ABC news director Justin Stevens’s replacement to be appointed tomorrow
A replacement for ABC news director Justin Stevens will be named tomorrow, managing director Hugh Marks has confirmed after Stevens abruptly announced he would leave the organisation.
Stevens announced his resignation Wednesday after heading ABC’s news division for four years, his last day being the same day.
Shadow Communications Secretary Sarah Henderson pressed Marks for an explanation of the sudden resignation during Senate estimates hearings.
However, Marks declined to comment.
“[It would be] It is inappropriate for me to go into detail about specific personnel matters,” Marks said.
“Being head of news at ABC is a tough job. I think after four years and intense scrutiny… I think Stevens felt it was the right time for him to move on and pursue other careers.”
“Over the years I have met a number of people who could be opportunities for this role, I expect an announcement to be made soon and we will move forward with a candidate who has the potential to lead the ABC into a bright future.”
Hugh Marks said replacing the ABC’s news director provided the organization with an opportunity for renewal and revitalization. (ABC News: Toby Hunt)
Marks confirmed that the new news director was selected through a recruitment process run by an external provider.
However, the chief executive also stated that he had been “unofficially” scouting for the role for the past six months, knowing that Stevens would “potentially leave”.
Marks refused to answer Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi’s questions about whether Reuters executive Simon Robinson would be the next news director, the Guardian reported.
ABC will ‘renew and rejuvenate’ under new director
Stevens said yesterday that he was leaving after 19 years with the organization “for both professional and personal reasons.”
The outgoing director said there was “no more sophisticated news organization” in the country and that during his tenure he had sought to “strengthen and defend our journalism without being blind to our stumbles.”
Senator Henderson claimed the loss of libel at the ABC for allegations made against him in 2021 lies with Heston Russell, and that a series of serious errors at the ABC forced the news director to resign in the 2022 investigation into which additional gunfire was mistakenly added to footage of Australian soldiers firing from a helicopter in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in 2012.
Marks said he would not go into details about Stevens’ resignation but said it provided an opportunity to “renew and revitalize” the ABC.
Senator Henderson said this should be an opportunity for the ABC to address what he described as a “defensive culture”.
“When some, but not all, journalists made these mistakes, the ABC often supported them rather than appreciating that we had made a mistake, and we need to correct that mistake,” Senator Henderson said.
Marx argued that standards had improved under his leadership.
“I agree with you that sometimes the ABC makes mistakes, as all media outlets do,” Marks said.
“We defend where appropriate, but we also admit our mistakes when we make them.”
Marks said ABC will try to focus more on its strengths as it looks ahead.
“The ABC has a number of core responsibilities, a lot of things that are ours alone right now, and we take that weight very seriously,” Marks said.
“We are in an organization where we have to say what has served us well in the past may not work in the future.
“We’re asking our people to do more, to occupy more platforms, to be in more places at more time. More pressure is something we need to solve, something we need to be very specific and focused on… doing it more often leads to a very poor spread of resources.”
The ABC and Reuters have been contacted for comment.
