ABC’s 7pm news in Guthrie’s sights

Michelle Guthrie’s ABC revolution is set to include changes to the previously sacrosanct 7pm ABC news.

Michelle Guthrie’s ABC revolution might include changes to the previously sacrosanct 7pm ABC news.

“Increasingly people are not tuning to the 7pm news to find out what happened that day,” the ABC managing director said after unveiling her restructure of the organisation, which will cost 200 jobs.

Changes to the bulletin might include more analysis, or distributing it on different platforms, but Ms Guthrie denied it would be axed.

“I look at my daughters and they are never going to watch the 7pm news, but are they interested in what happened that day, and analysis and context? Of course they are,” she told Radio National.

“Are they going to get it on a third-party platform or iView or something else? I don’t know. We have to be ­prepared to be flexible enough to be where they are.”

Ms Guthrie said science program Catalyst could be the blueprint for changes to major news and current affairs shows.

“You only have to look at what we did with Catalyst; [that’s] an example of the way we should continually look at refreshing programs,” Ms Guthrie said.

The ABC revealed in November that Catalyst’s magazine-style 30-minute format would be cut but 17 hour-long documentary programs would be aired.

The Australian ­last month ­reported that the ABC was in a quandary over declining and ageing audiences for its TV news and current ­affairs programs, with ABC News reaching just 31 per cent of audiences each week via television. The flagship program also had an ageing audience, with 82 per cent of viewers over 50.

Ms Guthrie also rejected suggestions the broadcaster’s all-­female presenting line-up for International Women’s Day was tokenistic. “By giving our shows over to women we are really ­creating the opportunity to have a discussion about where women are not well represented in the wider community, whether it is in terms of leadership roles or gender pay gap,” she said.

“If the ABC’s actions today have helped to generate a conversation then I don’t see how it is tokenistic.”

The managing director, who previously worked for Google and News Corporation’s Star TV, denied she was a Rupert Murdoch stooge out to destroy the corporation, as some staff privately suggest. “I left News Corporation in 2007 so if I am a Murdoch stooge I must be reasonably far removed from that considering I left the organisation some time ago.”

The ABC must seek out new audiences and try new ideas to reach them, Ms Guthrie said.

“As our audiences drift away from radio and television it is very important that we don’t just watch that happen. It is important that we find ways of reconnecting with those audiences because if we don’t have that ­relevance