The appointment of a former Nine boss to lead the Australia’s national broadcaster shows the change agenda being driven from the top, a media expert says.
Hugh Marks was unveiled on Tuesday as the next ABC managing director after 30 years in production, programming and distribution at several media companies.
His six-year stint at the helm of Nine included the commercial broadcaster’s merger with the publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“This breadth of experience is rare and will be critical to the ABC as we look to further strengthen our reach and engagement with the Australian community,” chairman Kim Williams said.
Mr Williams, a former News Corp executive, played down concerns about commercial media infiltrating the ABC, underlining the regular movement across the industry.
“I have no doubt as to his integrity, his high moral standing and his absolute commitment to the ABC and ABC values,” he said.
But question marks remain on leadership and culture during his time at Nine, former newsman turned academic Denis Muller told AAP.
Mr Marks was criticised in 2019 for hosting a $10,000-a-head Liberal Party fundraiser at Nine’s Sydney studios.
He left the company two years later after his consensual and continuing relationship with another senior executive was revealed.
More recently, he has claimed no knowledge of a toxic culture of bullying and harassment at Nine, exposed in an internal report in October that sparked several resignations.
“There’s a question about what he knew and what he should have known,” said Dr Muller, a senior lecturer at Melbourne University’s Centre for Advancing Journalism.
But the ABC board’s decision had likely placed great emphasis on Mr Marks’ extensive media business career, Dr Muller said.
That includes engineering the takeover of Fairfax Media and three years overseeing Dreamchaser, the contemporary Australian film and TV production studio he co-founded.
“Kim Williams clearly wants to change the direction of the ABC,” Dr Muller said.
“He does bring a background in commercial television … in a way which perhaps they hope will mean a livelier production schedule, which will be more attractive to a wider audience.”
Mr Marks said he saw balancing competing priorities and ensuring the ABC focused its energy on what it could do were its biggest challenges.
“It’s always been important to say no,” he told ABC TV in an interview after the appointment was made public.
“Sometimes the things you decide not to do are as important as the things you decide to do.”
He said the internal report into Nine’s culture, in which one quarter of employees reported sexual harassment in the past five years, had taught him how hard it was for staff to make complaints.
His five-year term at the ABC begins in March and his salary is expected to be on par with the more than $1 million per year paid to his predecessor David Anderson, who announced his departure in August.
The appointment comes after the federal government pledged to legislate five-year funding terms for the ABC and SBS to ensure stability at the national broadcasters.
That promise coincided with ABC getting another $83.1 million for the 2027 and 2028 financial years and $43 million in the years following.
Retired journalist and ABC executive Alan Sunderland said any incoming managing director should be welcomed to what was a challenging and vital role in the media landscape.
“They then deserved to be judged according to how they perform in the role,” he said.
The media union hoped Mr Marks would quickly demonstrate he understood the unique role of the ABC and put staff first.
“There is no more important job in the Australian media industry,” said Michelle Rae from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
