Before an audience including ABC managing director Mark Scott and other influential media figures, Ferguson said: "Yesterday, I was at the Walkley's Storyology conference when the head of ABC digital - inspired no doubt by the presence of his digital idol, the head of Buzzfeed - referred to television and to radio at the ABC as a legacy that needed to be 'dealt with'.

Sarah Ferguson hosts the Walkley Awards for journalistic excellence in Sydney.

"It's an interesting word – legacy, I think. You know that legacy is the word that Qantas uses to describe all those bits of the airline that aren't Jetstar.

"The way I look at it, 'legacy' is what my fast-departing colleagues, with their years of broadcast experience, leave behind for those of us who still hold fast to the idea that the journalism we do on radio and on television is important.

"These days, of course, they call it 'content'. You imagine what the digital future would look like without it."