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Vale: Brian Johns

Brian Johns, former managing director of the ABC, has died.

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Brian Johns, former managing director of the ABC, has died aged 79.

He died at a Sydney hospital yesterday morning following a battle with cancer.

Johns headed the ABC from 1995 to 2000 and focused on bringing the national broadcaster into the digital age. He is credited with starting ABC Online, 7:30 and Australian Story.

Managing director Mark Scott said, “He knew that all parts of the organisation needed to come together as one.

“Almost more than any other media leader in the country he understood the impact that digital technology was going to make on media organisations and he drove the organisation to change to respond to that phenomenon.”

He was also director of Penguin Books and chairman of the Copyright Agency and chief executive of SBS from 1987 to 1992.

Photo: The Australian

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