BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

Can't get onto the article because its subscription only, but one of the headlines on broadcastnow.co.uk is that Carole Walker will be one of the female over-50 presenters (though she has occasionally done presenting in the past)

BBC political correspondent Carole Walker has been named as the fourth new, female BBC News presenter aged over 50.

She will work alongside Julia Somerville whose name was reported over the weekend, as well as Zeinab Badawi and Fiona Armstrong whose appointments were revealed by Broadcast last week and confirmed by the BBC today.

All the women are over 50 and Somerville is in her 60s. The new hires come in line with an edict from director general Mark Thompson to BBC News to secure at least one new female presenter in her 50s by September 2010, and to all BBC channels to boost the proportion of older presenters.

Walker has been political correspondent since 1997 and has worked at the BBC for almost 30 years. During that time she has covered the Gulf War, revolution in Moscow, the break up of the Soviet Union and civil wars in the Balkans and Somalia.

She has also covered the last four general elections and presented rolling news and discussion programmes for the BBC News channel.

Somerville began her broadcasting career in BBC radio in 1972, rising to Labour affairs correspondent. In 1983 she moved across to television to present the Nine O’Clock News, and then to ITN where she presented the News At Ten, the Lunchtime News and the ITN News Channel for 14 years to 2001.

Badawi co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow for nearly a decade to 1998 and is currently a presenter on BBC World.

Armstrong was the anchor on ITV Border’s regional news programme Lookaround until the service was merged with ITV Tyne Tees in February this year. She was also a reporter on ITN’s News At Ten in the late eighties and early nineties and later a presenter in BBC World’s breakfast news programme.

So, I wonder if this means a regular news channel slot, or just more relief presenting? I can't quite see at the moment where all 4 of them will fit in, especially Zeinab, who presumably will continue on BBC World as well, as there doesn't really seem any shortage of female presenters on BBC News currently.

Now it's official. BBC News has confirmed that the four will join the News Channel in the New Year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8427992.stm

Possibly the BBC Press Office will put something up giving the full details. One thing I do wonder is whether some of the newer relief presenters (Kaisa Madeira, Sue Thearle, Luisa Baldini, Sophie Long) are going to have to be sidelined to give the new faces regular shifts?

So, I wonder if this means a regular news channel slot, or just more relief presenting? I can't quite see at the moment where all 4 of them will fit in, especially Zeinab, who presumably will continue on BBC World as well, as there doesn't really seem any shortage of female presenters on BBC News currently.

Yeah, I don't get this one. BBC was accused of not having older women and so Thompson decided to look specifically for older women. What happened to simply defending your product?

If it's complaints from viewers however, they're generally dismissed with an arrogant, patronising wave of the hand.

That's true. Points of View and Newswatch are exercises in futility these days.

The only young female presenter I would be sorry to see go from BBC News is Sophie Long. Personally, I don't rate Kasia Madera and I'm not fussed on Rachel Schofield either. However, I hope Carrie Gracie, Jane Hill, Martine Croxhall and Maxine Mawhinney stay put.

It's great to see the likes of Julia Somerville making a return but I hope they're up to presenting on a fast-paced rolling news channel. Julia had experience of the ITN NC but that was hardly as free-flowing as BBC News. And as for Fiona Armstrong, she hasn't had any experience of 24-hour news channels at all. They are a different beast to network bulletins. Carole Walker and Zeinab will be fine, obviously.