Journalist Virginia Trioli to leave ABC after 27 years

Virginia Trioli confirmed she will be leaving the ABC after 27 years with the broadcaster.

The journalist made the announcement on Thursday, revealing her hopes of pursuing new creative opportunities in future.

“’I’ve got some news to share. After 27 years at the ABC, it’s time for me to depart,” she told ABC News.

“After spending all this time with a whole lot of creative types, I realised that I kind of am one, too. And that’s really what I want to go and focus on now.

“I’ve just been so fortunate and had the luckiest and best career you can possibly have in mainstream media … but right now I am just itching – there is this voice that’s getting increasingly loud in my head – to go and work on my own creative projects.”

Trioli has led an exceptional career thus far across radio, TV and print, including a stint at The Age newspaper and The Bulletin.

Read more

Jackie ‘O’ Henderson continues claim against ARN after Kyle’s $12 million settlement

She was founding anchor of News Breakfast on ABC TV, host of Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne, before she went on to host the TV series Creative Types with Virginia Trioli.

One of her most memorable interviews came in 2001, for which she was awarded a Walkley Award – a pinnacle achievement for any Australian journalist – with former defence minister Peter Reith over the Children Overboard Affair.

Among the new projects she’s working on are two new books and a TV script she’s been “noodling away with”.

Trioli said the thing she’d miss most about her career at the ABC would be the audiences who have listened to her stories for decades.

“I’ve worked really closely with audiences for all of my career. You feel … very close to them in the sort of jobs that I’ve done, and they will ring you and they will text you and they’ll write to you,” she said.

“And it’s really quite remarkable the intimacy and trust that you create. So I will absolutely miss them. And I’ll miss some of the really fine editors and colleagues that I’ve been able to work with over the years.”

Trioli’s last day at the ABC is June 26.