Award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tova O’Brien joins Stuff Digital

After months of speculation about her next move, Stuff Digital is welcoming award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tova O’Brien to its team in the new role of Chief Political Correspondent.

Managing Director of Stuff Digital Nadia Tolich says she’s delighted to have Tova join the team. 

“We are home to New Zealand’s most extraordinary news talent, so Tova will fit right in as we continue to build on our position as New Zealand’s number 1 news website.

“As Chief Political Correspondent, Tova will deliver more of her exceptional journalism. No stranger to the bullpen of politics, she will shine a light on political, economic and policy issues and events that impact everyday Kiwis. This is particularly important given it is Election year.

“Tova is busy working on her first project for Stuff as we speak, and we look forward to revealing that soon,” says Tolich.

O’Brien says the move to Stuff is the start of a new chapter.

“I’m thrilled to be joining the brilliant, hard-working team at Stuff. I’ve been missing journalism and politics so much and can’t wait to get cracking into an already banger election campaign.

“It also means a lot to be working for an independent, NZ-owned news organisation that has a total commitment to journalism and why it matters to all of us.”

Until March this year O’Brien was the host of Today FM’s breakfast show, Tova. In the role she interviewed leaders, newsmakers and New Zealanders from all walks of life. She also traveled to Ukraine for an exclusive interview with the Ukrainian President, producing prime time television documentary Tova Meets Zelensky.

For this work, she was recognised for the second consecutive year at the Voyager Media Awards 2023, winning ‘Broadcast Reporter of the Year (News)’, and was part of the team that won Best News Story - Team Coverage at the 2023 Radio Awards for coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Prior to Today FM, O’Brien was Newshub’s political editor, leading their press gallery team through the tumultuous 2020 election, six National Party leaders and the highs and lows of Jacinda Ardern’s Covid-19 response. 

During this time she made international headlines for a viral interview combating covid misinformation with defeated politician Jami-Lee Ross. It was viewed more than 11 million times and described by Forbes as “an interviewing masterclass, a bravura demonstration of journalism at its purest”.

O’Brien also spent three years as Newshub’s Europe Correspondent, travelling to 27 countries to cover some of the world’s biggest stories including Brexit, the Grenfell Tower fire and the refugee crisis, reporting from camps in France, Turkey and Greece. She also covered one of the deadliest spikes in terror attacks across Europe including the suicide bombings in Brussels and Manchester and the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice.