Drama at the ABC as shock favourite emerges out of nowhere to replace Laura Tingle on 7.30
Staff at the ABC expect the coveted role of political correspondent for the broadcaster's nightly current affairs program 7.30 will go to the ABC's chief digital political correspondent Jacob Greber, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Greber is ahead in what was tipped to be a multi-headed race to fill the gap left when Tingle announced earlier this month she would replace John Lyons as the broadcaster's outgoing global affairs editor.
Earlier rumblings suggested the role might have gone to any number of Canberra bureau insiders including chief David Lipson, national affairs editor Melissa Clark and Insiders host David Speers.
Q+A host Patricia Karvelas and ABC Radio Melbourne host Raf Epstein ruled themselves out of the running when contacted by the Herald.
Tingle, a double Walkley-Award-winning political journalist, will start new position mid-year while Lyons packs up to become the ABC's Americas editor.
Among the nation's best respected political journalists with more than 40 years experience including six years in her latest post, Tingle leaves big shoes to fill.
'The job was advertised, and I applied for it,' Tingle told The Australian last week.
'It's the best job in journalism, I reckon, other than the one I have already got.'
A fellow Financial Review alum, Tingle will spend the next two years travelling the world reporting on events 'that also shape our nation'.
Despite publicly advertising its shift away from television towards digital, the flagship promise of former managing director David Anderson's five-year-plan, 7.30 remains the jewel in the broadcaster's crown.
Presented by former Four Corners host Sarah Ferguson, the program boasted an average nightly viewership of 756,000 in the 2023-24 financial year according to ABC's annual reporting.
A dip from Covid-era highs of the three previous fiscal years, the program nonetheless retained its popularity, despite fears of a fallout following the 2022 departure of the inaugural presenter Leigh Sales.
Despite being lesser known than Karvelas or Speers, Greber would bring decades of broadcast and print experience and some cachet as a reliable face on News Breakfast, Insiders, Afternoon Briefing, Weekend Breakfast and, of course, 7.30.
The more front-facing role brings with it a greater possibility for controversy of the brand Tingle has found herself mired in in recent years.
Last year, she was accused of dropping the veil of journalistic impartiality when she accused then Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of stoking racism by raising immigration caps as a possible salve for the housing crisis.
She said Mr Dutton's rhetoric had sent a 'terrible chill running through me' before, at the same Sydney Writers Festival event, describing Australia as 'a racist country'.
ABC news director Justin Stevens later said Tingle's comments, albeit not made in a work capacity, had prompted the broadcaster to remind her of the 'application' of her 'conversational' rhetoric to 'external events'.
Before Tingle's six-year stint on 7.30, the coveted role was something of a hot potato having passed through the hands of four presenters in the six years between 2012 and 2018.
She replaced Andrew Probyn who was more recently made redundant as the broadcaster's political editor in 2023.
Internal ABC documents reportedly said the move was part of a calculated efforts to reform the Canberra bureau's 'outdated, top-heavy structure still largely focused on linear television broadcast'.
Greber's appointment to the newly-minted role of chief digital political correspondent was widely considered a de facto planting of the flag in the broadcaster's 'digital-first' strategy.
Whether he will be picked for the plum nightly news role is not year clear but could suggest the digital transition has yet to unseat the prestige of broadcast television.
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