By Calum Jaspan
The ABC must correct its record on senior female leadership at the public broadcaster, according to its outgoing boss David Anderson, as he pushed back against criticism of the organisation’s news coverage by new chair Kim Williams.
Anderson told staff on Thursday he was resigning as managing director of the ABC, with almost four years left on his contract, but will stay in the role into 2025 while the broadcaster looks for his successor.
David Anderson and Kim Williams on Thursday.Credit: ABC
Speaking on ABC radio on Friday morning, Anderson defended the broadcaster’s news coverage.
“I think Kim’s criticisms, I don’t think that’s inaccurate when he says what he wants to see on the news website. He wants to make sure that we are differentiating between us and commercial media. Now, I think we do,” he said.
“Do we occasionally have a story that is more lifestyle, still ABC-like lifestyle, that is too high in the order? This is a well trodden path of criticism that we have internally and debate amongst ourselves, let alone other people debating it with us. So these things are not new.”
Since his appointment at the start of the year, Williams has conducted many media interviews, public appearances and made his thoughts on editorial matters widely known inside the organisation.
In an address to Radio National staff earlier this month, Williams criticised the priorities of the organisation’s digital news platforms, saying lifestyle stories were given too much prominence at the expense of hard news.
In his strongest critique about news output at the public broadcaster since becoming chair in March, Williams, in the address to Radio National staff, delivered a scathing assessment of the ABC’s failure to prioritise globally important news stories such as the Gaza war and the NATO summit, and foreign and state politics, to its online audiences.
“I think people have, in moments of public torment, crisis, division, challenges to leadership, a right to be able to access it from us reliably and immediately, and not to suddenly see a lifestyle story being No.1 or No.2 or No.3,” Williams told the briefing.
ABC chief financial officer Melanie Kleynn.Credit: Alex Ellinghaused
Anderson said on Thursday he would not name anyone he thought should replace him, saying it would be “an open, independent recruitment process for the board”.
However, on Friday Anderson said the organisation could do better at promoting women into senior executive roles, including that of managing director.
“It is a record that needs correction there [...] You want to see gender pay equity, and over time, I think you want to see a history that includes women in the CEO role,” Anderson said.
Since the ABC was founded in 1932, there has been only one female chief at the broadcaster – Anderson’s predecessor, Michelle Guthrie.
Guthrie’s period in the job was highly controversial. She ended up being sacked by then chair Justin Milne, who resigned from his own position two days later following a rocky relationship with the Turnbull government.
Managing director of the ABC is one of the highest-profile media appointments in the country.
Possible internal candidates include Justin Stevens, the 40-year-old head of news and current affairs, who was rocketed into the job two years ago after being executive producer of 7.30.
Global affairs editor John Lyons, who lost out to Stevens for the news director job in 2022, is considered another option should Williams seek a candidate with an editorial background. Lyons is a former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, and previously led the ABC’s investigations unit.
ABC news director Justin Stevens.Credit: Janie Barrett
He spoke out against Anderson and the ABC board in January during a union meeting regarding the decision to sack interim radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf, alleging the organisation had been manipulated by a group of pro-Israel lawyers.
The ABC’s chief financial officer, Melanie Kleyn, has a near 30-year career in broadcasting, previously as head of commercial finance at Network Ten. She is the second highest-paid executive at the ABC and could be considered by Williams, who has placed an emphasis on the broadcaster’s funding model and expanding its services within its means.
Kate Torney, the ABC’s first female news director, has also been touted as an external candidate. She is current chair of The Wheeler Centre, and this month was appointed director of the Constructive Institute Asia Pacific in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. Torney was widely respected during her time at the ABC.
Another early external front-runner is SBS’ James Taylor, who has led the hybrid public broadcaster since 2018, previously as its chief financial officer. Taylor has built up the broadcaster’s digital footprint with its SBS OnDemand service and launched successful shows such as Alone Australia. He was appointed to a second term in late 2022, running until October 2028.
A former top executive at the broadcaster who requested anonymity to speak openly said the managing director needed to be able to defend the ABC in public and work through points of political tension.
The ABC is yet to appoint a headhunting firm for the search, having used recruitment specialists Spencer Stuart in 2019 to ultimately appoint Anderson and Egon Zehnder in the previous exercise that appointed Guthrie. It is understood the latter will not be used this time.
Anderson will not leave with a payout, despite having more than three years left in his contract when he is likely to depart in April. A spokesperson for the ABC said Anderson had been a member of the Public Sector Superannuation Scheme for more than three decades.
“Mr Anderson is only entitled to the benefits relevant to that fund when he retires. Any suggestion otherwise is not correct,” the spokesperson said.
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