ABC announces plan to discontinue Q+A, boosts news documentaries and Your Say
The ABC has today announced a plan to discontinue Q+A after an outstanding 18-year run and look to new ways to facilitate discussion and elevate voices from around the country.
Q+A was a groundbreaking program that had made a significant contribution to Australian society, said ABC Director, News Justin Stevens.
'We're very proud of Q+A 's great achievements over the years. The team has done a terrific job, including a strong performance during the federal election campaign,' he said. 'Discontinuing the program at this point is no reflection on anyone on the show.
'We always need to keep innovating and renewing, and in the two decades since Q+A began the world has changed. It's time to rethink how audiences want to interact and to evolve how we can engage with the public to include as many Australians as possible in national conversations. We'll be working on how we can continue to foster engagement of this nature in an innovative way.'
New projects from ABC NEWS include embedding Your Say as a permanent initiative to drive audience engagement in communities throughout Australia.
During the federal election campaign Your Say received almost 30,000 online submissions, 36 per cent of them from outside the capital cities, plus thousands of talkback calls on local and regional radio. Hundreds of Your Say contributions were used by News teams and its insights informed the questions put to politicians and the topics for the ABC's leaders debate.
" Your Say ensures we have a strong framework for putting the public's views, concerns and questions at the heart of our journalism, complementing our daily commissioning and reporting,' Stevens said. 'We're keen to see what else we can do with this.'
ABC NEWS is also investing in producing more news documentaries. Building on the success of individual high-end programs such as Killing Season and Nemesis, it will soon advertise for the new position of Executive Producer, Documentaries & Specials.
'We're excited about being able to produce additional high impact, premium news documentary programs to complement the ABC's strong factual slate,' Stevens said.
Q+A , which is currently off air, launched in 2008 under Executive Producer Peter McEvoy and host Tony Jones.
'Many extremely talented and dedicated people have worked on Q+A , as presenters and behind the scenes,' Stevens said. 'I sincerely thank them all, and everyone who has contributed as audience members and panellists.
'I want to call out current Executive Producer Eliza Harvey and presenter Patricia Karvelas. They are hugely talented journalists who have done an outstanding job with Q+A in recent years.
'On top of hosting Afternoon Briefing , presenting the popular Politics Now podcast and writing analysis for the ABC NEWS website, Patricia also recently reported for Four Corners , and we've now asked her to do more for Four Corners as time permits.'
Karvelas said she had immensely enjoyed being part of the program.
'Spending time with the audience members who came to Q+A late on a Monday night has been the best part of this job,' she said. 'They have always been the reason for this show and I'm forever grateful to them for coming on national TV and having the courage to ask questions of powerful people.'
Media contact: Sally Jackson | ABC Communications
Jackson.sally@abc.net.au
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