BBC News: Presenters, correspondent & rotas

Before his first illness, George presented GMT on BBC World News at miday

Did you even read what I said? I didn’t defend any decision or suggest anything was black and white. But David Dimbleby has at least hinted that it wasn’t his decision to step down from elections, Humphrys departed mid-contract after a LOT of pressure and comment from the media including from within the BBC, and senior journalists are on the record suggesting Stewart was effectively dismissed by ITV/ITN when ‘bosses’ wanted an excuse to move him on. George, Huw and Sophie all at various times displaced or replaced older presenters (Michael Beurk, Peter Sissons and Anna Ford), and older male presenters at programmes like Newsnight (Paxman, Esler) or Today (Humphrys, Naughtie) have in the last decade been replaced by younger presenters. No comment on whether that’s good or bad, nor whether it’s evidence of a deliberate attempt by management to skew younger. They may have left of their own choice, or they may have been pushed. Just that citing a handful of old male presenters isn’t in itself proof that Simon McCoy or any presenter would be encouraged or desired to continue in their roles indefinitely, in an industry that perhaps favours younger presenters.

Putting the specifics to one side. I feel the evening news bulletins are more popular with older people and that having a presenter in the same age range as them makes them feel as if the station is respecting them. The likes of Michael Beurk had a welter of experience behind them and simply replacing them and therefore losing that experience in favour of "eye candy" with a lot less experience is in my opinion simply stupid.

Post of the Year. (I know it’s only February).

On that basis, who is the “eye candy” aimed at then, if not the “older people”?

I must be unique. Because when I was in my late teens and twenties, my favourite newscasters were Sandy Gall, Alastair Burnet and Moira Stuart.

Sandy certainly couldn’t be described as “eye candy”. (No offence intended).

What he did provide (as did Moira and Sir AB) was a no-nonsense delivery of the news, commanded respect and had the “we speak, you listen” aura about them. Nothing to do with their looks at all. And there was nothing wrong with their looks either.

So, here I am now, of a certain age and would still say that the age of the person bringing me the news doesn’t make a blind bit of difference. Their command and calming attitude is what wins it for me.

Thinking Philippa Thomas, Karin Giannone, Ben Bland, Kamahl Santamaria, Peter Dobbie and that guy called Alastair!

Post of the Year! I'd like to thank my agent...

Seriously though I wasn't insinuating that the age of the newscaster is a decisive factor

What I was saying was i think that there is a preference for older newsreaders on the evening bulletins on the basis of experience.

Judging by your referring to the likes of Sandy Gall and Moira Stuart I'm presuming or assuming that you grew up during the 1980's when the above as well as the peerless Alastair Burnet were the leading presenters on BBC and ITN

Yes of course a younger set of newscasters can have an authority on air

I think their age kind of does matter. As much as we like to pretend otherwise, there is an element of theatre involved and part of that is giving the impression that the presenter has been to all the war zones and knows what they’re talking about.

I think a lot of the “names” these days are lacking that.

Sandy gall is an excellent example. He appeared to be a frail old man, that was far from true.

Sorry what?

Who counts as eye candy nowadays at BBC News - Simon McCoy?

Was Huw a reporter before he got the Six gig?

Yes, before the May 1999 relaunch of BBC News, Huw had been a political correspondent for BBC News 24 and had also been a newsreader on BBC1 bulletins in the mid to late 1990s - mainly daytime summaries and the One O'Clock News. He was also occasionally the Six O'Clock News co-presenter (never the lead, though, as far as I can remember. That coveted position was usually reserved for Anna Ford or Martyn Lewis).

Indeed, Huw had a long career as a Political Correspondent, he started in the late eighties I think and, as you say, just before he took over the Six he had been Chief Political Correspondent with special responsibility for News 24 (those were the days when News 24 had some dedicated correspondents, Nick Robinson also filled that role for a bit).

In the 1992 election, Huw was on the BBC Radio coverage in the Laura Kuenssberg-style role, and I know he amazed everyone on the production team when he said he didn't need a copy of the BBC Constituency Guide with the details of every candidate and constituency, because he'd already memorised its entire contents.

ITN used to make a point of deliberately alternating many of its personnel between presenting and reporting to illustrate to the audience that the newsreaders weren't just parroting off an autocue, so people like Michael Nicholson would spend time newsreading in between reporter postings, although I know Nicholson didn't much enjoy it.

I remember when Huw took over the Ten in 2003, there was a piece in the Radio Times about newsreaders and Roger Mosey, who was then Head of News, said that when people moved on, as Peter Sissions and Michael Buerk were, the aim was to bring in people with equivalent experience to them when they started.

You’re forgiven