Insiders is the only ABC current affairs show to grow its broadcast audience since 2019, lifting its TV numbers by 4% while Q+A dropped by 36% and Four Corners by 19%, as audiences abandoned traditional broadcast television.
The show, now in its 21st year, has bucked the trend which has seen Australian Story fall by 16% between 2019 and 2022; Foreign Correspondent by 22% and 7.30 by 4%, according to an internal presentation for executives seen by Guardian Australia.
The program to lose the biggest chunk of its audience is Q+A, which has dropped by 36% in three years – and a dramatic 58% since 2016 – and was moved from Monday to Thursday and back to Monday in an attempt to find an audience. Stan Grant, who was appointed full-time host a year ago, is on leave and it is not clear if he will return.
These shrinking audiences are not unique to the ABC but part of a trend across the industry including for Nine’s 60 Minutes (down 25% since 2019) and Ten’s The Project (down 20% since 2019).
Hosted by David Speers since 2020, Insiders is moving its production from Melbourne to Canberra next month, resulting in the loss of two Melbourne studio-based jobs.
However, the program was not targeted last week in the major round of redundancies affecting programs like Four Corners and Australian Story as the corporation moves towards becoming an “integrated digital operation”.
The news division lost 41 of the 120 jobs which were targeted for redundancy across the organisation.
ABC management is proposing to cut 16 jobs across Four Corners, Australian Story, 7.30, the investigative reporting team and Radio National’s Background Briefing, including losing highly experienced multi-award winning journalists in order to fund new digital-focused jobs.
The figures from an internal 2022 presentation to news executives show that the decline of broadcast audiences for current affairs television is not being offset by a growth in digital. While more people are watching news programming on ABC iview, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and ABC online, these digital channels are not growing fast enough.
But the ABC said on Thursday the digital audience reach is expected to surpass TV reach for the first time this year and the shift to digital news consumption is accelerating.
ABC online figures show that Australian Story articles had the highest engagement and Foreign Correspondent articles had the highest average page views.
“There is no decline in Australians’ need for trustworthy, independent public interest journalism,” ABC news director Justin Stevens said.
“We are better placed than any media organisation in this country to provide the audience quality and significant news and journalism across video, audio and text.”
Stevens told staff the division must change to “have a viable digital future”.
“ABC current affairs teams have yet to complete the digital transformation, with resources and skills still weighted toward linear broadcast TV programs,” Stevens said. “To meet changing audience needs, journalists and technical staff must be multiskilled operators able to deliver high-impact digital content”.
On Four Corners, multi-skilled operators who shoot, produce and edit for all platforms, including digital and social will be hired, and two sound recordists will be redundant.
On Australian Story and 7.30, several reporters and producers will be let go and new digital staff will be hired to produce “compelling digital content untethered from its linear programming”.
The shock redundancy of Andrew Probyn and his Canberra press gallery producer Brihony Speed last week came in addition to the 16 positions to go in the current affairs division.
Probyn and Speed were mentioned at the Midwinter Ball on Wednesday night by Nine’s David Crowe, who won the press gallery journalist of the year award.
“I’m really thinking about Andrew Probyn and Brihony Speed,” Crowe said.
“The word ‘redundancy’ is such an awful word. It suggests you’re unnecessary. And that’s a terrible thing with someone like Andrew Probyn, with someone like Brihony Speed.”
