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Introduction by Kate Torney, ABC News Director
ABC News 24 is Australia’s first,
free-to-air 24-hour television news
channel, giving audiences access
to the nation’s most trusted news
whenever and wherever they want
it. It’s live rolling news and analysis,
and takes viewers to stories as
they break across Australia and
around the world, delivering
in-depth coverage of newsworthy
events as they happen.
ABC News 24 harnesses the
resources of more than a thousand
ABC journalists in 60 newsrooms
around the country and a dozen
international bureaux, producing
the quality, independent news
and current affairs Australians
have come to rely on from the
national broadcaster.
The new channel provides live
rolling news coverage throughout
the day and delivers new specialist Kate Torney
programs on business, politics, ABC News Director, June, 2010
international affairs and sport, as
well as on health, rural issues, and
the arts. It showcases the best
of ABC current affairs coverage,
along with new formats for
discussion and analysis of the
day’s news events.
ABC News 24 presented by
some of the nation’s most
respected broadcast journalists.
Distinguished former correspond-
ents, political commentators,
business and economic experts The channel expands the ABC’s
and renowned news and current leadership in independent, quality
affairs presenters are joined by journalism. ABC News 24 is news
some new faces - up and coming when you want it, on television,
talent we’re confident will become online and on mobile, from
the next generation of leaders in Australia’s most trusted
broadcast journalism. news source. Kate Torney
 02

What is ABC News 24?

ABC News 24 is available free-to-air to all Australians. It provides live
continuous news coverage of breaking stories from Australia and around
the world. Broadcasting around the clock enables the ABC to increase
its in-depth coverage of local, national and international affairs through
background features and analysis, combined with the ABC’s unrivalled
long-form current affairs reporting.

As well as rolling news, new The 24/7 news channel is available

programming has been developed on Channel 24 and is an HD
specifically for ABC News 24 that service. TV viewers will need an
focuses on world news, national HD-compatible set-top box or
politics and business. Special an HD-compatible digital TV,
programs on the arts, health and viewers with an analogue
and finance will also feature on television will need a set-top box.
the channel. Many of ABC TV’s Foxtel viewers will find ABC News
existing news and current affairs 24 on Channel 202, and Austar
programs, such as Lateline, viewers on Channel 24.
Lateline Business, Stateline, Four
Corners and Australian Story, will
also be included as time-shifted
content, extending the news ABC News 24 will be streamed live
offering for audiences. at abc.net.au/news and on iView
at abc.net.au/iview as well as on
mobile devices.
03
The Continuous
News Centre
The Engine Room of ABC News 24
Before the ABC developed
ABC News 24, the Continuous
News Centre (CNC) had already
established itself as a unit capable
of producing video content for
news breaks and for ABC News
Online. With the creation of the
news channel, the team has
expanded and broadened to
provide a central production hub
for ABC News 24.
ABC News 24 will draw on the A new state-of-the-art studio
existing work produced by ABC in the foyer of the ABC’s Ultimo
journalists across the country and headquarters in Sydney
overseas, and there are interstate is the main broadcast hub
production teams to produce for ABC News 24.
rolling coverage on major stories.
These teams will also produce
the regular news bulletins and
programs at the centre of the
new channel.
 04

The Programs and Faces

of Abc News 24
ABC News Breakfast
Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland present ABC News Breakfast, covering the
latest overnight news and highlighting the big stories for the day. Broadcast
out of Melbourne, the program makes full use of the ABC’s extensive network
of journalists, regularly crossing live to ABC newsrooms across the country, as
well as international bureaux in the UK, US, Asia and New Zealand. ABC News
Breakfast offers a distinctly different approach to breakfast TV, with quality
news and analysis in a contemporary style.

Full of lively debate and analysis, regular news updates, finance, sport and
weather, the program is energetic and dynamic. ABC News Breakfast continues
to be broadcast on ABC2. Since its inception in 2008, it has been streamed
on ABC News Online.

Virginia Trioli has presented ABC News
Breakfast since it began on ABC2 in
November 2008. A two-time Walkley
Award-winner, Virginia has an established
reputation as a television presenter, radio
host, news reporter, features writer and
columnist. She has hosted Drive on 774
ABC Local Radio in Melbourne and the
Mornings program on 702 ABC Local Radio
in Sydney. In 1995, Virginia won her first
Walkley for business reporting; she won
Virginia Trioli her second for an interview with the former
Defence Minister Peter Reith for coverage of
the ‘Children Overboard’ issue.
Michael Rowland is the new co-host for ABC
News Breakfast. For the past four years
Michael has been an ABC correspondent
in Washington. He covered the historic US
presidential election and was the ABC’s
Wall Street correspondent during the height
of the global financial crisis. Michael has
also worked for Lateline as business and
economics correspondent and prior to that
spent five years covering finance for AM, The
World Today, PM, The Midday Report, Inside
Michael Rowland Business and the 7pm TV News. In the mid
1990s Michael spent five years in the ABC’s
Parliament House bureau in Canberra filing
for Radio News and Lateline.
05

Business Today
Business Today, presented by Whitney Fitzsimmons, provides a comprehensive
wrap-up of business news across the Asia Pacific region, as well as the critical
issues and stories from the major financial markets. The program provides
in-depth analysis and interviews, with a fresh insight into the key issues facing
business in the region and beyond. The program’s team of specialist reporters
help make sense of the fast-moving world of finance, reporting on the issues
shaping the news agenda, as well as providing insightful interviews with opinion

leaders and innovators. If you not only want to know what the market
is doing but why, then Business Today is the best way of keeping informed.
The program is also broadcast on the ABC’s international television service,
Australia Network, reaching more than 44 countries across Asia, the Pacific
and the Indian subcontinent.

Whitney Fitzsimmons has hosted Business

Today since the program began in 2006 on
Australia Network. Previously, she presented
news for Australia Network, worked as a
senior producer for Lateline and reported on
stories for the ABC’s domestic news service.
Before joining the ABC, Whitney worked as
a freelance reporter and producer for the
Seven Network, Sky News Australia, and
commercial radio stations. She also spent
two years as a reporter and producer for the
Whitney Fitzsimmons global financial network CNBC.

Paul Kennedy is the national sports
presenter on ABC News Breakfast. He is a
senior television journalist, with 15 years’
news reporting experience. He has covered
some of the biggest stories in Australia for
networks Ten, Nine and the ABC. A former
state league footballer, his coverage of the
issue of drugs in sport has been a career
highlight. He has written and directed a film
called Drug Game, which was a Melbourne
International Film Festival finalist.
Paul Kennedy
Vanessa O’Hanlon is the national weather
presenter for ABC News Breakfast. Prior to
this, Vanessa worked in a variety of roles
in radio, including breakfast co-host and
newsreader through parts of the Northern
Territory and regional Victoria before
returning home to Melbourne as a traffic
reporter for commercial radio. In her varied
broadcasting career, Vanessa has worked as
a voice-over artist, radio presenter and MC
for large public events.
Vanessa O’Hanlon
 06

Mornings
Anchored by Joe O’Brien, the morning slot delivers
breaking news and full coverage and analysis of the
day’s top stories, including up-to-date reports from
ABC correspondents. With the latest news updates
every half hour, the team covers developments in state
and federal politics and provides a full explanation of
what’s happening on the Australian share market.

Midday
Up-to-the-minute local,
national and international
news, with special attention
on business and the economy.
Presented by Ros Childs, the
midday news will continue to
be broadcast on ABC1.

Joe O’Brien is the host of ABC News 24’s
morning and lunchtime news programs.
Since January 2009 Joe O’Brien has been
co-host on ABC News Breakfast, with
Virginia Trioli. Joe has more than 20 years’
experience in journalism and has been a
reporter and presenter with the ABC since
1995. Joe has presented the 7pm ABC News
bulletins in both Queensland and New South
Wales, and regularly fronted the national
The Midday Report.
Joe O’Brien
Ros Childs is an experienced finance
journalist and has been presenter of The
Midday Report on ABC1 since early 2005.
Ros has worked at CNBC Europe as a
reporter and presenter for an evening
finance program, and co-anchored a three-
hour morning TV news program in the UK.
She also worked for ITN as the Business
Correspondent and presented lunchtime and
weekend news bulletins on ITV. Ros moved
back to Australia in early 2004 and worked
Ros Childs as a freelance reporter at SBS and the ABC,
before joining Midday News and Business
as a staff reporter in July that year. In 2006,
Ros spent six months at The 7.30 Report as
the program’s Finance Editor.
07
Lunchtime
Afternoons
Ali Moore presents ABC News 24’s Afternoon
Live. Previously, she presented Lateline
Business, and Business Today on Australia
Network. Ali began her career with the ABC in
1987. She was the ABC’s China Correspondent
from 1992 to 1995 and then moved to Channel
9 to work on Business Sunday as a reporter
and later as host. Ali was in the hosting chair
of the Today program during 9/11 and the
aftermath; presented Business Sunday on
the morning of the 2005 Bali bombings; and
hosted live coverage for the Nine Network of
Ali Moore the second Gulf War.
Chris Uhlmann is ABC News 24’s Political
Editor. He has worked in the Canberra
Parliament House press gallery since 2006,
firstly as the Chief Political Correspondent for
Radio Current Affairs and later as the Political
Editor for ABC TV News. In August 2009 Chris
was appointed Political Editor for The 7.30
Report. Chris has distinguished himself as one
of the most astute and informed journalists
in Canberra and won the Walkley Award for
Broadcast Interviewing in 2008.
Chris Uhlmann
Joe O’Brien presents the news at
lunchtime delivering full coverage of
the day’s developing and breaking
stories. The program focuses on what’s
happening across the country, in
regional Australia, federal politics and
on the financial markets.
A must-watch for news junkies who want to keep track
of what’s happening with the day’s news events. Anchored
by Ali Moore, Afternoon Live will have regular crosses to
ABC News 24’s Political Editor, Chris Uhlmann, for the latest
news from Canberra. Expect lots of discussion on public
affairs issues, and regular news updates and breaking news
with Jeremy Fernandez through the afternoon.
Jeremy Fernandez presents ABC1’s 7pm
news bulletin on weekends in NSW and
news updates on ABC News 24’s Afternoon
Live. He joined the ABC in 2000, working
as a casual producer for ABC Local Radio
during the Sydney Olympics, as well as
other Local Radio stints in Albany, Western
Australia. Since then Jeremy has worked as a
journalist and producer in Perth, Melbourne,
and London. He has hosted the morning
edition of ABC News on Australia Network
Jeremy Fernandez which is broadcast across the Asia-Pacific,
and produced rolling news, interviews, and
in-depth reports on a host of major stories.
 08

The Drum
Building on its online success, ABC News 24’s
The Drum offers opinion and analysis, debate and
argument, in an engaging and entertaining way.
Featuring regular comment from Annabel Crabb and
other guest hosts, The Drum brings together a panel of
journalists and commentators with a diverse range of
opinions to chew over the events of the day.

The World
Presented by Scott Bevan, The World features reports from the
ABC’s network of international correspondents and offers a
forum for extended news stories, interviews and insights from
around the world. Making full use of the reach and quality of the
ABC’s existing international reporting, The World also provides
the occasional behind-the-lens view into ABC news gathering,
and what life on the road is like for journalists and crews.

One of Australia’s most popular political
commentators, Annabel Crabb is Chief
Political Writer for ABC Online, and feature
writer for The Drum. A journalist for over
12 years, she first covered state and federal
politics for Adelaide’s The Advertiser, before
moving to The Age in 2000 as a columnist
and political correspondent. Annabel moved
to the UK in 2003 as London Correspondent
for the Sunday Age and Sun-Herald. In
2007, she returned to Australia as a senior
Annabel Crabb writer and political columnist for The Sydney
Morning Herald. She joined the ABC in
late 2009. Annabel is the author of Losing
It: The Inside Story of the Labor Party in
Opposition, and the Walkley Award-winning
Quarterly Essay ‘Stop At Nothing: The Life
and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull’.
Scott Bevan hosts the new ABC News
24 program The World, and anchors the
late news each week night. Scott recently
returned to Australia from Moscow, where
he was the ABC correspondent for two
years. Scott began in journalism in 1984
in newspapers, before reporting and
presenting news for commercial radio and
television. Before starting at the ABC in
mid-2005, he worked for the Nine Network
in news and current affairs. Scott has been a
Scott Bevan reporter and fill-in host for The 7.30 Report
and has also produced for Australian Story
and presented on ABC Local Radio. Scott
has written two plays and two books,
including Battle Lines: Australian Artists
at War.
09

Lateline Business
Viewers will now be able to watch Lateline
Business at an earlier time slot. Lateline Business
goes beyond the headlines and examines the
current issues driving the world of business and
finance that will shape the day ahead on the
markets. Lateline Business also appears on ABC1
after Lateline at 11pm, Monday to Thursday.

One Plus One

Weekly interview program
hosted by Jane Hutcheon
with contributors around
the country. Interviews
with newsmakers, news-
breakers and the stories
behind the news.

Jane Hutcheon is the host of ABC News

24’s new interview program One Plus One.
Jane has more than 20 years’ experience as
a journalist and presenter. She began with
radio and television in Hong Kong, then
worked at SBS Television before joining the
ABC in 1994. From 1995 to 2001 Jane was
ABC China Correspondent based in Beijing.
After returning to Australia, Jane presented
the World At Noon TV news bulletin,
including presenting the ABC’s live coverage
Jane Hutcheon on the morning of September 12, 2001. From
2003-2005 she was the ABC’s Middle East
Correspondent and Europe Correspondent
from 2005 to 2008, based in London. At
various times Jane has presented Lateline,
the 7pm News and Foreign Correspondent.
 10

Sport
Sports coverage providing
discussion, analysis and all
the colour and drama of our
sporting passions.

Evenings
Juanita Phillips anchors ABC
News 24’s evening bulletin,
providing the essential wrap-
up of the day and continuing
coverage of news as it
develops – in Australia, Asia
and wherever it happens.

Juanita Phillips is the presenter of the

evening news bulletin on ABC News 24, and
the 7pm bulletin on ABC1 in NSW. Juanita
returned to Australia from London in 2002
to join the ABC. She was co-anchor with
CNN International in London, where she
worked for four years in a variety of frontline
roles presenting rolling news and business
programs. She was in the anchor’s chair
during events such as the Kosovo War, the
Allied bombing campaign against Iraq, the
Turkish earthquake and the fall of Yugoslavian
Juanita Phillips president Slobodan Milosevic. Before that,
Juanita worked for the BBC as a co-anchor on
international news programs. She presented
coverage of the funeral of the Princess of
Wales and was a regular host of BBC World’s
The World Today. Juanita recently wrote a
book, A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life.
 Also On ABC News 24

National Press Club

National Press Club live
broadcasts from Canberra on
ABC News 24 and streamed

Addresses
live at abc.net.au/news. Key
National Press Club addresses
are also broadcast on ABC1.

Newsline
Presented by Jim Middleton, Australia
Network’s flagship current affairs program,
Newsline features in-depth reports, interviews,
coverage and analysis from the ABC’s network
of correspondents based throughout Asia, the
Pacific and beyond.

Existing ABC TV ABC News 24 timeshifts existing news

and current affairs programs, including
The 7.30 Report, Four Corners, Foreign

News and Current

Correspondent, Lateline, Landline and
Stateline from all states and territories.
Federal Parliament’s Question Time and

Affairs programs
repeats of Catalyst, Compass and other
documentary and factual programs are
also broadcast on the channel.

Jim Middleton hosts Australia Network’s

flagship current affairs program, Newsline.
Having joined the ABC in 1970, his four
decades as a reporter have centred on
political and international reporting. From
1988 until the end of 2007, Jim was ABC
TV’s Political Editor based in Canberra. He
covered seven federal elections and three
eras of government under Prime Ministers
Howard, Keating and Hawke. In that role he
also reported throughout Asia, Europe and
Jim Middleton the Americas. Jim is also the chief presenter
of Asia Pacific Focus, which is broadcast
on ABC1 on Sundays at 11am, as well as on
Australia Network.
 Darwin

Abc News Kununurra

Katherine

Australian Bureaux Broome

and Reporters Karratha Alice Springs

Geraldton
Kalgoorlie

Perth

Wagin
ABC News 24 harnesses the
resources of more than 1,000 Bunbury Esperance
journalists in 60 metropolitan
and regional newsrooms around
the country, producing the trusted, Albany
quality news and current affairs
Australian audiences have come
to rely on. The ABC is better
equipped than any other media
organisation in the country to
provide comprehensive local
and national news coverage
to all Australians.
 13

Cairns

Townsville

Mackay

Mt Isa Rockhampton
Gladstone
Longreach Bundaberg
Maroochydore
Toowoomba Brisbane
Gold Coast

Lismore

Coffs Harbour
Broken Hill Tamworth
Port Macquarie
Dubbo Muswellbrook
Newcastle
Pt Augusta Orange
Erina
Pt Pirie
Renmark Mildura Sydney
Pt Lincoln Wagga Wagga Wollongong
Adelaide Wodonga Canberra
Horsham Shepparton Nowra
Mt Gambier Bendigo
Ballarat Bega
Warrnambool Melbourne
Sale
Morwell

Burnie
Launceston

Hobart
 Abc News
London

Foreign
Correspondents Washington

and Bureaux
With a reputation as one of The role of the foreign
the world’s most respected correspondent is critical;
international news gathering when a big story breaks, ABC
networks and the largest of any correspondents file for multiple
broadcaster in the Southern programs across radio,
Hemisphere, the work of the TV and online.
ABC’s foreign correspondents
and travelling teams features
prominently on ABC News
24. Viewers now have more
access to foreign news stories,
interviews and feature pieces
from around the world – reports
on international events told by
Australians, for Australians.

Johannesburg
 Foreign Affairs Editor Peter Cave
Moscow Auckland Philippa McDonald, New Zealand Correspondent
Bangkok Zoe Daniel, South East Asia Correspondent
Beijing Stephen McDonell, China Correspondent
Tom Iggulden, China Correspondent (Australia Network)
Beijing Jakarta Matt Brown, Indonesia Correspondent
Kerri Ritchie, Indonesia Correspondent (Australia Network)
Jerusalem Anne Barker, Middle East Correspondent
Ben Knight, Middle East Correspondent
Johannesburg Andrew Geoghegan, Africa Correspondent
London Philip Williams, Europe Correspondent
Jerusalem Emma Alberici, Europe Correspondent
Tokyo Rachael Brown, London Reporter
Moscow Norman Hermant, Russia Correspondent
New Delhi Sally Sara, South Asia Correspondent
New Delhi Bangkok Nidhi Dutt, India Correspondent (Australia Network)
Pacific Islands Sean Dorney, Pacific Correspondent
Port Moresby Liam Fox, Papua New Guinea Correspondent
Tokyo Mark Willacy, North Asia Correspondent
Washington Lisa Millar, North America Correspondent
Kim Landers, North America Correspondent
Michael Brissenden, North America Correspondent
Craig McMurtrie, North America Correspondent

Port Moresby
Jakarta

Pacific Islands

Auckland

Abc News
Facts & Figures
More than 1,000 journalists in 60
locations in Australia and around
the world.
In 2008–09 the ABC broadcast
more than 19,000 hours of
unduplicated news and current
affairs programming on television
and radio on its domestic services
and on the Australia Network and
Radio Australia. These figures do
not include material provided to
ABC NewsRadio, live crosses to
reporters for radio programs, and
any rolling coverage.
This includes more than 5,000
first-run hours of TV programs,
and almost 14,000 hours of radio,
as well as tens of thousands of
pages of content online each
year, and extensive audio and
video online. Much of this content
is broadcast across a range of
technologies, including digital
television, mobiles, an email news
service, RSS feeds, podcasts
and vodcasts.
The ABC has 12 international
bureaux, more than any other
Australian media organisation.
Australia Network, the ABC’s
international television service,
broadcasts to 44 countries and
reaches 22 million homes in the
Asia Pacific region. Five million
people watch per month, including
viewers from Mongolia, India,
Papua New Guinea, and also
Australia’s servicemen and women
on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
16
The Asia Pacific News Centre
(APNC) has 60 journalists
dedicated to 24-hour cross-
platform coverage of Asia and
the Pacific. The Asia Pacific News
Centre was launched in November
2008, merging the news resources
of Radio Australia and Australia
Network. One of the Centre’s first
priorities was a merged website
where audiences can explore
a full range of multi-media
news content.
The ABC provides more news
and current affairs to more people
through radio, television, online
and broadband services than any
other media organisation
in Australia.
abc.net.au/news