The ABC sacrifices cultural depth for topical breadth in latest cuts

Another year, another round of cuts to the ABC’s arts coverage. 

Since the early 2000s, cuts to specialist arts programming have proceeded at regular intervals; almost every restructure has rung the death knell for another bit of culture at the ABC.

And so it was last week, in the most recent restructure, pegged to cost 120 jobs. The ABC is folding its specialist arts team into the online news division, and at least two arts editors are being made redundant. 

Matters weren’t helped by the opacity of the ABC’s actions. Word filtered out on social media. The ABC’s internal restructure document left many questions about the ABC’s arts coverage unanswered, particularly about how coverage will now be presented on the broadcaster’s various websites and verticals. Mealy-mouthed statements from the ABC like “our commitment to the arts remains as solid and comprehensive as ever” don’t foster optimism. 

In particular, the redundancy of arts editor Dee Jefferson has unsettled the sector. Widely respected, Jefferson came up through the Sydney street press, has deep contacts throughout Australian culture, and is also an excellent technical editor known to give thoughtful feedback. 

Perhaps the biggest question is why the ABC feels the need to swing the axe in the first place. Arts coverage is almost the purest example of the role of a public broadcaster. Unlike commercial rivals, the ABC doesn’t get to use the excuse of advertising revenue. Arts coverage is also a legislated charter responsibility. 

ABC insiders tell Crikey that the elimination of Jefferson’s role will actually crimp the ability of specialist arts content to make it into the broader ABC feed.

“The loss of Dee’s position does speak to a lack of conviction in arts coverage by ABC management,” one ABC specialist told Crikey. “Why do we have to beg for a dedicated arts reporter for online when there must be a multitude covering sport?”  

As usual, the ABC has tried to defend these changes with platitudes about moving with the times. “No other Australian broadcaster comes anywhere near offering the depth and breadth of arts coverage that ABC does,” it huffed in a statement. “The proposals announced [on Thursday] will see savings reinvested into the ABC’s arts coverage which will lead to more of the arts content audiences want and expect.” Managing director David Anderson has some lines about “the reinvestment and the transition to digital-first will mean new roles and new skills are required across our workforce”. This is disingenuous, even on the most generous reading: two of the jobs deleted in arts coverage were actually online roles.

The ABC’s arts coverage has stagnated in recent years. As I argued back in 2016, the steady thinning of the ABC’s cultural coverage is inimical to the very of idea of public service broadcasting. Fewer gardeners and sterner pruning risks creating a monoculture, the very opposite of what the ABC should be striving for. 

One of the biggest problems of the online arts vertical was the feed-like nature of its presentation. The vertical simply collects every news article tagged “arts” and displays them on a scrolling page. Because of this, the page is dominated by coverage from the ABC’s rural reporters. Considered long-form pieces by Jefferson rub up against sugar hits of rural coverage about antique tractors and a “professional mermaid” from Byron Bay. The effect is scattergun, although the juxtapositions can be amusing. 

It might seem unfair to take a shot at regional arts coverage, but the surfeit of interesting stories from the outback actually highlights what the ABC could achieve with better resourcing and effort. Culture is just as important in the cities, but the ABC has no dedicated team of local journalists to report on it. Western Sydney is one of the most artistically exciting places in Australia, but from the ABC’s point of view, you would barely know it exists. 

There are still pockets of excellence scattered across the national broadcaster, but they are getting harder to find, and feel neglected. Namila Benson’s flagship TV program Artworks is nearly as good as the heyday magazine shows of the ’90s like Express — but the ABC’s television arts coverage is still well short of its glory years. There’s no televised book show anymore, and no Movie Show either.

Radio National (RN) soldiers on with first-rate programming, especially Daniel Browning and Rosa Ellen’s Art Show, but, as usual, not enough value is leveraged from RN across the wider ABC networks. Even at RN, there has been recent and unnecessary program destruction, with long-running poetry program Poetica killed back in 2014. The deep archives of the ABC’s much-missed arts portal, which ran for nearly a decade until 2016, are still languishing somewhere, hidden on a dusty hard drive. With the cuts to the archives department, we’ll probably never get this content back.

It’s not hard to see the agenda here. The ABC is steadily sacrificing cultural depth for topical breadth. While specialist coverage and programming is progressively amputated, shallow behemoths like the 24-hour news channel lumber on, filling endless minutes in the lacunae between Canberra media conferences and crosses to suburban car accidents. 

As Esther Anatolitis has pointed out, it’s ironic that these cuts come at the very time that the Albanese government is finally re-investing in culture, after a decade of austerity under the Coalition. “For the first time in a long time, it feels like arts are on the national agenda,” Anatolitis writes. “So it’s been quite jarring to see the national broadcaster take steps in the other direction.” Once again, Aunty is fighting the last war. 

Should there be more of a focus on arts coverage at the national broadcaster? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.