New ABC News Breakfast hires announced
Triple J Mornings presenter Lucy Smith and regular Double J guest host Sose Fuamoli will be taking over The Beat Report on ABC News Breakfast, alternating the slot each week.
The pair take over from Zan Rowe, who hosted the weekly music news segment on ABC News Breakfast for ten years, after first conceiving of the idea in 2014, while working at Triple J.
“It’s an idea I pitched a decade ago,” Rowe recalled in December, upon announcing she won’t return to the show in 2025.
Zan Rowe
“It’s been amazing to bring music news, but also music analysis, and discussions around what’s happening with artists these days, who are having the hardest time, I think, in my living memory. It’s been a real pleasure and a privilege to do that.”
Sosefina Fuamoli
Rowe left the news program in December, in the same month host Michael Rowland announced his departure.
A number of high-profile veterans left the national broadcaster at the tail end of 2024. Radio veteran Robbie Buck left the ABC in December, after almost thirty years, although hinted he hopes “to still have a toe in the water”.
Two of 702 ABC Sydney’s most prized broadcasters, weekend host, Simon Marnie, and Mornings presenter, Sarah Macdonald, were let go within days of each other. Head of audio Ben Latimer sent an all-staff email saying the changes “reflect the need to revitalise our programming and bring a renewed mix of voices and perspectives” and that “relying solely on what we’ve always done won’t help us connect with the new audiences we need.”
Lucy Smith
The fallout from the sackings of Macdonald and Marnie prompted ABC chair Kim Williams to meet with staffers from ABC Radio Sydney in December. The staffers had earlier sent a letter to the board, criticising the “significant shift towards senior management who have a commercial media/radio background”.
Williams also faced questions about Macdonald’s sacking at the National Press Club that same month, saying “changes in media are part of life” and dismissing listener complaints.
“Much of the public reaction would actually say that you can never change anything, ever, unless the person impacted by the change is entirely in agreement with that change,” he claimed.
“And, I think that in a media working environment, that’s a very impractical view of the world.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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I think the senior staff of the ABC are arrogant with no respect for their listeners. They have lost me!!! Their ratings will tank. Serve them right
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The new ABC bosses are wrong. They have cut the heart out of the ABC. Ringbarking is not pruning. Looking forward to their departure and repair mode begins.
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No one is saying you should run media on an historical basis.
But changing things that aren’t broken and maintaining things that are, is just plain dumb mismanagement.
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