Michelle Guthrie has hired Jim Rudder, a veteran consultant to Rupert Murdoch’s global pay-TV company, Sky, to help restructure the ABC.

A former product executive at Foxtel in Sydney, Rudder has spent most of his career working for Sky. The Australian journalist has consulted for Sky operations in the UK, Germany, Italy, the US and Australia. He also spent a year as news director for Channel Nine in 2003.

Along with the “business transformation expert” Debra Frances, Rudder was brought in on a short-term contract in November “to assist the Executive in delivering our 2020 strategic objectives”, Guthrie told her executive team in an email.

The ABC’s managing director said the consultants would advise her on “infrastructure, our processes and our people” and a “strategic approach to lifting performance and transforming work cultures”.

Guardian Australia understands Guthrie presented an early version of her plans to the ABC board in November, and now Rudder and Frances were helping her to flesh it out. She is expected to brief the board on the restructure on Thursday, with a plan to announce it in February 2017.

According to an early version of the restructure, a new position of chief content officer will be created to oversee all news, television and radio content.

This would mean the directors of news, television and radio would move out of the executive and would no longer report directly to Guthrie. If approved this would be a demotion for the heads of news (Gaven Morris), radio (Michael Mason) and television (Richard Finlayson).

A rare media interview with the Australian Financial Review last week hinted at Guthrie’s plans.

“Now Guthrie is about to test the ABC staff’s appetite for more change as she pursues a raft of measures that include introducing a flatter structure across 17 divisions and working out how they can become more integrated,” the AFR reported.

“One of the opportunities for us is to look at what level of resource should be available for the entire organisation,” Guthrie said. “Our resource allocation is very much around individual product rather than around the infrastructure layer capability that is common across those products.”

A spokesman for the ABC confirmed the hiring of Rudder and Frances but would not comment on board matters.

“The ABC consistently reviews its operations to ensure it is meeting its responsibilities to the charter,” he said. “In a fast-changing media landscape, the ABC would be negligent if it didn’t.

“Every media organisation, including the Guardian, is undergoing a similar process. The two consultants have been hired for specific tasks related to this process.”

Sources said Guthrie had developed her plan with the assistance of her chief of staff, Sam Liston.

In the email to the executive Guthrie said Rudder had contributed substantial value to every organisation he had worked for.

“I am confident that the ABC has the people and the expertise to deliver on the very important objectives we have set under our 2020 strategic work,” she said. “However, it is important that we open ourselves to fresh ideas and innovative approaches from a wide range of sources.

“The input of Debra and Jim will help us develop and implement a strategy that is tangible, practical and will deliver best value for audiences, staff and the wider community.”

Following a rough period for Guthrie after cuts to science, religion and music specialist programming were criticised by staff and sections of the community, the AFR article appeared to be an attempt to show she had board support.

The chairman of the ABC, Jim Spigelman, was effusive in the profile about the managing director’s strategy. “The board was overjoyed at the final decision,” Spigelman said of Guthrie’s appointment.

“Michelle emerged at every stage on any criteria. She’s pushing it faster than Mark [Scott, her predecessor] did. Mark changed the culture of the place and its positioning and reputation.

“I have every confidence that Michelle will continue to do that and the ABC will be regarded as an even more dynamic place.”



Like Rudder, Guthrie has spent most of her career at Murdoch organisations. Between 1994 and 2007 she worked as a legal and business development executive for the former BSkyB in London, Foxtel in Sydney and Star TV in Hong Kong.