ABC restructures with new “digital first” Content division

• Chief Content Officer Chris Oliver-Taylor to oversee new ABC Content division.
• Jennifer Collins appointed Head of Screen Content.
• Heads of Drama & Comedy to be combined as Head of Scripted.
• Entertainment and Indigenous to become standalone departments.
• Children’s to become Children’s and Family.
• News boss Justin Stevens to oversee regional bureaux

ABC management has announced a major internal restructure which will move from three divisions (previously News / Entertainment and Specialist / Regional and Local) to just two: News and Content as part of a “digital first” approach.

Changes will impact on some executive roles and staff with merging of several departments. It isn’t clear how many roles are impacted.

In a note to staff Managing Director David Anderson wrote, “Today I am pleased to formally announce the new ABC content structure that will underpin our strategy. From 1 July this new structure will ensure that we can sustainably produce the content relevant to, and sought by, our audiences and distribute it across all platforms in the formats where it will have the greatest impact. It is the first step in a process to be outlined next month in the Five-Year Plan. This restructure will also assist with the Corporation’s ability to respond to significantly rising costs of running the organisation which are generating ongoing budgetary pressures for the ABC.

“The restructure has two key elements.

“First, all regional bureaux will join with ABC News led by Director News Justin Stevens. The ABC has an unrivalled presence across regional, rural and remote Australia. This will remain one of our greatest strengths. The change allows the ABC to build upon the ABC’s significant investments in regional journalism, following passage of the news media bargaining code and our deals with Google and Facebook. Today we have one of the largest teams of specialist rural reporters in the world. With 60 additional journalists, we now have approximately 600 content makers in regional Australia, operating from 58 locations outside the state and territory capitals.

“This decisive move will reinforce our commitment to independent and impartial journalism for, by and about all Australians, wherever they live. The updated News structure will streamline production processes as the ABC moves to a digital-first model, ensuring the stories of regional Australia are embedded in all ABC news coverage and available immediately in multiple formats across ABC and third-party platforms.

“I want to recognise with gratitude the enormous contribution made to the ABC by the Regional & Local division over many years. The team’s professionalism and passion for providing news, information and the stories of regional Australia to local communities and the entire nation, has set a standard of excellence that will continue through the new model.

“Second, a new ABC Content division will be created and led by Chief Content Officer Chris Oliver-Taylor. This more centralised approach will reduce the complexity of the current commissioning model, and ensure we work more effectively with Australia’s external creative sector. It will provide an increased opportunity to commission the most important and compelling Australian stories across a range of genres, generating more value from our investments.

“Radio is central to the ABC, our audiences and remains vitally important to our future. As Australian audiences are now moving from broadcast radio to streamed or on-demand audio: increasingly they want to hear from their favourite broadcasters and listen to preferred specialist content when, where and how they like. This in no ways diminishes the importance of what we do, as many of Australia’s favourite podcasts and radio programs today are presented by the ABC.

“As we move to a digital-first model, capital city Local Radio and most of the national radio networks of RN, ABC Classic, triple j and the DAB+ services will move to the new ABC Content division, while programs RN Breakfast and Drive and Background Briefing will move to News. We will continue to invest in ABC Listen so that the ABC is the sound of Australia into the future, increasingly through digital engagement.

“Change is never easy. Clearly this restructure impacts some of our leaders. Where this occurs, we will seek to redeploy as many affected employees as possible. But we expect there will be some redundancies and consultation with those leaders who are impacted is underway. We are also holding briefing sessions with content teams now to take them across the changes.”

The newly created Content Division is planned to be fully operational from 1 July.

ABC outline are three main pillars of its new leadership structure:

• Creative first, with a strong focus on our engagement with our audiences.
• Simplicity with accountability. Senior leaders who are empowered to deliver the right outcome for our audiences in challenging times and are responsible and accountable for their decisions.
• A focus on transformation and digital advancement, including our technology and creative prioritisation with ABC iview and ABC Listen.

11 roles will report to the Chief Content Officer Chris Oliver-Taylor (pictured above) in the leadership team.

In a note to staff Oliver-Taylor wrote, “Jennifer Collins (pictured below) will have a new title, Head of Screen Content. Jen is a hugely experienced creative leader and I am thrilled that she will be filling this role, which will report to me.

“Sally Riley’s recent announcement that she is leaving the ABC has given us an opportunity to assess how we will run Drama and Comedy. In Jen’s team, Scripted will be a new department, comprising Drama and Comedy. The Heads of Drama and Comedy will be combined to form one senior leadership role, Head of Scripted.

“Entertainment and Indigenous will become standalone departments, with the Head of Indigenous Kelrick Martin reporting to myself.

“Nick Hayden will continue to lead Entertainment, reporting directly to Jen.

“Children’s (now to be known as Children’s and Family) will continue to be led by Libbie Doherty. ABC Kids Listen will remain as part of the responsibility of the Children’s & Family team.

“Factual, currently led by the acting Head of Factual Richard Huddleston, will continue to report to the Head Screen Content. This department will be responsible for all external Factual commissions, including all documentaries, formats and series and all internal Factual commissions including Compass, Catalyst, Gardening Australia, Landline and Back Roads.

“Events (part of the screen component of R&L) as well as Arts round out the new Screen Content department.

“We have also created a new role, Head Audio On Demand & Development, that will allow an ABC-wide focus on the creation, commissioning and publishing of audio on demand content from the division.

“We will create a single leadership role of Audio Content Head to lead all of our Radio Networks including Capital City Radio and our Sport output, Radio National (with the exception of RN Breakfast, Drive and Background Briefing, which will move to News), ABC Classic, triple j, double j, triple j unearthed, ABC Country and ABC Jazz. Responding to the clear preferences of Australian audiences who are increasingly moving from radio to audio, this move will allow us to generate and promote even more great ABC content on digital platforms.

“Our digital-first approach is about better serving ABC audiences on all platforms, including TV and radio, linear and on demand, using new technology and a closer alignment of content to audience needs, interests, and preferences. With this in mind, we have also created a Digital Content and Innovation team that will be led by Angela Stengel, bringing together the Innovation Lab, digital and social practitioners as well as ABC Listen. This will increase the priority on digital thinking and prioritisation right across the Content Division.

“Roberta Allan will continue to lead our Programming and Acquisition work for screen, in a newly defined role. Her main focus will be programming ABC iview, the ABC’s linear channels and acquiring content on behalf of the ABC. Roberta will be working very closely with the P&T team to continue to drive the development of ABC iview to ensure it is a world class, audience focussed streaming service.

“As we look to centralise the management of the Content division budget and take a more strategic approach to the allocation of resources, people and finances, Sacha Gregson will move to the Head of Production role. In this role, she will oversee our extensive Operations team, Production Executives and the PMO. Sacha will also retain her focus on diversity and sustainability and apply this across the new Division.

“One of the other main pillars of this reorganisation is to develop and implement a commissioning process that puts the key decision makers at the heart of the process, and brings our Audiences team much closer to the decision making. This, over time, is designed to align the Content Division’s commissioning together (be that Audio or Screen, linear or on demand). This allows us to be truly audience-focused and helps us understand how we will prioritise across this new Division. Sarah McKenzie will join the Leadership team as the Head of Commissioning and Content Planning to undertake this work.”

This week the government promised $6 billion to the ABC over the next five years.