Michelle Guthrie: The inside story behind her sacking

When Michelle Guthrie bumped into Malcolm Turnbull before last year’s AFL grand final in Melbourne, a friendly chat about football wasn't on the agenda.

A former Google and Foxtel executive, Guthrie had been managing director of the ABC for just over 12 months and was in midst of restructuring the public broadcaster’s digital strategy. At an official AFL lunch ahead of the premiership decider between Richmond and Adelaide, the then prime minister started the encounter by complimenting Guthrie on some of the changes she had started to make.

Former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie was axed by the board on Monday. Credit: Peter Braig

But the conversation soon took a turn for the worse. Turnbull, who was communications minister before ousting Tony Abbott to become prime minister, complained about the 7.30’s chief political correspondent Andrew Probyn. A source familiar with the conversation said Turnbull accused Probyn of "anti-government" bias.

Like many media executives who find themselves facing a high-level government complaint, Guthrie did her best to give a non-committal reply. But Turnbull is believed to have been particularly angry when, three months later in December 2017, Probyn was promoted to political editor for ABC News.

Running the ABC is one of the most challenging jobs in Australian media, as this pre-match interaction demonstrates. The managing director must juggle a range of deeply interested parties ranging from the government, the board, viewers, employees and the Murdoch press. At any point in time a person in Guthrie’s position could expect the majority of these stakeholders to be hostile.

This challenge proved too much for Michelle Lee Guthrie. Months out from a federal election and halfway through her five-year tenure, the 52-year-old was sacked by ABC chairman Justin Milne, who said in an interview on ABC’s news channel on Monday that he didn’t want to go into the "ins and outs" of the decision yet questioned her “leadership style” and criticised her political relationships in Canberra.

Nor will Guthrie be missed by many ABC staff. Veteran radio broadcaster Phillip Adams brutally dismissed her as a charmless and absent manager who had trashed staff morale and infected the ABC with "managerial nonsense".

"She didn’t say hello to me for a year. She didn’t walk the corridors. She just wasn’t around the place," he said.

"The only time we ever saw her is if there was a command performance. We gathered in darkness while she read from an autocue and read the latest epistle from on high."

Milne, a close friend of Turnbull’s, must now find a replacement with acting managing director David Anderson an early favourite among ABC employees for the job. For her part, Guthrie must decide on whether to follow through with threats of legal action.

In a statement on Monday Guthrie said that "at no point" had the board raised concerns about the digital transformation with her.

However, ABC insiders say she was made aware that her job was in jeopardy several weeks ago. Milne and other members of the board including Kirstin Ferguson and Donny Walford were becoming increasingly frustrated by what they believed were her leadership failings, according to people familiar with the conversations.

We gathered in darkness while she read from an autocue and read the latest epistle from on high.

Phillip Adams, ABC Radio broadcaster

Attendees at the annual Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery Ball in Canberra on September 12 noted Guthrie and Milne - who were seated at the same table with 7.30 chief political correspondent Laura Tingle and actor Sam Neill - barely exchanged a word.

At one point during the evening, hosted by comedian Bob Downe, Guthrie spoke with Nine Entertainment chief executive Hugh Marks in what sources described as an "aggressive" conversation.

In October last year, Guthrie used a speech at an ABC Friends Public Conference dinner to criticise Marks and other free-to-air television bosses for attempting to deny Australian children "the right to watch Play School and Peppa Pig" through their government lobbying efforts. At the ball she accused Marks of unfairly criticising the ABC. It was, sources say, their first conversation.

It turns out Guthrie had good reason to be agitated. The day after the Canberra ball, Milne formally asked her to resign. Sources close to Guthrie say the former Telstra executive nominated her "leadership style" as the main stumbling block. Guthrie responded by saying she didn’t want to resign and would undertake executive coaching to fix the problem.

Justin Milne and Michelle Guthrie in February 2018.Credit: Steven Siewert

However, it appears Milne had made up his mind. Guthrie was then told she needed to go for three main reasons: low staff morale; her travel to Singapore; and poor feedback from executives working for her.

It seems Milne had grounds to worry about morale. Guthrie struggled to keep staff upbeat during a major restructure of the radio and television divisions, cutting management jobs and boosting digital operations. Most major media companies have endured a difficult time in recent years in response to the rise of digital platforms such as Google and Facebook but the ABC’s 4300 employees have taken it particularly hard.

A 2017 survey of staff found engagement was down 6 points to 46 per cent compared to 2015. Pride in the ABC brand, content and reputation scored well, but the worst-rated categories related to leadership. Only 17 per cent of staff said the leadership team treated employees as the most valuable asset, and just 18 per cent said senior staff made them feel inspired about the future.

Another black mark against her name in the eyes of some staff members was a recent interview with the Australian Financial Review’s Boss Magazine in which Guthrie admitted to preferring the anonymity a Google role in Singapore provided her compared to the media scrutiny of being the ABC boss.

Singapore was a particularly sensitive subject. After Guthrie accepted the ABC job, her husband Darren Farr, a chef who runs The LoKal restaurant in Singapore, remained in Asia. Staff say overseas travel left staff feeling isolated and served as an uncomfortable counterpoint to her relatively few visits to Canberra. Guthrie is believed to have taken four official trips to Singapore this year although weekend travel to see her family may have contributed to the impression among some critical board members that she was away too often.

Sources close to Guthrie say the trips were signed off by Milne. They also point out she was an independent director of Singaporean telecommunications company Starhub. They say it should not have been raised as an issue.

Nevertheless, while Guthrie was a visible presence at many "meet-and-greets" shortly after taking on the job, she quickly faded into the background, according to ABC staffers.

Many did not appreciate her soft-diplomacy approach at a time when the public broadcaster's budget has been hit with an $84 million cut due to a funding freeze to its bottom line over the next three years. The decision was made by Turnbull when he was still prime minister and came at the same time as heavy government criticism of some ABC journalists.

In February, Turnbull’s office complained to the ABC when chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici wrote an analysis criticising the government's plan to cut the corporate tax rate, calling it "one of the most confused and poorly researched articles I've seen on this topic on the ABC’s website" (the article was removed, and an internal check found some errors).

Probyn was found to have been "judgmental" and "declarative" by the media regulator for calling former prime minister Tony Abbott "the most destructive politician of his generation".

Both events appalled ABC employees who believe the journalists were unfairly targeted.

Adams says Guthrie's predecessor Mark Scott "did much more terrible things" and "got rid of many more people", but did so with good grace.

"Poor Michelle was charmless, absolutely and utterly charmless, and couldn’t seduce the staff at all the way Mark did."

Melbourne-based radio host Jon Faine ripped into Guthrie’s strategy on-air just minutes after it was revealed she had been shown the door.

"She was obsessed with platforms, structures, flowcharts," he said. "Astonishing. Absolutely astonishing."

Sally Neighbour, the executive producer of Four Corners, also made her views clear.

"Excellent decision," she tweeted on Monday morning.

As for the interim managing director, David Anderson, staffers say the former head of ABC entertainment emerged as a suitable candidate several months ago. He regularly attends work events and is seen to have a much better relationship among government circles.

The ABC executive was the manager who called Australian Conservatives candidate Kevin Bailey earlier this year to apologise after he was labelled a "c---" on-air. The personal apology came despite the ABC publicly backing the Tonightly program.

Anderson has also been forced to make tough calls during his tenure, including swinging the axe on Tom Ballard’s weekly show as well as popular consumer affairs show The Checkout.

Anderson was passed over for the job when Guthrie was appointed, and many staff would be happy for him to stay in the managing director role permanently.

"He’s the smartest, most respected executive at the ABC. Spent his entire career there and is respected across the production sector. This is the smartest thing they’ve done in a long time," a former staff member said.