AAA<\/p>\n
In this week\u2019s On Background, the ABC\u2019s freshly arrived news boss gets a grilling from his troops, a star Seven AFL reporter finds time to help promote a drinks company owned by players he covers, and Sarah Abo could be back on TV screens before too long.<\/p>\n
Winds of change<\/p>\n
The ABC\u2019s new news boss Simon Robinson breezed into Ultimo from London this week. On Thursday, he faced his first test: a grilling from Leigh Sales in a town hall with studio production value. The questions ranged from lay-ups like \u201cHow did you get into journalism\u201d to curveballs like \u201cDoesn\u2019t having been away so long create a huge challenge for you as ABC News boss to judge what news stories and issues are relevant to Australians?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Simon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c40ec66610178e30ff0cf802c26aed36e01e3396d1733529663b2df1fc42dce6.jpeg\")
Simon Robinson, the new news boss at the ABC faces up to staff.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t say Sales was a wilting violet in front of the new boss.<\/p>\n
But what was most revealing during the half hour-long internal broadcast was that big change is coming at the ABC.<\/p>\n
Managing director Hugh Marks has already been upfront about the changes he wants at the broadcaster. Another of his leadership team, chief operating officer Melanie Kleyn, bit the dust this week. So far, Marks has appointed new bosses of news, screen, communications, legal and marketing. Finance will be next after Kleyn departs.<\/p>\n
But to really make change in the crucial news division, that needs to be done by the actual news boss. And now, Marks has his own man.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the ABC cut 46 jobs in its screen division, swinging the axe at staff who help put programs to air behind the scenes. The ABC is on a path to outsourcing all of its non-news programming.<\/p>\n
Robinson said that doesn\u2019t automatically mean cuts will hit the news division, but he did come pretty close.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really, really hard to say there won\u2019t be job cuts,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cBut that\u2019s not me saying there will be job cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that having fresh eyes can be a good thing. So I\u2019m not sure that I\u2019ve come in with a change mandate, but inevitably I think there will be change.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would be naive to think that Robinson and Marks don\u2019t already have a fair idea of what direction they want to take things in.<\/p>\n
On his first day this week, Robinson gave a big hint in a note to all staff as to how he will reorganise the newsroom. He argued they should do a live cross or interview well once, instead of multiple times for different programs and said breaking down silos between different teams could be a better use of the ABC\u2019s resources. AI will play a role in this, he added.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the town hall, some staff told On Background they were impressed by Robinson. He spoke of his experience embedded with a US Marines unit during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and covering the second intifada in Israel. This made it clear he has a depth of experience.<\/p>\n
Change is coming at the ABC in 2027. Robinson\u2019s task is to get staff and audiences to come along for the ride.<\/p>\n
Drink it up<\/p>\n
The role of a star \u201cfooty reporter\u201d is an interesting one in 2026. Most of the time, you\u2019re partly an influencer, partly a journalist and partly a power player in the world of AFL.<\/p>\n
That balance can shift entirely when a story like the Sydney Swans scandal<\/a> comes along. In that saga, Seven\u2019s football reporters delivered multiple important stories.<\/p>\n But just one month after reporting on the drink and drug-fuelled night at Melbourne\u2019s Pullman Hotel, the network\u2019s lead AFL reporter Tom Morris popped up on social media spruiking the alcoholic beverage brand Barry\u2019s Drinks, co-owned by Swans superstar forward Charlie Curnow<\/a>.<\/p>\n Curnow \u2013 who was not caught up in the Pullman Hotel scandal \u2013 owns the beverage brand alongside Collingwood brothers Nick and Josh Daicos, Geelong star Bailey Smith, and the four players\u2019 agent Robbie D\u2019Orazio.<\/p>\n The social video shows Morris interviewing the elder Daicos about his \u201ctrade\u201d from Barry\u2019s watermelon flavour for its new \u201cwild berry\u201d flavour, in a mocked-up trade season style report. Gripping stuff.<\/p>\n On Background is told there was no payment for Morris\u2019 appearance, and it was signed off by both Seven and SEN\u2019s head honcho Craig Hutchison, who has also emerged as a major power broker behind the scenes at Seven.<\/p>\n But even then, this is tricky ground. On Background\u2019s view? Leave the branding opportunities for the players. God knows journos didn\u2019t get into this for the money.<\/p>\n Seven\u2019s new human headline (reader)<\/p>\n Commercial TV watchers might not have to wait long before seeing Sarah Abo back on their screens. On Background sources hear the former Today host could be presenting Seven\u2019s nightly news bulletin alongside veteran Peter Mitchell in Melbourne as soon as next year.<\/p>\n Abo, who went on maternity leave shortly after her co-host Karl Stefanovic was sacked by Nine<\/a> (the owner of this masthead), and announced her departure from the network formally this week, is expected to move back down south and swap early starts for breezy evening bulletins, sources say.<\/p>\n It is quite the change for Seven, but the network isn\u2019t doing away with Mitchell that quickly. The steer is that Abo could be introduced to Melburnians alongside Mitchell initially, before taking over on a solo basis down the line.<\/p>\n Abo and Seven supremos weren\u2019t returning calls on Thursday, so we certainly aren\u2019t saying it\u2019s a done deal.<\/p>\n Perhaps they\u2019re still reeling from the news that Sylvia Jeffreys would be replacing Abo on <\/a>Today, when the good folk over at The Australian had linked former Sunrise host Samantha Armytage to the role (permanent or fill-in) no fewer than 14 times over the past 12 months.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not usually ones to call out a competitor when they get it wrong (well, sometimes). We all get things wrong! But the amount of attention that the paper\u2019s media diarist Steve Jackson has paid to the woman he has dubbed \u201cthe human headline\u201d has been notable.<\/p>\n Only six weeks ago, Jackson wrote that Armytage\u2019s appointment was a \u201clock\u201d and, a week later, reported that she and Tom Steinfort were \u201call but locked in\u201d for 2027. Props to Jackson for getting the Steinfort appointment right, but what happened with Armytage?<\/p>\n Well on Thursday, the Oz\u2019s sister paper The Daily Telegraph made it clear, according to a mystery media insider, that Armytage apparently never wanted the job at all.<\/p>\n \u201cShe wasn\u2019t interested in going back into breakfast TV,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n We only wish someone had asked her in the first place. It would have saved us so much trouble.<\/p>\n Spotted!<\/p>\n While the ABC in Ultimo was gearing up for its big town hall, Robinson\u2019s predecessor was busy elsewhere. Just a few kilometres and a hop, skip and jump over Sydney\u2019s Central Station, spies at Seven\u2019s Eveleigh offices spotted former ABC News boss Justin Stevens<\/a> walking into the building.<\/p>\n Job interview? Scouting out the joint?<\/p>\n It turns out Stevens was just parking in the public car park in the same building to run some unrelated errands. Mystery solved.<\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Star](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c619cecc978bb04bb374180b677d0c30e94043f5.jpeg\")
Star Seven reporter Tom Morris has popped up on social media in a video spruiking an alcohol company owned by several players.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Samantha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/a0151302008323b317623844325620f131c9440f.jpeg\")
Samantha Armytage wasn\u2019t interested in the breakfast TV gig, apparently.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Calum](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789693214_849_ed13c528ff29429d0a4267821595c52ca2cdc4cc.png\")
Calum Jaspan<\/a> is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 18, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-895954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}