In-fighting, staff exodus and complaints rock Guardian Australia

It is also looking for a new economics correspondent after veteran Peter Hannam quit in December. All cited different reasons for their departures.

The Guardian spokesperson said it has a great team in place to cover the imminent federal election, after hiring two new journalists to the bureau.

However, Karp’s public comments in the lead-up to his own exit added extra fuel to the fire, writing on social media platform BlueSky that he was sad to be joining colleagues in leaving within a few months, adding he had pushed for “positive culture change” at the bureau.

“I’m proud to have stood up for what I think is right including by successfully pushing for positive cultural change internally. I wish them all the best with the substantial task of rebuilding the Canberra bureau.”

In the new year, Karp then posted the advertisement for his own position, saying it would be an “excellent job for anyone who wants to work with the Canberra team and Karen Middleton”, before later omitting the political editor’s name from his speech to colleagues last Friday, while heaping praise on Murphy, attendees said.

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A Reddit “Ask Me Anything” interview with Karp, scheduled for Monday afternoon, in his final week as a Guardian employee was then cancelled on the same day.

Karp’s social media activity and remarks irked some current staff, surprised to see him draw attention to the situation on his way out, some senior staffers told this masthead.

Middleton arrived at Guardian Australian in March last year from The Saturday Paper, replacing Murphy, who was one of the central figures in the publication’s growing footprint in Australian media, joining in 2013 at its establishment.

In the second half of 2024, after reports of discontent in the bureau made their way to the publication’s Sydney headquarters, a new position of Canberra chief of staff was created and added to political reporter Josh Butler’s remit. This included more administrative duties, such as attending the daily news conference.

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A recent gossip item from Daily Mail Australia’s Peter van Onselen cited the three departed political journalists as having been beaten to the political editor role. However, neither Remeikis nor Hurst applied for the role, five sources confirmed to this masthead, speaking on condition of anonymity. Karp had applied for and interviewed for the role, however.

While Guardian Australia made several hires to replace its departed journalists, and is looking to replace Karp, observers have been keen to note the significant drop in experience, crucially with a federal election mooted for April this year. The scale of the exits has impacted morale across the publication’s other bureaus, this masthead was told.

Bowers’ exit also came after the publication was scaling back its own output, replacing a significant portion of his work with that from newswire AAP, this masthead reported in November.

In the most recent report from ratings agency Ipsos, Guardian Australia was the country’s sixth-most read news outlet, with an audience of 7.2 million. The Sydney Morning Herald was fourth, while The Age was ninth.

Guardian Australia doubled its profits in the 2024 financial year to $1.27 million.

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