BBC News 24

David Willey has been the Rome Correspondent for many many years and indeed the Queen has honoured him for his services. There has also been a TV Correspondent in Rome for many years - it was Orla Guerin for a while, then Brian Barron, then Guto Harri and now Jeremy Bowen. Tamsin Smith is a freelance reporter - she is not staff and just gets paid when she is used.

On a side note, is it me or has Katya Adler lost her accent since she reported on the Madrid Train bombings last year?

And, interesting to see Laura Trevelyan back in Westminster as a political correspondent - weren't she a freelance in Washington due to "family problems" or something? - Wander if were see her presenting News 24 again?

Following on from BBC LDN's post on the previous page (too big to quote).

The BBC sending a presenter to a location isn't in any way saying that the local correspondents aren't up to it (unlike Sky, who have to fly people in to most places because they don't have much of an overseas operation). They are there to present programmes, with the added dimension of being in the thick of the story rather than being detatched in a studio. Presentationally, it gives extra oopmh to the story - but the presenters are introducing reports by, and talking to, the established correspondents in that region - so it's still all about drawing on their strengths. On major stories, local staff have to be reinforced from London - with extra reporters, producers, crews, engineers. But that's not a reflection on their abilities - just reality. And it's a sign of newsgathering strength if your first move in hearing from a correspondent on the scene isn't booking a cab to Heathrow....

Doing big foreign sends is very expensive - a big chunk of anyone's budget. After overheads and staff costs, you'd be surprised at how (relatively) little is left over for ad-hoc trips. Flexible flight tickets have to be booked at the last minute, hotels, fixers, transport sorted. Excess baggage bills can be huge - a flyaway dish and associated kit can weight up to a tonne, which costs a fortune. It's got to go excess baggage - it takes too long to ship it out. So sending a big team with a presenter (which usually means a dish, at least two engineers, a crew, at least one producer) is not a decision taken lightly.

As for which presenter gets sent where, it's often a case of "who's around?". Pope excepted - that's been planned for ages - it's usually about who's where, when, can they drop everything, and can their shifts in the newsroom be filled. Jon Sopel does seem to go to the biggest stories - but then he's arguably News 24's biggest name, and was a very established foreign correspondent beforehand. But Chris Eakin and Simon McCoy do get out. Simon hasn't backed away from going on the road - when the second Asian quake hit last week, he was sent off in the direction of Indonesia. The team got pulled back from the airport when it became clear there wasn't another tsunami, and it was covered by the local team.

IIRC, Reporting Scotland's Jackie Bird anchored from Glasgow for a while before N24 got their presenter there, which, I agree, is a lot better, leaving sending someone from London a completely pointless act. Of course, it's likely Jackie was wanted for Reporting Scotland that evening, even though, IIRC, they used David Robertson on scene, therefore allowing Jackie to do N24 coverage and another of the RS newsreaders to be studio based for the rest of the programme. Surely this is easier, and cheaper?

Moving on to something completely different, am I the only one who found the smaller strap better on N24 during Pope coverage? It allowed them to fit more on the top (red) line, and should they need it, they could have extended the black to two lines for more information. I feel this would look better on screen generally, although it would have looked even better if the tower wasn't taller than the strap.

It's also worth pointing out that news organisations would have to send extra correspondents out there anyway.

In the past, you probably would've seen lots of senior correspondents dispatched there, whereas now you get a few correspondents and a few presenters. It's a lot easier to present on-location these days than the mid-90s, and as has been pointed out it does at a bit of oomph to the coverage.

Interesting to see Sky presenting outside Windsor today, too, as well as in Krakow and Rome. Kicked News 24 in to touch when it came to covering the change of the royal wedding day.

Reporting Scotland's team work for... erm... Reporting Scotland. It's fine for their presenters to help out for a bit, but they have to stay focussed on their own output. No one would say Scotland's main news bulletin should play second fiddle to News24. So to cover about thirty hours of broadcasting, N24 sent up Simon and Chris Eakin.

And not to downplay Jackie and David's talents, but anchoring rolling news coverage is a lot different to doing a scripted bulletin - especially away from the security blanket of a studio with no autocue, no computer, no scripts, no floor manager and a dodgy comms link to TV Centre. I didn't see Jackie's appearance on News 24 (in this context I can't say why), but by all accounts she did very well.

As for "little left to announce" after three hours..... does that mean we should stop reporting news after three hours because it's not new any more? And in that instance, there was plenty more to report - the rescue/recovery effort, more bodies being found, survivor reaction. At one point the police feared another thirty people had been killed (in the event it was nine). Programmes - whether News24, the Six, Newsnight or Reporting Scotland are almost always best served by having their own people on the ground to do the "added value" work alongside the core newsgathering teams - that's why they get sent.

And another thing (last thing!) - familiarity to viewers is a big factor. Outside Scotland, who's heard of Jackie Bird? If there's a big story and people tune in to a news channel, it's best to have familiar faces from that channel on, not someone you've never seen before. That's why it's sometimes uncomfortable to see the wonderful Lyse Doucet on News 24 - she's a great journalist, but only ever pops up on News24 on big foreign stories, or between 0935 - 0952 in the morning. (By the way, if she's there, it probably means BBC World has chipped in towards the cost of sending).

According to Huw Edwards some of the Six O' Clock News and BBC News 24 will be broadcast live on the BBC election bus.

Can someone confirm this?

and why don't you believe Huw!

If he has said it it will happen.

Actually it was Jon Sopel who siad it, but you can believe him as well.

I've got nothing against Huw (or Jon) but it seems strange that the Six and BBC News 24 will be broadcast from a bus.

You make it sound like the 9.15 from Barnsley. It isn't just *any* bus - it's an Election Bus.

I've noticed the part of the BBC News 24 ticker which has the topic title (usually grey) has changed to having a red, green and blue background to the grey box under the title 'Elections'. Also it's changed colours for updates on the different parties - red for Labour, blue for Tories, yellow for Lib Dems.

i do wish it wasn't in all caps though, i find it much harder to read even with the better scrolling