Female journalists outlast sexism

Gone are the days of TV news programs being presented by pretty young female journalists and much older males.

Network Ten journalist Sandra Sully on set in Pyrmont, Sydney. Picture: Britta Campion

Sandra Sully and Melissa Doyle are proof, after decades of age and sex discrimination, that experienced female journalists belong on television.

The pair, alongside Tracy Grimshaw, Lisa Wilkinson and Natalie Barr, have decades of ­reporting and hosting experience, which is now recognised as a valuable asset in the cutthroat world of TV.

Gone are the days of TV news programs being presented by pretty young female journalists and much older male counterparts.

Sully, who is celebrating 30 years with Network Ten, says she’s stayed with the TV broadcaster for so long because she is “very happy”, but concedes she’s never worked harder.

As well as co-presenting Ten’s afternoon news program, 10 News First, Sully is consulting news editor on Ten’s news and entertainment website 10 daily, and fronts a podcast series called Short Black.

“I'm just grateful to have been on the ride for so long,” Sully told The Australian. “I know it’s very cliched but I actually really love what I do. I have so say that I don't think I have ever worked harder in my life, the past couple of years with 10 daily and podcasts, the digital kind of evolution. We’re all working really hard. I feel challenged and energised. I have ­pushed them but we've had a really great relationship.”

Doyle, who is awaiting her next big gig with Seven Network following the axing of its flagship current affairs show Sunday Night in October, hopes age isn’t an issue any more.

“I would like to think that age just isn’t the stumbling block that maybe it once was, and I sort of think that’s probably across a lot of industries,” said Doyle, who hosts Seven’s evening news bulletin on Fridays and Saturdays and a radio weekend breakfast show on smoothfm.

Doyle gives the example that if someone was going in for surgery, they would be happier to know the surgeon had 30 years’ experience rather than three.

“I hope I’m a better journalist than I was 20 to 25 years ago. A couple of factors: I’ve had more life ­experience, I’ve been doing the job for longer, and I’ve told stories, I’ve had different experiences as a journalist where I’ve covered a multitude of stories from happy to tragic to challenging, and I think that just hopefully means that I’ve broadened my horizons and I’m a better journalist.

“I hope we’re always judged on our ability and that age shouldn’t really come into it,” she said.

Instead of another big party to mark Sully’s milestone with Ten, she wanted to pay her good fortune forward by way of a university journalism scholarship. At Sully’s request, Ten will fund the Sandra Sully Journalism scholarship, valued at $7500, to support a journalism student at Western Sydney University.

“To be honest, it was my idea,” Sully told The Australian. “I didn't want a fuss made about me. I was very grateful to have got this far, and I thought it would be a nice way to pay my good fortune forward and hopefully change the life of another budding journalism graduate.”

Sully presented Ten’s late news for nearly two decades, and has covered everything from the spring racing carnival, the Olympic Games in Atlanta and terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001.

“Because I wasn't wedded to the desk,” she said, “I had a degree of freedom. But I also felt like I earned the right to ask for those opportunities, that’s really kept me engaged. But it came with a price, I did late news for nearly 18 years and that really knocked me around. The day I got back from my honeymoon they axed late news, I didn't want five o'clock but I didn't have a choice and no regrets. Sometimes I think the universe sends you messages.”

Sully loves news, describing it as infectious and addictive.

“Every day you start with a clean slate,” she said.