The ABC has appointed Simon Robinson as its news director, choosing a veteran executive to lead its newsroom after weeks of uncertainty over who would replace Justin Stevens. Robinson, who spent much of the 21st century working outside Australia, will take charge of more than 1000 journalists at the public broadcaster.
Robinson was executive editor of before the appointment, after a career that took him through Nairobi, Johannesburg, New Delhi and Baghdad before he settled in London. He also worked as a reporter for Who Weekly in Australia in the 1990s and spent 15 years as a correspondent for Time magazine before joining in London in 2010. Despite that background, he does not have significant experience in television, a gap that will be watched closely inside an organisation where broadcast still matters as much as digital.
The move followed a global search led by recruitment firm Hourigan, which produced a shortlist for ABC boss Hugh Marks. The leadership decision had already been firmed up weeks before Stevens knew the process to replace him was under way. Stevens took leave last week after a meeting with Marks and head of people and culture Deena Amorelli, then officially walked away from the job on Wednesday.
The timing gives the appointment added weight. The ABC’s news leadership overhaul has been months in the making, and it comes after tensions between Stevens, Marks and chair Kim Williams over the future direction of ABC News, including the plan to overhaul parts of the newsroom and the speed at which it was being done. More than 1000 journalists work at the ABC, making the news division one of the most influential in Australian media.
Marks said Williams’ links to were part of the backdrop to the choice, noting that Williams had served as chair of the Institute and would have known Robinson through that role. Williams, who chaired the Institute before moving on to the ABC, highlighted ’ global reach last week when he told the Poll Position podcast hosts to take out a subscription, saying the organisation once had 190 news bureaus around the world, he had visited about 60 of them, and had seen the company’s digital migration from the inside.
For the ABC, the question now is not why the search landed on Robinson, but how quickly he can impose himself on a newsroom that has already been through a bruising reset. He arrives with international reporting depth and little television experience, and with the job of proving that a journalist shaped by and Time can steady a broadcaster still working through its next phase.
