At this stage, one of the main thing that remains to be seen is how much will be in-house programming and how much content will be bought from productions houses. Here we and the ABC need to maintain independence of thoughts and views. We'll see.

ABC staff, many of them seasoned journalists trained in deciphering messages, were blindsided by the revelation that dozens of the job losses outlined by Michelle Guthrie on Tuesday were not middle management at all. Guthrie talked a lot about reducing red tape and eliminating over- management, about bottlenecks and about “reducing the number of management roles across the ABC” in order to create a $50m content fund and 80 new jobs in regional and rural content.

But not long after the MD gave the impression that the ranks of the so-called carpet strollers were to be thinned to make way for spending on content, television staff were being tapped for redundancy. In her staff address Guthrie said by the end of June between 150 and 200 positions would be eliminated and management would be reduced by by 20%. If it’s at the lower end of 150, more than half of those positions come from the people who make television programs such as 7.30, Landline, Gardening Australia and Foreign Correspondent. While they’re not journalist roles, most of these 85 roles are for skilled craftsmen and women and production co-ordinators who organise the crews as well as camera-people. They are not management roles or so called “back office staff”.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/commentisfree/2017/mar/10/media-union-...

Yep, the fat cats are safe at the ABC — including the new ones that Guthrie has just employs as consultants or advisors to decimate the ABC...

Walkley Award-winning reporter and writer Quentin Dempster says the decision to appoint Minerals’ Council chair Vanessa Guthrie to the ABC Board was a “direct ‘political’ choice” that is “provocative and revealing”. As Doc Martin reports, it seems to many like a return to the bad old days of political stacking.

THE MOVE to appoint Vanessa Guthrie, against the advice of an “arms-length”process, follows years of “arrogant disregard” by the major political parties to complaints about “stacking the ABC Board with political partisans,” says veteran reporter Quentin Dempster.

Dempster also told Independent Australia that Guthrie “misunderstood” the importance of being an effective lobbyist for the national broadcaster in front of Parliament and the Government.

Quentin Dempster is a former ABC staff representative on the ABC Board and now an outspoken critic of successive governments cutting funding.

He hopes the plight of the ABC and SBS will become a major issue at the next federal election.

“All Australians who want our public broadcasters to contribute to a sense of national identity and multi-cultural cohesion will have to stand up for these institutions.”

The well-loved broadcaster and journalist says Michelle Guthrie “stuffed up” in her role as managing director of the ABC in front of the Senate Estimates Committee at the end of February.

Traditionally, the public role of a managing director has been “to build bridges with the government and the parliament and specifically with the Expenditure Review Committee to secure additional funding," Dempster says.

Failing this, Dempster says, the MD should “at least try to diminish Treasury’s claw back tactics.”

read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/abc-md-is-fac...

The ABC's management and managing director, working to a politically appointed board that lacks depth of experience, is able autonomously to reset the priorities of the ABC.

To achieve its public responsibilities our most significant cultural organisation requires a governance structure within which its public purpose is clearly articulated and set by government, where certain outcomes are clearly established and where the normal high standards of public sector accountability and transparency are mandated and adhered to.

At present the ABC's self-proclaimed and all-encompassing independence causes it to exist in a state of isolation, untroubled by discussion and debate about its role within the Australian broadcasting and cultural sectors.

As we move into the digital era we could do worse than look again at how the UK Parliament over the years has resourced the BBC and has protected its independence; but also made important policy-based interventions.

...

The ABC's charter should be amended to include a commitment to Australian screen content and support for Australia's screen production industry and creative sector. A governance mechanism should be developed through the charter that addresses the ABC's volume and diversity of Australian content, in particular the genres of drama, documentary and children's programs; its engagement with, and support for, Australia's production industry and creative sector; and transparency and accountability in ABC reporting.

The ABC and Screen Producers Australia also need a terms of trade agreement, overseen by an independent referee such as Screen Australia.

Eligibility for membership of at least half the ABC board should include some level of experience and understanding of the screen content creation sector.  

The ABC as a public broadcaster is in the privileged position of being able to engage actively and innovatively with the new digital landscape, free from commercial constraints. 

But it has entered this new landscape without the protection of any public policy framework to ensure a commitment to Australian content and the production sector that creates it. And it has already shown its disregard for this content, disdain for the production sector and disrespect for the adult and children's audiences that like to watch Australian programs.  

Kim Dalton was ABC's television director from 2006 to 2013. This is an extract from a Platform Paper Missing in Action: The ABC and Australia's Screen Culture published today by Currency House.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-abcs-independence-is-letting-down-its-audience-20170430-gvvoyy.html

Please note that I know the expression "going astray"... Here I mean ashtray in the sense that the public broadcaster ABC is loosing its senses by cutting its ability to provide original content. Program-making has been (and will be) cut to the bone while demanding more from producers (radio and TV) to engage in various platforms from twitter, digital, on-line and facebook, while having less and less resources to create programs.  

The ABC is facing criticism over its decision to fly 26 members of the ABC board, senior executive and advisory council to Alice Springs for a community forum next week at a time when the broadcaster is cutting jobs and reining in budgets.

The managing director, Michelle Guthrie, and the ABC board members will fly business class, and some of the group will attend the live broadcast of Q&A in Alice Springs on Monday night to coincide with Naidoc week.

The secretary of the ABC section of the Community and Public Sector Union, Sinddy Ealy, said the trip was nothing more than a junket at a time when 200 ABC staffers were losing their jobs due to budget cuts.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jun/26/abc-criticised-for-trip-fo...

From time to time the ABC undertakes editorial reviews to see if the news department is meeting editorial standards. A spot audit of the same-sex marriage debate was undertaken on 7 and 8 August, covering more than 60 items on national television and local and national radio. It found that overall there was a “broadly even number of voices both in favour and against the plebiscite”.

An audit of the ABC’s coverage of former US vice-president Al Gore’s visit to Australia in July turned up a more interesting conclusion. Gore was in the country to promote his new documentary – An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power – and he did eight interviews across all ABC outlets. One question asked by the review was whether eight interviews was unnecessary duplication. The interviews were on 7.30 with Stan Grant; on Hack with Tom Tilley; on Radio National Breakfast with Gregg Borschmann; on Sydney Radio Breakfast with Robbie Buck; on Perth Radio Drive with Belinda Varischetti; on Melbourne Radio Drive with Alicia Loxley; on Brisbane Radio Afternoons with Kelly Higgins-Devine; and on One Plus One with Jane Hutcheon. The review concluded that the ABC should have conducted just two interviews, one radio and one TV – despite the loss of localisation.

“In order to achieve this outcome, it is essential that news, current affairs and topical programming across radio, news and (potentially) regional are able to share information and coordinate planning to ensure that a coordinated and agreed approach can be taken for key interviews to eliminate unnecessary duplication,” the review concluded.

ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie added her own note, saying she agreed. “While localisation is important, it must be counterbalanced with the appropriate allocation of resources,” she said. “In addition, there can be new ways of preserving and enhancing localisation.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/oct/06/al-gore-embroiled-in-abcs-...

Yes, Guthrie, you're a genius.... Yes, there is no need to harp on about the most important issue of this century — with developments that could destroy a bit of humanity, including its hope ...

OF COURSE THE ABC SHOULD HAVE DONE MORE INTERVIEWS WITH AL GORE ! You have no effing Idea, have you?

"In addition, there can be new ways of preserving and enhancing localisation.?" What does this fucking mean?

“It’s like saying, ‘Why don’t we get rid of universities or get rid of the National Gallery of Australia because the number of people that go through the door is not enough to justify the money?’

“It’s a cultural asset of Australia provided by the ABC and it should be left to do its work. Sydney and Melbourne local radio has a role, which is as a mainstream popular, local organisation – but so does Radio National. They’re chalk and cheese.”

Manning’s concerns are echoed by some of RN’s broadcasters, who believe the network is destined to become a producer of podcasts and cease broadcasting in coming years. “I really, really, really hope I’m wrong,” one says. “If it goes off air and becomes podcast-only, it will be dead as far as most listeners are concerned. And a year or so later it will be dead completely. We’ll have lost a national treasure.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/nov/28/why-radio-nationals-fans-f...

There is NO NEED to change the format and reach of Radio National (RN). The "budget restraints" and the "exciting changes" are a smokescreen to engender the demise of RN's important role in "talking to" the more mature audiences. What the new management want to do is involve the immature, the light-headed, possibly the guntotters and the yoofs into listening to... What? The ugly mould that's growing on the half eaten sandwich that young Johnny left at the back of the fridge four months ago?...

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