Newshound Nick Tabakoff signs off in full voice
Media heavyweights – past and present – came together at a Sydney pub on Thursday night to mark the retirement of one of journalism’s great characters, Nick Tabakoff.
Media heavyweights – past and present – came together at a Sydney pub on Thursday night to mark the retirement of one of journalism’s great characters, Nick Tabakoff.
The career of the 56-year-old, who is leaving the media industry to focus on his health, having been diagnosed with cancer in late 2023, was honoured by an impressive roll call of more than 100 senior executives and big names from various TV, radio and print outlets.
TV legend Ray Martin, radio kings Ray Hadley, Ben Fordham and John Stanley, multiple Walkley Award winner Adele Ferguson and former A Current Affair executive producer Grant Williams were joined at Tabakoff’s celebration by a raft of media executives including News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller, ABC managing director Hugh Marks, and ex Seven chief executive officer James Warburton.
The Australian’s editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn and editor Kelvin Healey attended, as did Sky News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker, Daily Telegraph editor Ben English, and News Corp executives Campbell Reid and John Lehmann. Several other media luminaries who couldn’t make it on the night sent congratulatory messages – among them, Lachlan Murdoch, James Packer, former Sunrise host David Koch and Leigh Sales.
Mr Murdoch, News Corp chairman, wrote: “Throughout his career, Nick has exemplified The Australian’s enduring values – fearless reporting, intellectual independence, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.”
Koch, who gave Tabakoff his first job in journalism, said: “It was his curiosity that really stood out. It drove his tenacity to relentlessly chase the story.”
Tabakoff cut his teeth in radio and TV, before embarking on a successful career in newspapers, primarily with The Australian and The Daily Telegraph.
In a tribute to Tabakoff, Whittaker described his longtime colleague as “one of the most versatile journalists” in the Australian media industry, lauding his capacity to work across all platforms, and subject areas, from news to sport to business to crime, and perhaps most famously, as The Australian’s long-serving Media Diarist. Gunn spoke of Tabakoff’s “boundless energy” in the newsroom, and his commitment to “truth and fairness”.
Tabakoff himself reflected on his 34-year media career, specifically reminiscing about the two investigations that won him Walkley Awards – his probe into failed Texan businessman Chris Tyler in 2000, which won the journalist the best business story of that year, and his exposure of the Parramatta Eels salary cap scandal, which earned him Scoop of the Year in 2016. “If you do what you love, you never have to work a day in your life,” Tabakoff said in his farewell speech on Thursday night, before leading his trademark raucous singalongs about his newsroom experiences.
Thanks for everything, Tabbas.
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