08/03/17 - ABC to lose 200 jobs by June in latest round of cuts

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/07/abc-to-lose-200-jobs-by-june-in-latest-round-of-cuts

The article focuses on the fact that the managing director of ABC, Michelle Guthrie, annoucned that by the end of June almost 200 staff will be cut from their team, which is a 20% decrease in numbers. The reasoning behind this stated to be the fact that the ABC's content on television and radio is greatly declining due to the fact that the digital era has greatly undermined these traditional platform in terms of there influence on audiences across the globe. This has meant that the ABC is opting to cut staff jobs and use the savings to directly invest into content creation and also create a fund that is solely used for the purposes of creating content.

• "The ABC will cut 20% of management positions and lose 200 staff by June"
• "The executive team will be reduced from 14 to eight"
• "Our reach on television and radio is declining and digital is struggling to bridge the divide."
• "The savings will go directly into content creation,” she said. “We aim to reduce management roles by 20% across the corporation, with support areas to bear a heavier percentage of this cut."
• "Four current members of the 14-strong executive have been dropped from the main table"
• "[Guthrie] is the first female managing director of the ABC and came to the job with no experience in content making or public broadcasting."
• "A new $50m content fund created by cuts to middle management would allow the ABC to "respond with flexibility and speed to shifting audience trends", Guthrie said."

Personally, I am not remotely surprised, it was obvious for a really long time that the digital media will at some stage surpass the traditional platforms and eventually drive them to the point where they are obsolete. I firmly believe that with the cuts in such big institutions such as the ABC we're starting to see this stage where the traditional platforms are becoming more and more obsolete. This is due to the fact that institutions such as the ABC do not understand that you cannot simply cut funds and try to keep creating content that is not selling due to the fact that through ondemand platforms the consumption model has been completely changed which the instiutions are not making use of to their advantage and are sticking to outdated model that they already know rather than experimenting.