ABC News boss Gaven Morris warns there is no more fat left to cut in wake of Budget cuts
ABC head of news Gaven Morris has warned there “is no more fat left to cut” at the national broadcaster as funding has been effectively cut by half over the past 30 years.
“Back in 1987, your ABC famously cost each Australian eight cents a day. In 1987-dollar terms we now cost each Australian just four cents a day,” Morris said.
Morris: “We’ve learnt to do a lot with our few cents a day.”
“In other words, since the 1980s our per capita funding has halved in real terms.
“We’ve learnt to do a lot with our few cents a day.”
Morris’ speech at the Melbourne Press Club follows Tuesday’s Budget where Treasurer Scott Morrison announced a freeze in funding which will effectively see $84m slashed from the ABC’s budget over the next three years.
Morris pointed out his news division only spends 4% of its budget on overheads.
“In ABC News, almost 96% of our annual budget of $202.4m is spent on journalism and production.
“Make no mistake, there is no more fat to cut in ABC News. From this point on, we’re cutting into muscle.
“Since the mid-1980s, however, our funding has actually declined by 28% in real terms, while over the same period we have increased the number of services on which we serve Australians, including creating the ABC News TV channel and iView entirely from internal savings.”
Morris spent part of his speech outlining the recently announced restructure to the ABC’s metro newsrooms, saying it will give regional journalists more scope to report stories.
“The next step is to ensure state and territory audiences are just as well served by distinctive journalism, and last week we outlined the Local Journalism Initiative.
“The proposal reshapes our eight capital city newsrooms to enable us to deliver more in-depth coverage and faster breaking news to local audiences across TV, radio, web and mobile.
“The newsrooms have not been reshaped for years and, while our teams have worked hard to adapt to changing audience needs, they’re often still organised around traditional broadcast output. We want them to be led and structured to meet the lifestyles of Australians today and to pursue a stronger, bolder brand of reporting.
“We anticipate around 20 redundancies. Of course, this is difficult. But the aim is to bring in new senior roles equipped with the skills to meet different audience demands. We’ll have no fewer editorial roles and no cost cuts.
“Some local newsrooms, such as Darwin, will end up with more journalists than they have now, and most of our newsrooms will have more resources to invest in coverage.
“We are asking our local journalists to do fewer stories but to increase the value and quality of those we do. Less commodity news, more journalism that local audiences are increasingly getting less of elsewhere.”
In concluding his speech, Morris observed how Australians’ trust in institutions such as AMP, governments and the church had been shaken and it was the ABC’s role to provide a trusted voice.
“The best way to make our case? To maintain our absolute commitment to Australians to provide the most valuable in-depth and investigative storytelling, accurate analysis and context, and reliable breaking news coverage.
“And to make sure it is fully available to everyone across all our programs, platforms and channels.”
In 1987-dollar terms we now cost each Australian just four cents a day,” Morris said.
And in 1987 the average cost of a house in Sydney was $145,000.
It just shows what Gaven and the rest of the ABC have to hide when they have to resort to silly games like this knowing that their simple, rusted-on audience will now take the “four cents a day” as a literal 2018 figure. Don’t hide behind silly games, give us the real numbers Gaven. Or do you think that will scare the supporters away?
Of course Gaven would say that there “is no more fat left to cut”, but why should we believe him when there are a gaggle of specialist “star” reporters who pop up every so often on the news to pretend that they are earning the large contract salaries they are being paid. The ABC Enterprise Agreement covers salaries (including the generous 15.4% super) of up to $140,000 a year. Isn’t that enough? Why is the taxpayer forking out over a quarter-of-a-million dollars a year for an autocue reader? This isn’t what Public Service Broadcasting is about. Yes, Gaven, there’s plenty of fat. ‘Fess up.
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Why not have revenue streams such as advertising just like sbs?
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If I earn $20/hr today and $20/hr tomorrow, I have not had a pay cut.
If the ABC is getting the exact same amount of funding next year and the year after it is NOT having its budget cut.
If they’re so, so worried – why not start by trimming that fat at the top?
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Our country ABC centre has a staff of eight – yes, eight – to service a population of 33,000.
They broadcast from 6.15am to 11am daily.
That’s it.
No fat to cut??
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I can help him with his budgeting, if he wants. How about we start with the Mardi Gras ads aimed at children on ABC ME and work backwards from there? Aunty is a great big obese monstrosity whi needs her stomach stapled and her mouth sewn shut. Greedy greedy old hag who’s not fit for purpose.
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The ABC TV series ‘Harrow’ had 16, yes SIXTEEN producers (+ 6 Directors) for a ten hour tv series.
A two hour movie can be made with just 3, an EP, line producer and producer, why cant an hour of TV?
That tells you there is plenty of fat to cut yet!
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Cost it in 2018 terms, the ABC are as shifty as our politicians. Wait a minute, they are an arm of the Labor Party, I forgot.
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As they usually work as the PR dept for Labor / Greens, maybe they could get some additional funding from them.
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These comments are deeply misinformed, snarky and one-sided. I know I’m in a comments section, but the lack of constructive, civil debate is something I think the ABC contributes to when the FTA channels and talk radio add little to informed debate.
If the ABC has cut $254m since 2014, I do think a line should be drawn under these cutbacks. Politicians in Canberra are not media professionals so I’d at least like to see a review done of where the so-called ‘fat’ is.
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Please nooooooooooooo
Im in advertising sales amongst other roles in senior management in our business
The last thing I would want in our ABC is the dumbing down and simply awful commercial effect that advertising would have on brave independent journalism
if you dont understand what effect it has just look at what commercial television has to offer particularly in news, current affairs, investigative journalism and documentaries !!!
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Hmmm
Asking for comments in an advertising industry Forum about their opinion on the cuts of a government owned non advertising platform of the ABC is always going to receive a balanced well thought out and articulated response.
I wonder how many of these respondents work at News Limited
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A story about the ABC attracting boomers with opinions, what a surprise!
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Ben, your implication is that on each episode there were 16 producers and 6 directors.
If you knew anything about TV and film production you would realise that it is common for TV episodes to have different producers (and less commonly) different directors, largely because crews are brought together across the period of the shoot using freelancers who have other pre-existing commitments.
It is rare for a 2-hour movie to be made with a single EP, line producer or producer.
And if you care to think of it, have a look at the credits for some of the TV ads featured in Mumbrella. They often have more staff to make a 30-second commercial than 26-minute TV productions do.
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