ABC’s focus on digital first to result in 120 job losses

Federal political editor Andrew Probyn has become the first big name casualty of the ABC’s five year plan that aims to follow the audience towards digital.

ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, made the announcement with the arts team being sliced, state-based 7pm news bulletins on Sundays being replaced with a single national program and iView news bulletins. There are 40 roles going in the news division including journalists, editors, camera and sound operators, with around 120 job cuts in total.

Probyn told the Guardian Australia, “I’m pretty flabbergasted,” and that he’d been informed the broadcaster no longer needed a political editor.

Probyn joined the ABC in 2017 and became political editor after Chris Uhlmann left for Nine.

Commenting on the cuts, Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“I am devastated to hear that more than 100 jobs will go from the ABC. This is shocking for public interest journalism and for the hardworking, talented staff of the ABC.”

The dozens of job cuts “will leave gaping holes in the ABC’s journalism around Australia,” says the union for media workers, MEAA.

MEAA Media Director Cassie Derrick says “the ABC has been running on empty for the past decade and we are concerned about how it can continue to deliver quality public interest journalism with even fewer staff following these cuts,”