Incoming ABC chair Ita Buttrose says her top priority is to restore stability to the public broadcaster and get it "functioning again".

Key points: Print media icon Ita Buttrose takes over the ABC board after a year of turmoil

Print media icon Ita Buttrose takes over the ABC board after a year of turmoil She says she wants to restore stability and get the ABC "functioning again"

She says she wants to restore stability and get the ABC "functioning again" Ms Buttrose becomes only the second woman to lead the ABC board

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has officially announced he will recommend the media icon to the Governor-General as the new leader of the ABC.

It has been five months since the ABC had a permanent board chair and managing director.

"I think my most important role is to restore stability to the management of the organisation, to reassure the staff that life will go on as usual and to reassure the board, who has also been through a period of unrest, that it's time to get the ABC functioning again with proper stable management and good frank discussion between the chair and whoever is the managing director," Ms Buttrose said.

"If there's not a close relationship between the chair and the managing director, you cannot make an organisation work efficiently and well."

The ABC's management was plunged into turmoil in September last year when chairman Justin Milne resigned, days after he and the board of directors sacked former managing director Michelle Guthrie.

Mr Milne strongly denied claims that he interfered with editorial decisions and demanded senior journalists be sacked.

"Ita, as we know, has the strength, the integrity and the fierce independence that she is known for to take stewardship of this important Australian institution," Mr Morrison said.

"But it is not just her extensive experience in publishing and broadcasting which equips her for this role."

Ms Buttrose said she was a life-long ABC fan and wanted to ensure the community retained its trust in the organisation.

"I consider it one of the most important cultural and information organisations in our country and I'm honoured to be asked to lead it into the future," she said.

"It is a voice of the Australian people. I think it reflects our identity, it tells our stories not just here in Australia but to the rest of the world, and I have grown up with the ABC.

"I'm a devoted listener to the ABC. I start my day with ABC News Radio, I don't leave home without it."

Mr Morrison said he had selected Ms Buttrose because she was a proven leader and respected throughout Australia.

"Australians trust Ita. I trust Ita and that's why I have asked her to take on this role and I'm absolutely thrilled that she has accepted," he said.

Buttrose brings print experience to broadcaster

Ms Buttrose was the founding editor of Cleo Magazine in 1972, and later the editor of The Australian Women's Weekly.

She became the first woman to edit an Australian metropolitan newspaper, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, in the 1980s and was the first woman appointed to the News Limited board.

In recent years the former Australian of the Year has been lauded for her work in the media and as an advocate for Australians with Alzheimer's and dementia.

Ms Buttrose rejected suggestions she didn't have sufficient experience in digital media to lead the ABC into the future.

"I have never been frightened of what technology offers to us in the media," she said.

"It is the way of the future. We all know that. And the ABC has a part of that and it's already working very hard in this field and I don't intend that it shouldn't keep doing so.

"We have a right to be there. It is the way of the future and the ABC must have that future."

Last year, Ms Buttrose, 77, lamented the credentials of those currently among the ABC's directors.

Sorry, this video has expired Ita Buttrose on the ABC leadership turmoil in September 2018.

"If I look at the board, and I look at [former managing director] Michelle Guthrie's CV, I don't see anybody there with a lot of media experience," she told ABC's The Drum, after Ms Guthrie's dismissal.

"And I think that is a failing of the board — they're very well-credentialled, don't get me wrong.

"But there's not a lot of media experience there, and I think you must have media experience if you're going to run the ABC because of the very nature of the ABC."

Ms Guthrie is now pursuing the public broadcaster in the courts for wrongful dismissal but the ABC started the recruitment process for a new managing director earlier this month.

The recruitment process for a new chair was kept under wraps, with former media executives Kim Williams and Greg Hywood joining Sydney lawyer Danny Gilbert as the favourites for the role.

Ms Buttrose refused to elaborate why she hadn't applied for the role.

"Well, I just didn't," she told reporters.

"Maybe that was a mistake on my part, but I just didn't do it."