In October Mottram will relocate to Bega, in south-east NSW, while Lane is planning a January move to Hobart.
Locating content-making roles in more parts of Australia is one of the key goals of the ABC’s Five-Year Plan, and being closer to our communities is integral to ABC NEWS’s “More Relevant to More Australians” editorial strategy, helping us tap into the concerns and perspectives of the broadest cross-section of Australians.
Basing national current affairs programs in regional NSW and in Hobart is also a boost for the local teams, opening new possibilities for bringing original and relevant stories from those centres to the nation.
Melbourne-born Lane has been based in Canberra for 13 years, leading AM for the past four. She says she has been contemplating a change of scene for some time:
“A couple of years ago I fell in love with Tasmania and its glorious native forests and had a dream to move there. I asked if it was possible to present AM from Hobart and was delighted the answer was yes. I’ll still be keeping a ferocious eye and ear on Federal politics and national affairs.
“It’s been an honour to be part of the ABC’s Parliamentary Bureau team — it’s a powerhouse of reporting. But a new path awaits and I’m looking forward to joining my new ABC family in Hobart.”
Lane will broadcast from one of the ABC’s main Hobart studios, which are fully equipped with the latest technology to connect with audiences and ABC networks across the country and around the world. The move also means she will relinquish her role as President of the National Press Club.
Sabra Lane has been covering federal politics in Canberra for the ABC since 2008. From September 2013 she was Chief Political Correspondent on 7.30. She became presenter of AM in October 2016. She joined the National Press Club board in 2014 and was elected as President in February 2018. Before going to Canberra, Lane was a reporter for ABC Radio current affairs in Sydney and a regular fill-in EP on AM, The World Today and PM. Prior to joining the ABC she was EP of the Seven Network’s Sunday Sunrise for more than four years. She began her journalism career in 1989 in Adelaide as a reporter and producer for the Ten Network.
Mottram will broadcast Saturday AM and PM out of ABC South East, located in the town of Bega.
Originally from Perth, Mottram has worked all over the world, including being the ABC correspondent in the Middle East and Moscow, and has been presenting PM for almost three years, out of both the Sydney and Gosford studios.
“We’ve never been a family that sits still for too long. We’ve travelled the world to work and just on a whim. Our family has south coast history from way back and there has been a real pull.” says Mottram.
Linda Mottram has been a journalist for more than 25 years, including two foreign postings in the Middle East and Moscow. In 1999 she won a Walkley Award in the Radio Current Affairs category for her coverage of the Meja massacre during the conflict in Kosovo. She has also reported on federal politics and worked with Radio Australia, broadcasting into the Asia Pacific. Originally from Perth, Mottram began as a graduate cadet at West Australian Newspapers and has also worked in commercial radio and for Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph.
The ABC has had the ability to broadcast nationally from any studio for a long time. However more than half their staff are in the large Ultimo building, so this is a refreshing change.
Fortunately phone charges are not related to distance means that contacts can be maintained.
It would be interesting to see what would have happened last year if Saturday AM & PM were produced in Bega, where one of the Bega studios program feeds went to Mt Wandera near Bateman's Bay where its FM transmitter was burnt down in horrendous fires.
So much of the current news and current affairs output is now repetition due to journalist cuts, I hope that these moves can introduce some unique stories which were not in the preceding news.