Source : the age
The ABC’s most senior news executive Justin Stevens resigned on Wednesday after four years in the job, with the search for his replacement already close to completion.
Stevens, the former executive producer of flagship current affairs program 7.30 and since 2022 director of news and current affairs, will step down in coming months after overseeing a period of vast change in Australia’s largest newsroom.
With just under 2000 staff in the News division, the role is the most scrutinised in the broadcaster outside of managing director Hugh Marks’ own position, overseeing news content published across the public broadcaster’s television, radio and digital platforms.
The appointment of Stevens’ replacement will be Marks’ biggest decision to date, and is expected to be announced in the coming week, with candidates already interviewed, two sources with knowledge of the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The successor is expected to come from outside the organisation. The total package for the role, including superannuation, was $678,000 in the last financial year.
Stevens, who is leaving the ABC entirely, has not been at work since Thursday last week, the sources said. He has been approached for comment.
Stevens, who was just 38 when he took the role, has worked under two managing directors and two chairs while in the job, with both eras defined by their vastly different leadership styles and approaches to how the broadcaster should run its news operation.
His appointment by former managing director David Anderson in April 2022 was viewed at the time as unexpected, as he had never held a senior management position and beat out several more senior candidates.
Much of his time under Anderson was led by a digital-first strategy, pushing the ABC toward its newer platforms and attracting critique for moving away from the ABC’s core audience on broadcast services like linear television and radio. Under Anderson’s strategy, more than 120 roles were made redundant, including the controversial removal of the ABC’s political editor Andrew Probyn.
But since Marks’ arrival in early 2025, he has emphasised the ongoing importance of broadcast, with the nightly news bulletin regularly attracting an average audience of one million viewers. However, this period coincided with around 50 more job cuts.
The director of news and current affairs at the ABC is one of the most contentious jobs in Australian media due to the political implications of being publicly funded, with editorial and programming decisions such as the axing of Q+A in 2025, always attracting controversy.
Stevens is the latest in a long line of ABC executives to have left since Anderson’s resignation, including former content chief Chris Oliver-Taylor and head of communications Nick Leys.
Stevens has created indigenous and climate reporting teams during his tenure, overhauled the ABC’s news app and brought all news output under one banner.
He has also overseen the highly charged coverage of the Israeli war in Gaza, which began after the October 7 attacks in 2023, receiving sharp criticism from News Corp outlets over perceived bias.
But one of the biggest controversies of his tenure was the exit of veteran journalist Stan Grant, who left in 2023 following an appearance during the ABC coverage of King Charles III’s coronation, in which he made reflections on Australia’s colonial past.
Grant later said he felt betrayed by the ABC, after he had been invited onto the broadcaster’s coverage but then did not have its public backing over the comments he made.
The ABC also had to navigate the fallout of the sacking of Antoinette Lattouf that same year, though this was not a decision taken by Stevens or the News division. Since Lattouf won her subsequent Federal Court case against the broadcaster, it implemented new public comment guidelines for its staff.
The ABC’s digital audience rose by 7 per cent in the 2025 financial year, according to its annual report. The average audience of its nightly news bulletins also increased, as did that of its flagship current affairs program 7.30.
ABC executives will appear at a scheduled senate estimates hearing on Thursday.
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Calum Jaspan is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X or email.
