ABC News streamlined in restructure

Yesterday ABC announced a major restructure of its divisions.

The expanded ABC News, and the newly created Content division are both planned to be fully operational from Saturday 1 July.

ABC News will include the regional bureaux, including the regional local radio teams and employees based in the capital cities and around Australia, as well as Emergency Broadcasting and regional and rural programs such as Australia Wide and Country Hour.

In a note to staff Director of ABC News, Analysis and Investigations Justin Stevens told staff,” Importantly, this will be a new News team which we create together. It’s bringing together teams that align and share skills in order to create a new and stronger ABC News with a greater collective capacity to serve all Australians.”

He outlined benefits of bringing the regional, rural and metro news teams together as:

Bringing more of our journalists and content makers closer together to service the public with the most comprehensive local, national and international news – no other media outlet in this country has the presence the ABC has.

Keeping the regional bureaux as one team is important for cohesion and collaboration – connecting the dots for the audience on stories that impact communities across the country. Regional local radio is a crucial service for our audience and these teams will continue to work closely with their bureaux colleagues.

Continuing to elevate the stories of rural and regional Australia in all ABC news coverage and ensure they are available in multiple formats across ABC and third-party platforms.

The National Regional Reporting Team led by Edwina Farley will work alongside the national and international teams headed by Deputy Director and Head, National and International Gavin Fang.

The News Executive, which for the first time will comprise more women than men, includes:

Deputy Director, Head National & International – Gavin Fang

Head Regional, Rural & Metro News/Operations – Donna Field

Head Digital News – Lee Glendinning

Head Indigenous News – Suzanne Dredge

Head Investigative Journalism & Current Affairs – Jo Puccini

Head News Distribution & Strategy – Stuart Watt

It isn’t clear how many job losses are impacted by the ABC News restructure.

“As a consequence of the reorganisation and inevitable role changes, we are losing some talented and dedicated managers, and we sincerely thank them for their huge contribution,” Stevens said.