Michelle Guthrie was in Perth last week to attend the opening of the new Screenwest office located on a vacant floor inside the ABC building. The ABC managing director welcomed the screen funding agency’s co-location, saying they were both in the business of making “exceptional content”. And later in the afternoon she held a meet and greet with some of the ABC people who make that exceptional content, at an informal gathering over a cup of tea with local radio, news and RN staffers. Guthrie inadvertently found herself sitting at a table with staff from Radio National, which has been subjected to yet more cuts.

Staff asked Guthrie questions about the loss of programs and experienced program-makers, and told her how upset the staff and listeners were to lose more documentary and music programs and explained why they had signed a no-confidence motion against RN management. But it didn’t go at all well.

ABC staff told Weekly Beast they watched on “with their jaws on the floor” as Guthrie became very defensive and raised her voice, repeatedly asking them “what they would do” and how they “justify their massive budget when their reach is so low”. She also asked staff whether it was fair that RN had three times the budget of Triple J.

The musician and broadcaster Lucky Oceans, whose Daily Planet has been axed, asked how many signatures it would take to reverse the decision. Guthrie said it was irrelevant because the decision had already been made. Technically it is still supposed to be a consultation period. Asked why a 25-year-old program like Daily Planet had been cancelled, Guthrie said words to the effect of “Twenty-five years? Isn’t it time for a change?” to which someone said, “Should we cancel Four Corners because it’s been on air for 40 years?”

The MD said people outside the major cities would not lose out when music moved from the radio to digital platforms because they could listen to digital radio on their televisions. Not so easy to do on a tractor.

A cartoon by Colin Suggett for the Save Radio National Music campaign

On the Radio National cuts, Guthrie told her shocked audience as 30 staffers looked on: “I hate to break it to you but this is a very small decision for me.”

Guthrie also said it was outrageous that the science broadcaster Robyn Williams had spoken publicly about the axing of Catalyst and that if she had done that she would have been sacked. (It wasn’t clear what job she would have been sacked from.)



Tea and sympathy

In the ABC’s Melbourne office things were a little friendlier for Guthrie, who enjoyed a confrontation-free afternoon tea on Tuesday at Southbank. Front and centre at the staff gathering was the Melbourne-based RN Drive presenter, Patricia Karvelas, who laughed with the MD in what looked like a friendly exchange.

Karvelas and Lateline host Emma Alberici had been quoted in a Sydney Morning Herald news story that day, headlined “If they don’t like it they should leave”.The SMH piece included criticism of ABC staff who had spoken up about cuts to specialist arts and science programming. Karvelas, who also has her own TV show at Sky News, told the SMH: “I did not and would not sign a no-confidence motion. It does not reflect how I feel, or how many of my colleagues feel. There’s no doubt that change is always hard. I’ve worked across newspapers, radio and television and I’ve watched profound digital disruption across this industry. Growing new audiences is the way to survive and thrive and I believe this is the ultimate goal of the ABC.”

But it wasn’t Alberici and Karvelas’ words which shocked many ABC staff, but the fact that anonymous “senior ABC executives” had been so eager to belittle their own staff.

“There is a senior cabal at Radio National that act as standover merchants,” they told the Sydney Morning Herald. “RN hasn’t grown its audience in 10 years, yet they would prefer it to remain a cul-de-sac. They think digital strategy is when you upgrade an alarm clock.”

One radio executive told Weekly Beast the accusation that RN staff were opposed to the digital strategy was a smokescreen. “Radio National has been the most innovative and sophisticated part of the ABC and has pioneered online engagement through streaming and podcasting,” he said. “The real agenda here is to take a huge chunk of resources out of RN and dumb it down.”

Royal commission walkout

Senior journalists from Sky, the ABC, News Corp and NITV covering the royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the Northern Territory walked out on Tuesday, amid accusations of misinformation by the commission’s media team and wider concerns about access.

The commissioners were going to tour the old and new Don Dale facilities and the Darwin watch house on Wednesday and media were not happy to find out there would be space for one pool camera from the ABC to attend and provide video to other organisations, but not for another journalist or photographer to ask questions or report on behalf of other media.

Weekly Beast understands the commission’s media director sought to have a News Corp journalist from outside the Northern Territory accompany the commissioners in order to get more “national coverage”, despite there being several national media organisations based in Darwin already covering the hearings.

After the walkout, space was found on the Don Dale tour for the media, at the cost of the commission’s staff who were bundled out.

Holt Street blues

There is heartache for journalists at News Corp this week with news the company is shedding 42 jobs across the mastheads just weeks before Christmas. While the Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun and the Courier-Mail called for voluntary redundancies and easily filled their quota without too much drama, things are very different on the Australian.

Weekly Beast understands seven journalists, artists and photographers have been targeted for forced redundancy by the Oz’s editor in chief, Paul Whittaker, and his chief of staff, Gemma Jones. It’s left a lot of very unhappy and very nervous people on level two at Holt Street.

ABC wobble on paper’s podcast

As the popularity of podcasts grows, newspapers have been producing some excellent long-form audio projects, including Bowraville, which won two Walkleys for the Australian last week. Fairfax Media also produced an excellent series in Phoebe’s Fall this year, a project from the Age’s investigative unit’s Michael Bachelard, Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker.

The coroner Peter White found that in 2010 Phoebe Handsjuk inadvertently fed herself into a garbage chute while drunk and under the influence of sleeping drug Stilnox. The program investigated Phoebe’s mental state and whether she might have killed herself.

ABC Radio was keen to buy Phoebe’s Fall which they were going to air in the RN Life Matters slot between Christmas and New Year. But sources tell Weekly Beast that after initially agreeing to the purchase, the ABC pulled out after advice from the editorial board that it was too much of a suicide risk for people listening at that sensitive time of year.

Mamamia’s looking for a partner

Mia Freedman has called for investors for her Mamamia online empire which she started up as a lounge-room blogger in 2007. With her husband, Jason Levigne, the former magazine editor and author has built up Australia’s biggest independent women’s network, which employs more than 100 people. Now Freedman is looking to expand and staff were sent the following email.

“Over the years, Jason and Mia have received investment approaches from various external parties. The timing has never been right to proceed so we’ve respectfully declined each time. Recently, following an approach, we decided to undertake a proactive process for seeking outside investment in order to accelerate our domestic and international growth. Since its inception the business has been self-funded by Jason and Mia and we feel it may be time to bring in a partner to help accelerate our aggressive growth strategy and plans.”