An award-winning former Adelaide journalist has revealed his new career as a sex worker after being made redundant by Southern Cross Austereo.<\/p>\n
Bension Siebert was a reporter for six years at online Adelaide news outlet InDaily, where he was named Best Young Journalist three times in the SA Media Awards.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, news commentary blog Cheek Media published an essay in which Mr Siebert revealed he had become a sex worker after losing his job at Southern Cross Austereo, as part of a round of redundancies in early 2025.<\/p>\n
Mr Siebert, 33, decided to go public with his career move after one his clients discovered he was a journalist and threatened to \u201cout\u201d him because he was unavailable for a Saturday night rendezvous. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis essay is me beating him to it: I am proud to be a sex worker,\u201d Mr Siebert wrote.<\/p>\n
After leaving InDaily in 2020, the UniSA graduate worked as a reporter for the ABC for three years before moving to Southern Cross Austereo, where he was a senior investigative journalist for The Briefing, a news podcast on radio app LiSTNR.<\/p>\n
In the essay, Mr Siebert wrote he had pocketed \u201ca dozen $50 notes\u201d from his first paid sexual liaison and soon discovered he could \u201cearn as much in five hours of sex work as I earned in my best-paid week as a journalist\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like I\u2019d stumbled onto a cheat code to capitalism,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He told The Advertiser the response to his essay had been \u201ccompletely overwhelming\u201d and entirely positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the subject matter, I\u2019m somewhat surprised there hasn\u2019t been really anything negative. I\u2019m really grateful to all the people who\u2019ve commented and sent me messages and emails, and I feel very supported coming out like this,\u201d Mr Siebert said.<\/p>\n
He said thousands of reporting jobs had been gutted from the media sector over the past decade, and investigative journalism jobs had become especially rare.<\/p>\n
In the essay, he described using sex work to \u201csave\u201d his investigative journalism career, using his hard-earned funds on interstate reporting trips for stories he planned to publish \u201cwith or without the support of a mainstream media organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSex work is often difficult and sometimes dangerous work but, in many ways, I felt better off,\u2019 he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had complete control over when to work and when to rest, and lots of spare time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could pursue my hobbies, and a full social life, and a full love life, and prioritise things I had always been too busy for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Southern Cross Austereo\u2019s restructuring in February 2025 cost the jobs of 8 per cent of its workforce \u2013 about 140 staff \u2013 trade publication B&T reported.<\/p>\n
Another round of redundancies at the broadcaster in October 2025 was reportedly linked to the introduction of AI-assisted editorial processes, which included AI voices reading news bulletins.<\/p>\n
Mr Siebert has updated his LinkedIn to describe himself as a self-employed investigative journalist and \u201cindependent s*x worker\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An award-winning former Adelaide journalist has revealed his new career as a sex worker after being made redundant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[90621,90597,90616,41183,47147,41376,90595,90581,90611,90588,90587,51915,90629,90574,90613,50308,90590,90601,90623,90583,43696,90571,395,90594,90593,90612,63169,90609,43965,90604,83471,36917,90622,90579,53890,64257,90608,78267,90605,90592,90627,90624,40388,90603,90625,90599,90607,90600,90578,90598,38992,63596,90626,90628,90617,90619,90584,90589,90586,55775,90614,3121,90580,90620,2149,90615,90573,18750,90585,42590,32895,90591,38272,19816,39660,38255,90575,41300,90610,45726,76298,90606,46232,43721,90596,90577,90618,37634,90572,90602,17467,39257,36789,90582,17331,90576],"class_list":["post-68768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-s-media-awards","tag-s-restructuring","tag-s-sex-worker-pride","tag-41183","tag-47147","tag-41376","tag-a-casualty","tag-a-cheat-code","tag-a-dozen-50-notes","tag-a-full-love-life","tag-a-full-social-life","tag-a-journalist","tag-a-mainstream-media-organisation","tag-a-much-older-profession","tag-a-news-podcast","tag-a-reporter","tag-a-round","tag-a-saturday-night-rendezvous","tag-a-self-employed-investigative-journalist","tag-a-senior-investigative-journalist","tag-a-sex-worker","tag-about-140-staff-trade-publication-bt-reported-another-round","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-journo","tag-ai-voices","tag-ai-assisted-editorial-processes","tag-all-the-people","tag-an-award-winning-former-adelaide-journalist","tag-an-essay","tag-bension-siebert","tag-capitalism","tag-cent","tag-complete-control","tag-early-2025-mr-siebert","tag-february-2025","tag-five-hours","tag-his-career-move","tag-his-clients","tag-his-essay","tag-his-first-paid-sexual-liaison","tag-his-hard-earned-funds","tag-his-investigative-journalism-career","tag-his-job","tag-his-linkedin","tag-his-new-career","tag-indaily","tag-independent-sx-worker","tag-interstate-reporting-trips","tag-investigative-journalism-jobs","tag-its-workforce","tag-lots","tag-many-ways","tag-messages-and-emails","tag-messenger-subscription-box-version-2southern-cross-austereo","tag-mr-siebert","tag-my-best-paid-week","tag-my-hobbies","tag-news-bulletins-mr-siebert","tag-news-commentary-blog-cheek-media","tag-october-2025","tag-online-adelaide-news-outlet-indaily","tag-part","tag-prioritise-things","tag-radio-app-listnr-in","tag-redundancies","tag-reporter-bension-siebert","tag-reporting-jobs","tag-sex-work","tag-sex-worker-career-change","tag-six-years","tag-southern-cross-austereo","tag-spare-time","tag-stories","tag-sunday","tag-the-abc","tag-the-advertiser","tag-the-briefing","tag-the-broadcaster","tag-the-essay","tag-the-introduction","tag-the-jobs","tag-the-media-sector","tag-the-past-decade","tag-the-response","tag-the-sa-media-awards-on","tag-the-shrinking-media-sector","tag-the-subject-matter","tag-the-support","tag-the-unisa-graduate","tag-this-essay","tag-thousands","tag-three-times","tag-three-years","tag-viral-article","tag-work","tag-young-journalist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}