Return to radio: Trioli to replace Faine

Virginia Trioli has landed the coveted host’s role on the ABC’s Melbourne Mornings radio program.

Virginia Trioli, in Melbourne yesterday, will replace Jon Faine as ABC Mornings host. Picture: David Geraghty

Virginia Trioli has landed the coveted host’s role on the ABC’s Melbourne Mornings radio program, five weeks after Ita Buttrose’s appointment as ABC chairwoman as the board mulls the public broadcaster’s next managing director.

With ABC television’s News Breakfast co-presenter Trioli taking over from the controversial Jon Faine, the next plum hosting role up for grabs is ABC’s flagship political television show Insiders, with Radio National Breakfast host Fran Kelly believed to be a “serious contender” to replace Barrie ­Cassidy, who retires next month.

Others, including Radio Nat­ional Drive host Patricia Karvelas, seen as a “political animal”, are expected to be considered for Insiders.

With Trioli out of the running to replace Q&A host Tony Jones, Karvelas and ABC analyst Annabel Crabb are believed to be in the mix as his replacement. But there is no rush, as Jones will remain at the helm for the rest of the year before moving to China with his wife, former Four Corners host and incoming ABC Beijing bureau chief Sarah Ferguson.

Ferguson stopped working on Four Corners after the ABC announced in February she would be heading to China later this year, and hasn’t been replaced so far.

At the time, the ABC said Ferguson was working on a “major three-part documentary series for ABC TV”, which remains secret.

The ABC board is expected to wait until after the election to appoint a managing director to replace Michelle Guthrie, who was sacked in September. Her acrimonious departure led to the resignation of Justin Milne, who was replaced by Ms Buttrose at the end of February.

Since then, Ms Buttrose has declined several media interview requests, but Trioli’s appointment is the first high-profile role filled since she took over.

An ABC spokeswoman said Faine and Trioli would stay in their current roles for 2019. She was tight-lipped on the remaining presenter jobs at Insiders, Q&A and Four Corners, and also on the co-host chair at ABC News Breakfast following Trioli’s move to radio.

“We don’t have any other changes to announce at the moment, and no timeframe,” she said.

The ABC spokeswoman also declined to say whether Trioli, who was reportedly paid $236,000 in 2017, would get a pay rise with the change of job. That compares with the $2 million salary of Karl Stefanovic, Nine’s former golden boy co-host of its Today show, which runs until December 2020.

Before her sacking, Ms Guthrie received $963,991 for the year ended June 30, up 8.2 per cent from $890,987 a year earlier. The pay rise was determined by an independent remuneration tribunal.

Trioli is “thrilled” about her new radio gig, saying it is one of the most important journalist’s jobs in the country.

Trioli, who started in radio and has co-presented News Breakfast since 2008, said she was offered the radio slot, the first of four high-profile senior presenter jobs up for grabs at the national broadcaster.

“This is one that is impossible to say no to,” Trioli told The Australian shortly after her appointment was announced, more than three months after Faine said he would leave the ABC at the end of the year after 23 years.

“Jon Faine over 20 years has turned Mornings into a must-­listen-to program, whether you’re in Melbourne or not. The nature of the political interviewing, the news breaking, the fact that it has built such a community in this city and such a connection with a really powerful and increasing powerful city like Melbourne just makes it so fantastic. I’m really thrilled.”