“No retreat, no surrender”: ABC denies less state-based coverage

ABC News boss Justin Stevens has denied the Sunday night bulletin recently trimming from 40 to 30 minutes is a “final surrender” in covering state based politics and issues.

The claim came from Alan Sunderland, ABC’s Editorial Director from 2013 to 2019, and a board director of ABC Alumni. Those with long memories will recall the expanded bulletin was born when state-based 7:30 editions were dumped from Fridays in 2014.

“The 40-minute news bulletin, together with expanded online coverage, was meant to deliver the kind of in-depth coverage that state-based current affairs used to. With its demise, what are we left with?” Sunderland asked.

“In my view, we are left with a clear and obvious gap in the ABC’s news coverage. State and territory newsrooms, talented and hard-working as they are, are simply not being given the opportunity to deliver the amount and the depth of coverage that Australians need if they want to see all levels of government closely scrutinised and held to account. While the occasional online article or podcast can be helpful, nothing has the impact or immediacy of scheduled television current affairs. Live extended television interviews with political leaders, for example, generate extensive follow up and often drive the agenda for other news media to follow.”

But Justin Stevens said the broadcaster takes a multiplatform approach to its News, including the ABC News website and app, ABC iview and ABC listen.  

“For one, we now have ABC News channel, which on average reaches more than 3.5 million Australians each week. The pandemic, the bushfires, the floods and many other stories and events have demonstrated the integral value of ABC News channel in a digital, on-demand and streaming world where the audience wants immediate information on unfolding events.”

He continued, “Alan writes that reducing the Sunday night edition of the 7pm News by 10 minutes to 30 minutes, in line with the other nights, ‘marks the final surrender in a long ABC retreat from providing regular in-depth scheduled coverage of State politics and State issues on the public broadcaster.’ 

“With this, I strongly disagree. There is no retreat and no surrender. Our coverage of state and territory issues is impactful and comprehensive – and we are delivering it to audiences on their schedule every day of the week, not just to our schedule. “

Stevens listed a long line of recent state-based stories covered by ABC.

“As the ABC navigates the increasingly fragmented media environment, asking how we can afford do more scheduled TV current affairs is not the right question. Even assuming we could get the many millions of dollars it would cost, it would not serve the needs of most our audience members, given where they are today compared to a decade ago,” he insisted.

“While Alan argues ‘nothing has the impact or immediacy of scheduled television current affairs’, in fact journalism strategically rolled out across our platforms daily has measurably greater impact and immediacy, reaching audiences the ABC never has before. For a Four Corners episode or 7.30 story that might be seen by a million viewers on scheduled broadcast, there is another million – mostly under the age of 50 – who consume the journalism via digital.”

You can read more at ABC Alumni.