Radio front and centre for ABC in strategy U-turn

ABC has reversed its recent organisational restructure, carving out a standalone audio division after chair Kim Williams repeatedly stressed the importance of the public broadcaster’s radio output, just 16 months after it brought all of its functions under two streams.

The third division will be led by ABC’s current head of audio, Ben Latimer, the broadcaster’s outgoing managing director David Anderson told staff on Thursday in an email seen by this masthead. The division will consolidate the current Audio and ABC Listen teams, which currently sit in the Content division.

Audio content will be front and centre at the ABC under an organisational restructure.Credit: Monique Westermann

Anderson said the decision to carve out the audio content put the medium at the forefront of the ABC’s future.

“This new team reasserts Audio as a vital part of the ABC’s future and a key tenet of our connection with all Australians,” he said.

The new division will include the capital city network and sport, music stations, podcasting, Radio National, ABC Classic, Jazz, Triple J, Double J and the ABC Country teams. The ABC’s audio app, ABC Listen, will also move from the Content to Audio division.

The latest move winds back a decision announced in May last year that brought ABC’s regional bureau staff into the News division and created a standalone content team to future-proof the broadcaster’s output.

Anderson said on Thursday that rolling the audio and screen content into the Content division in 2023 was the right decision at the time.

“This consolidation allowed the team to make considerable progress in the ongoing renewal of our audio output,” he said. “Over the past 16 months we have reshaped the Audio leadership team and created lasting collaborative relationships with the Content division.”

Outgoing ABC boss David Anderson with chair Kim Williams.Credit: ABC

The U-turn is the latest change at the ABC since Williams joined the broadcaster in March. Williams has placed an emphasis on ABC’s radio output, particularly Radio National, undertaking a review of the station’s operations.

He has also reversed a strategy to position podcasting at the centre of the ABC’s audio unit, adding that radio content had suffered from internal neglect. Williams recently voiced his preference for ABC’s online news content to focus on hard news instead of lifestyle stories. The public broadcaster returned to the top of Ipsos’ news website rankings, dethroning news.com.au, this month.

Latimer, a former commercial radio executive at Nova, joined the ABC in late 2023. He came onboard following an extensive, board-approved review into the ABC’s capital city stations, which have suffered from a prolonged decline in audience since the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABC Audio boss Ben Latimer will sit alongside News and Content bosses Justin Stevens and Chris Oliver-Taylor.Credit: James Brickwood

This year, several of the key local stations have hit historically low audience shares. Both ABC Melbourne and Sydney delivered their lowest ever survey audiences in 2024. Radio National audiences are also down significantly, with Breakfast audiences less than half their reach of three years ago.

Anderson, who will leave the ABC in early 2025, said Latimer and chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor had worked hard to put the audio team in a position to stand on its own.

“This is an important change which recognises the significance of audio to our audiences and the role it will play in the future of the ABC,” Anderson’s note concluded.

The ABC is still to make several high-profile appointments, including replacements to Radio National Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas, and Sydney Drive host Richard Glover.

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