ABC wars

December 2024

New ABC managing director Hugh Marks.

Former Nine boss Hugh Marks to lead ABC

The executive who pulled off the broadcaster’s merger with Fairfax and helped lobby for big tech to pay for Australian content starts his new job in March.

  • Updated
  • Zoe Samios

November 2024

Joe Rogan (right) interviewed Donald Trump for three hours for his podcast.

Memo to Kim Williams and the ABC: This is the age of ‘bro’ podcasts

Men are tired of the superficiality and bias in so much of the mainstream media. They’re going to alternative platforms to get what they want.

  • John Anderson
Joe Rogan, Kim Williams and Elon Musk.

ABC chairman cops ‘watch out’ messages after Joe Rogan criticism

Asked what the ABC could learn from Joe Rogan, the most popular podcast presenter on Spotify, ABC chairman Kim Williams didn’t hold back.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones
Adam Suckling, the CEO of the Copytight Agency, says that the NSW government is the only in Australia not to pay fair compensation.

Kim Williams’ protege in the lead for ACMA role

Widely expected to eventually replace Creina Chapman is authority member Adam Suckling.

  • Myriam Robin

August 2024

ABC managing director David Anderson during Senate estimates in May.

It’s time to civilise the inquisition of Senate estimates

Hearings that were meant to drill into policy detail have become a scattergun questioning of officials used to settle scores, or make cheap political points.

  • Laura Tingle
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June 2024

Tucker Carlson addresses a crowd, including federal MPs, at an event in Canberra on Tuesday.

In Australia, Tucker Carlson finds a new enemy: the ABC

The right-wing commentator wrongly accused the ABC of criticising him, in another example of how on society’s fringe the market for alternate realities runs strong.

  • Aaron Patrick
The ABC’s new chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor.

The ABC’s version of Love Island? Don’t adjust your TV set

Leaked memo reveals ambitions for public broadcaster to launch reality TV shows.

  • Mark Di Stefano

February 2024

ABC 7.30 Report’s Sarah Ferguson with Peter Dutton on Wednesday.

Dutton’s tax dance sets up election battleground

As the opposition leader scrambles to pull the Coalition out of Labor’s tax trap, Peter Dutton has guaranteed the battle for middle income earners is not over.

  • Phillip Coorey

January 2024

Penny Wong in the West Bank this week –  a trip that seemed more for domestic consumption.

Like it or not, the Middle East runs through our politics

The Dunkley by-election will be fought and lost on kitchen table issues. But it is a distant conflict that is piling pressure on political parties and even the national broadcaster.

  • Laura Tingle

December 2023

Patricia Karvelas will continue to host Q&A in 2024, but with a shorter run.

ABC cuts Q+A schedule by 40pc in 2024

After a tumultuous year involving the departure of host Stan Grant and contentious discussions about Israel and Gaza, the show has been cut to 24 episodes for next year.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones

November 2023

A plume of smoke follows an Israeli airstrike in the northern part of the Gaza Strip as Israel continues its bombardment and ground offensive seen from Sderot, Israel.

Journalists can’t be writers and activists

The willingness of reporters and editors to sign anti-Israel petitions calls into question their professional independence.

  • Michael Gawenda

October 2023

ABC managing director David Anderson.

ABC redundancy payouts leapt fivefold, annual report reveals

The ABC’s latest annual report, tabled in parliament on Friday, reveals the public broadcaster spent $22 million to pay out exiting staff.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones
Former special forces soldier Heston Russell has been awarded $390,000 in his defamation case against the ABC.

Judge lashes ABC’s PR strategies

It’s all fun and games to fire off at gadfly commentators. Doing so at judges, even if only by implication, is an altogether dicier proposition.

  • Myriam Robin
Former ABC director Joe Gersh

Former ABC director urges broadcaster for impartiality on Israel

The Melbourne-based businessman is concerned about the impact a spurt of anti-semitism is having on communities and children.  

  • Samantha Hutchinson

September 2023

SBS head of corporate strategy Sarah Yassien and design honcho Andy Wong. The special broadcaster was a finalist in the AFR’s Most Innovative Company awards in the media and marketing category.

SBS has a new content plan to speak to all Australians

More than 5 million Australians speak a language other than English at home and SBS can now switch seamlessly into more than 60 languages.

  • Mark Di Stefano
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Virginia Trioli is leaving ABC Radio Melbourne and returning to television.

Assess presenters one by one to halt audience fall: ABC Radio review

Virginia Trioli’s Melbourne morning show shed audience rapidly. Now an internal report has called for a major overhaul of its capital city stations.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones

August 2023

ABC chair Ita Buttrose.

Ita Buttrose to step down from ABC

The government now has three roles to fill on the public broadcaster’s board, after the chairwoman said she would not seek a second term.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones

July 2023

Journalist Stan Grant will not be returning to the ABC’s Q&A program.

Star host Stan Grant leaves Q&A permanently

The high profile Indigenous broadcaster will not return to his gig hosting current affairs debate show Q&A, and will instead pursue other projects at the ABC.

  • Nick Bonyhady and Mark Di Stefano
As well as finding and reporting stories, ABC staff are required to fill out an extensive questionnaire about who they have featured in reports on the Voice.

ABC, battered by criticism, tracks Voice coverage down to the second

The national broadcaster has an internal tool where staff have to report who they feature – and who declines to participate – in stories on the Voice.

  • Nick Bonyhady
ABC director of news, analysis and investigations Justin Stevens (left) with managing director David Anderson at Senate estimates.

Less than 8pc of the ABC’s flagship news viewers are under 40

And more than 70 per cent of the audience for Insiders and Q&A are over 55, leaked data shows. The broadcaster has been scrambling to pursue younger audiences.

  • Updated
  • Mark Di Stefano

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/abc-wars-1m2v