Margaret Simons: Going Digital - The Transformation of the ABC

How the ABC Reinvented Itself for the Digital Age

What happens when one of Australia’s most trusted institutions is forced to reinvent itself?

Twenty years ago, 24-hour news, podcasts, on-demand television and an entire world of children’s content on your phone would have seemed unimaginable. Today, they’re central to how we experience the ABC.

Going Digital takes you behind the scenes of that extraordinary transformation. Drawing on candid interviews with key players and Simons’s deep knowledge of Australian media, it reveals the people, power struggles and controversial decisions that reshaped Australia’s public broadcaster.

These were the years of The Chaser and Q+A, political interference and fierce debates over what a public broadcaster should be in the digital era. The ABC’s transformation has been remarkable - but what has it cost?

Has breadth come at the expense of depth? Have politicians learned from their attempts to influence the ABC? And, ultimately, who really pulls the strings of our public broadcasters?

Join us for a fascinating and revealing conversation about the past, present and future of one of Australia’s most beloved public institutions.

In conversation with Alex Sloan.

Margaret Simons

Margaret Simons is an award-winning journalist and the author of thirteen books, including biographies of Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek and Malcolm Fraser; the latter won the Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize at the 2011 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She won the 2015 Walkley Award for Social Equity Journalism and has been honoured with several Quill Awards for Journalistic Excellence. Her forthcoming book is Going Digital: The Transformation of the ABC.

Alex Sloan AM has been a journalist for 37 years, including over 27 years as a broadcaster with the ABC. In 2017 Alex was named Canberra Citizen of the Year and in 2019 made a Member of the Order of Australia. Alex is deputy chair of The Australia Institute and is a regular interviewer as part of the ANU Meet the Author series. Since 2020 Alex has worked as a pro bono advisor with key indigenous leaders Pat Anderson AO and Professor Megan Davis AC.