As David Speers prepares to host his first edition of Insiders on ABC TV next week, the recently arrived ABC presenter has won this category for 2019 after being the runner up in 2018.
Speers flagged his intention to quit Sky News Australia for the ABC mid-year, but the News Corp news channel kept him on until late in the year.
His departure from Sky News was a blow, but the channel did well to keep him for two decades after he first joined in 2000, soon making his mark covering politics in Canberra.
In addition to his work at Sky News, where he never seemed to be off air during major events like elections and leadership challenges, Speers also wrote a weekend column for News Corp Australia metro newspapers.
While Speers managed to take place first place this year, the voting was very close for the top five candidates. So close that we will not separate them and just list the four joint runners-up.
In alphabetical order they are: Waleed Aly (Network 10), Peter FitzSimons (The Sydney Morning Herald), Kate McClymont (The Sydney Morning Herald) and Leigh Sales (ABC).
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Sales was in second place last year, ahead of McClymont who was ranked third.
