Reuters executive set to be new ABC News boss

A senior Reuters executive is expected to be named ABC News director following the exit of Justin Stevens on Wednesday.

Simon Robinson, an Australian currently based in the UK, has been chosen to oversee just under 2000 staff, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter, not authorised to speak publicly.

Robinson has lived in London for more than 15 years and is currently executive editor for Reuters, one of the largest news organisations in the world. He has never worked in television.

The ABC was approached for comment.

ABC managing director Hugh Marks declined to comment on the appointment when asked during a Senate Estimates hearing on Thursday. The news was first reported by The Guardian.

Stevens’ departure came as a shock to ABC staff. He resigned and departed on the same day, as revealed by this masthead on Wednesday.

Stevens, the former executive producer of flagship current affairs program 7.30 and, since 2022, director of news and current affairs, leaves the ABC 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 Marks’ own position. The news director oversees 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.The total package for the role, including superannuation, was $678,000 in the last financial year.

Informing staff of his departure on Wednesday afternoon, Stevens said the decision was both professional and personal.

“There is no more complex news organisation in the country, no more scrutinised institution, and few so laden with public expectations,” Stevens said.

“In that context, I have sought to strengthen and defend our journalism without being blind to our stumbles; to meet the state of constant change in the digital age; and to improve our culture in news to one where we hold ourselves to the same standards as we do of others in the broader community.”

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 involved 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 1 million viewers. However, this period coincided with about 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. Editorial and programming decisions, such as the axing of Q+A in 2025, always attract 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’ coronation, in which Grant 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, yet did not have its public backing over the comments he made.

The ABC also had to navigate the fallout following the sacking of Antoinette Lattouf that same year, though this was not a decision taken by Stevens or the news division. Since Lattouf won a subsequent Federal Court case against the broadcaster, the ABC has 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.

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