ABC Life, 250 jobs cut in five-year plan shake-up
The ABC has announced drastic cuts to cope with budget shortfalls, axing its lifestyle website and hundreds of jobs with 75 per cent of staff to eventually be based outside its Sydney headquarters.
NSW
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Underperforming content on the ABC will be axed and 250 jobs let go under drastic cuts to cope with budget shortfalls.
The taxpayer-funded national broadcaster will also lease space at its inner city digs in Ultimo and expects 75 per cent of ABC content-makers will be based outside the organisation’s Sydney headquarters by 2025.
The flagship 7.45am morning news bulletin also faces the chop with managing director David Anderson saying it would be replaced by a 10-minute bulletin at 8am.
Lifestyle website ABC Life will become ABC Local and have a “broader editorial direction”, while travel budgets will be slashed by 25 per cent.
Mr Anderson announced the “Five Year Plan” to staff on Wednesday, saying the redundancies and savings would affect every division across the ABC.
“We anticipate we may farewell as many as 250 colleagues through this process,” he said.
Other changes flagged include a shift to more suburban and regional news coverage and ABC Comedy being rebranded to focus on programs relating to the arts, science, education and religion.
And the ABC’s digital products will start to include option sign-ins, to personalise services for audiences.
Last week the ABC had already flagged it would cut about 250 jobs as a result of a three-year funding indexation paused introduced by the Federal Government in 2018.
Originally published as ABC Life, 250 jobs cut in five-year plan shake-up