What Ita Buttrose learned as Australia's pioneering editor

She cut a swathe through the male-dominated media landscape to launch Cleo in 1972.

Cleo invited women into a discussion about female sexual pleasure and featured a nude male centrefold with a ruggedly handsome Jack Thompson.

It's worth turning off safe search and having a look.

She has been immortalised in popular culture as well.

Cold Chisel's Don Walker penned a raunchy love song that used more lyrics praising her journalistic integrity than her appearance.

"Every day and every night she's the only one we can depend upon," Jimmy Barnes yowls in the 1980 song Ita.

"If you go through history, you'll always find old people criticising the younger people," she told ACM.

But ABC chairperson Ms Buttrose believes the generations are more united and have more in common than it may seem.

"We have to get through the challenges that we encounter in the era in which we live. Each generation has challenges and we all get through them," she said.

"But we learn what we learn from life and we try to share that with the next generation," she said.

One of Ms Buttrose's favourite piece of advice is "don't be afraid to take a risk".

The first issue of Cleo magazine sold out in two days and it proved she knew what women wanted to read.

Ms Buttrose has never been afraid of pairing taboo topics with forthright discussion and it's made her a long-standing fixture in newspapers, magazines and television.

A meteoric rise saw Ms Buttrose appointed editor of The Australian Women's Weekly, working closely with Kerry Packer.

Success came to Ms Buttrose by never accepting her "second best". She said that's a lesson she would pass on to the next generation.

The role of editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph then followed with Ms Buttrose working with Rupert Murdoch in 1981.

Working for Sir Frank Packer, Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch showed Ms Buttrose that success in media meant challenging norms, ignoring constraints and pushing limitations.

"They were all men who thought big," she said.

"And Rupert still thinks big."

Ms Buttrose said she "thinks big too - because that sort of mentality rubs off on you".

She learned running an empire required a solid belief in your own abilities and a pure love of media and publishing.

"I think it's crucial to love what you do," she said.

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As the AIDS epidemic hit Australia the single mum of two children, aged 11 and 15, stepped away from her role in publishing to chair the National Advisory Committee on AIDS.

"It was like being told your country needs you - I didn't hesitate," she told Bridget Haire for HIV Australia in 2009.

Between 1989 and 1994 Ms Buttrose captained her own ship at Capricorn publishing with the release of the eponymous Ita Magazine.

She's been a vocal champion for many causes including the Macular Degeneration Foundation of Australia, the National Breast Cancer Centre, the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Alzheimer's Australia.

Ms Buttrose has been recognised with Order of the British Empire, Order of Australia and Centenary Medals for her work in journalism and services to the community.

She continues to blaze a trail and was confirmed as chair of the ABC by Scott Morrison in 2019.

Ms Buttrose has learnt to make the most of life and take challenges in her stride because "we're only here once and life is really quite short".