Under the Broadcasting Services (Regional Commercial Radio – Material of Local Significance) Licence Condition 2024, every regional licence area must produce at least 62.5 minutes of original local content each week, roughly the output of one full-time journalist.
Yet, with newsroom staff being made redundant, there are concerns many stations may have to rely on “hubbed” state bulletins with only a few local-sounding stories from Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide.
Note: the Mediaweek has since been updated.
A well-placed source within Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has moved to reassure Mediaweek that recently announced changes to the way the broadcaster delivers news have gone through rigorous checks and balances required under the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) new local content rules.
The thing is, they already are. Well, at least in Regional VIC. On my regular listens I’ve received hit96.9 Shepparton and hit91.9 Bendigo (via enhanced tropo) from 2023 to early 2024, and the bulletins provided are indeed “hubbed” state bulletins.
Since when did I hear a story focusing on the Goulburn Valley on hit96.9 Shepparton, or a story focusing on Central VIC on hit91.9 Bendigo? IIRC, barely at all. And SCA are simply able to get away with it. Time the ACMA stepped in to investigate this.
While the company maintains the goal is efficiency, sources said the new model integrates AI at the scripting and collation stages of news bulletin production – speeding up workflows but reducing the need for staff.
“I’m not entirely across all the mechanisms,” one insider said, “but the new system will make it quicker for journalists to put together their bulletins.”
When asked if the restructure was directly related to the recent redundancies, the insider offered a pointed and simple “yes”.
Responding to reports broken by Mediaweek that Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) newsroom restructure was driven by artificial intelligence, O’Reilly said the changes are about streamlining operations and reinforcing local output, not replacing journalists.
“There are certainly no plans for that now,” O’Reilly told Mediaweek. “What we have done is put news hubs into metro and provincial locations. We’ve taken a close look at what audiences want from news — how they want to consume it and what the competitive landscape looks like.”
In a price-sensitive filing to the ASX this morning, SCA revealed quarterly revenue (July-September) of $105.1m, up 4.7% on the same period last year. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax and other deductions) was $14m excluding non-recurring costs of $1.8m.
That EBITDA result was up 129% YOY.
SCA did not state what the $1.8m non-recurring costs were.
In other positive news, SCA said its Listnr digital platform increased its share of digital audio revenue to 49%. It also said it had managed to pay down some of its debt, with $63m debt remaining.
SCA head of broadcast news James Royce, national sports editor Josh Conway and Gold Coast journalist Leigh Giollo were among those made redundant, as part of the newsroom restructure.
No they haven’t, more loose with the truth comment and spin from Matt.
Audiences want to be respected and valued. What passes as local news is far from that. Their quota filling excuse of bulletins would never be what Matt spins it as.
The key executive who led the podcasting team for the last decade at Southern Cross Austereo, Grant Tothill, is walking away from his role as executive head of Listnr operations and audience.
As Mumbrella recently reported, Tothill, formally executive head of Listnr’s audience and growth had his role tweaked earlier this year. That expanded his remit to cover content, commercial, and operations.
Tothill explained to Mumbrella — in his only interview about the big move — that his decision to pull the plug was all his own. He denied it was linked to the recent SCA/Seven West Media merger proposal.
“The real reason [I’m leaving] is I’m at a different life stage. As you get a little bit older, things change a little bit.
“I’ve had a fantastic journey with this particular chapter of my life.”
Although Tothill is stepping back, he won’t be too far away. He will remain a consultant to Listnr.
Grixti’s Instagram post about this ASUS-made handheld device was accompanied by a thoughtful review he published a few days later on Press Start, a gaming website operated by Southern Cross Austereo, where Shannon Grixti is in fact managing editor.