After 16 years at RNZ, veteran broadcaster Susie Ferguson has left the public media organisation following changes to the Saturday Morning programme.

Since 2024, Ferguson has been co-hosting the programme alongside Mihingarangi Forbes, who has also recently left RNZ. They replaced seasoned broadcaster Kim Hill.

In a statement, Ferguson said the 16 years she’d spent at RNZ had “been a wild ride!”

“16 years is a long time to call anywhere home, and I leave RNZ gratified with what I have created, and absolutely committed to the first-class journalism and storytelling New Zealanders deserve.

“My enormous thanks to so many of my colleagues past and present, especially producers, journalists and sound engineers.

“Most of all, I'm immensely grateful to everyone who put their faith in me to tell their stories, and to the listeners who tuned in and trusted me. That's who we do it for, and the privilege has been mine.”

Ferguson, who started working at RNZ in 2009 and presented Morning Report for eight years until 2022, has covered major events, including the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes, ANZAC centenary services at Gallipoli, and the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Ferguson has also been recognised for her podcast work, winning gold at the New York Festivals for The Unthinkable, which explores the heartbreak of losing a baby at birth or shortly after, and chart-topping podcast Undercurrent covering misinformation in Aotearoa.

She said it had been an “honour to present, produce and anchor the reporting of some of the biggest stories in New Zealand’s recent history” as well as “pulling the record breaking largest ever radio audience in New Zealand” alongside former Morning Report co-host Corin Dann.

“I am hugely proud too of the podcasts I created, produced on the smell of an oily rag, and massively grateful to some exceptional contributors and colleagues for their mahi on The Unthinkable, internationally recognised as world class, and the chart-topper, Undercurrent.

“Public media matters, especially now, when newsrooms are shrinking, trust is harder to earn, and serious journalism is too often treated as something that can simply be trimmed, merged or replaced. The work still matters, the audiences still matter, and most importantly here, the people who do it matter.”

In a statement, an RNZ spokesperson acknowledged Ferguson’s significant contribution to the organisation.

“Susie’s work has reflected the best of public media, rigorous journalism, trusted voices, careful storytelling and a commitment to serving audiences.

“RNZ thanks Susie for her contribution to public media and journalism in New Zealand and wishes her all the best for the future.”

In her 2024 memoir, Bloody Minded, Ferguson reflected on becoming a war correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan from the age of 25 and relying on opioids to get through the pain of endometriosis.

"You think 'I'll get home and everything will be great because I get to see my family and my friends again and I'm back in my home' but in some ways, you're torn,” she told fellow RNZ presenter Perlina Lau.

 

"You're living at a really high, really intense, in some ways really exciting level. And then you come back, and then you've got to decide which bag of frozen peas you're going to buy, like none of this matters anymore."