ABC Chair, Kim Williams, has correctly shown his Managing Director the door. The reasons for doing so are many.
David Anderson had chalked up an astonishing 35 years at the national broadcaster – their last six as Managing Director. When he joined, someone called Bob Hawke was Prime Minister.
On Anderson’s watch, the ABC has seen audience numbers (across all platforms) slide dramatically while marketing and advertising costs have risen significantly, according to publicly available data.
The well-intentioned decision to relocate some broadcast operations and administrative functions out of ABC Ultimo to premises in Parramatta has been a costly shambles.
Key decisions by the Board and management on editorial policy, use of social media, and directives on impartiality are all but ignored by editorial staff. Rules are made and breached with regularity.
Efforts to bring diversity to the on-air ‘talent’ frequently results in mangled or just plain incorrect English and place names woefully mispronounced.
The numbers for the ABC – the one’s that matter at least – are awful. Costs heading north while audience numbers rapidly heading south is not sustainable.
Of greatest concern for the Board and management is the failure of the broadcaster to attract younger people to previously cornerstone news and current affairs programs. Anderson’s greatest failure has been an inability to attract a new audience – a young audience. Any media outfit running out of audience has a significant problem.
For all the well-paid executives, the vast number of producers, program directors, marketers, and so-called ‘on-air stars’ – the ABC continues to mark itself as increasingly irrelevant to people it should be attracting.
No matter which ABC platform you select – you’ll find an underwhelming offering with self-focused presenters putting themselves front and centre repelling those who actually want to hear quality broadcasting. Many such come instantly to mind.
The public broadcaster seems to specialise in weak journalism, regurgitation of federal and state government media announcements, and an absence of high-quality investigative journalism. There have been exceptions – but not many.
Radio National, once highly regarded, is now a ghetto of indulgence by people peddling their own prejudices, ideas and ‘pet’ subject. Such presenters remain ignorant of the fact – we are not interested in their views.
What could possibly explain the obvious and dramatic slide in ABC output…
