ABC Radio will be elevated to the executive team and moved to a stand-alone audio division in a dramatic reversal by the chair, Kim Williams, of a major restructure announced by the managing director, David Anderson, last year.
Guardian Australia understands the backflip on strategy after just 16 months follows Williams speaking consistently about the primacy of ABC radio since arriving in March.
The outgoing managing director, who resigned a year into his second five-year term, told staff on Thursday the important change “recognises the significance of audio to our audiences and the role it will play in the future of the ABC”.
In July last year, when Ita Buttrose was chair, the radio division was abolished by Anderson. The radio networks, including Radio National and Triple J, were moved into a single content division with television under the chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor.
Now radio will “form a separate division to ensure visibility and focus on the ABC leadership team”.
“This new team reasserts audio as a vital part of the ABC’s future and a key tenet of our connection with all Australians,” Anderson said.
In August, Williams told Guardian Australia one of his first acts as chair was to reverse the board’s decision to start reducing the corporation’s radio networks. There were discussions about reducing the number of talk services the ABC offered – Radio National, NewsRadio and local radio – from three to two.
“The ABC has an obligation to be a reliable broadcaster for the nation,” he said in August. “And I would offer the view that we are the last broadcaster standing.”
This put him at odds with the strategy underpinning the biggest restructure of the ABC since 2017: a digital-first model under which all the radio networks would move to the new ABC content division and eventually be reduced.
The new audio division will house the catchup radio and podcast service, ABC Listen, and will be run by the director of audio, Ben Latimer.
The division includes capital city local radio stations, sport, music, audio on demand, Radio National, ABC Classic, ABC Jazz, triple j, triple j unearthed, triple j hottest 100, Double j and ABC Country.
Anderson justified the decision to backflip by saying when the content division was created in July 2023 “it was the right decision” and the team had made “considerable progress in the ongoing renewal of our audio output”.
“Now is the right time to form a separate division to ensure visibility and focus on the ABC leadership team and to ensure we continue to meet evolving audience expectations for this significant part of the ABC,” he said.
Last May Anderson assured staff the restructure did not mean the importance of radio was being downgraded.
“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,” Anderson said at the time.
Another plank of the strategy which was quickly reversed last year was a decision to cut local TV news bulletins on Sunday nights.
In July the broadcaster announced plans to reduce eight state-based bulletins at 7pm in favour of a single national one amid a shake-up to focus on a digital-first operation.
But after the state premiers protested loudly the decision was reversed.
According to the latest Ipsos rankings, ABC News is Australia’s No 1 online news website with almost 11.83 million unique visitors in September.
The ABC is recruiting a new managing director.
