A renowned Australian journalist has announced a shock career change after being made redundant from Southern Cross Austereo.
Bension Siebert, 33, has gone public with his new career as a sex worker after losing his job amid sweeping cuts across Australia’s struggling media industry.
The journalist spent six years reporting for Adelaide news outlet InDaily, where he was named Best Young Journalist three times at the SA Media Awards.
He later worked for the ABC, before joining Southern Cross Austereo as a senior investigative journalist on The Briefing, a news podcast on the radio app LiSTNR.
However, after being made redundant in early 2025, Siebert decided to embark on a bold – and lucrative – new career path.
On Sunday, news commentary blog Cheek Media published an essay in which the journalist opened up about his decision to become a sex worker.
Bension Siebert, 33, has gone public with his new career as a sex worker after losing his job amid sweeping cuts across Australia’s struggling media industry
Siebert said he made the decision to go public after one of his clients discovered his identity and threatened to out him.
‘This essay is me beating him to it: I am proud to be a sex worker,’ Siebert wrote.
The former journalist also opened up about the financial reality of his dramatic career change, revealing his first paid sexual liaison earned him ‘a dozen $50 notes’.
He soon realised there was significant earning potential in his new profession.
Siebert said he discovered he could ‘earn as much in five hours of sex work as I earned in my best-paid week as a journalist’.
‘It was like I’d stumbled onto a cheat code to capitalism!’ he quipped.
Despite the deeply personal nature of his revelation, Siebert said the reaction since going public had left him stunned.
He told The Advertiser the response had been overwhelmingly positive.
The journalist spent six years reporting for Adelaide news outlet InDaily, where he was named Best Young Journalist three times at the SA Media Awards
Siebert said he made the decision to go public after one of his client’s discovered his identity and threatened to out him
‘Given the subject matter, I’m somewhat surprised there hasn’t been really anything negative. I’m grateful to all the people who’ve commented and sent me messages. I feel very supported coming out like this,’ he wrote.
But there is another reason behind his decision to embrace his unconventional new career.
The journalist has used his earnings to help fund his passion for investigative reporting.
He explained that sex work had helped him ‘save’ his investigative journalism career, allowing him to finance interstate reporting trips for stories he intended to publish ‘with or without the support of a mainstream media organisation’.
‘Sex work is often difficult and sometimes dangerous work but, in many ways, I felt better off,’ he said.
‘I had complete control over when to work and when to rest, and lots of spare time. I could pursue my hobbies, and a full social life, and a full love life, and prioritise things I had always been too busy for.’
Siebert said the dramatic contraction of the media industry had made investigative journalism increasingly difficult to pursue.
Thousands of reporting jobs have disappeared from the sector over the past decade, he wrote, while dedicated investigative positions have become particularly scarce.
However, sex work offered him something journalism increasingly could not: control over his own time.
While acknowledging the challenges involved in the profession, he said it had given him a level of freedom he had struggled to find during his journalism career.
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