BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

Sainsbury's

I think I saw a tweet saying he was going to Al Jazeera in Doha.

That would not be a surprise.

James has explained it nicely. I guess the problem is, in the previous decade and up until a few years ago World had 90% of presenters who were experienced, well known old timers. Over the years some of them retired but were replaced with equally good and experienced pros. But then, in the last 2 years or so, you have this big rush of presenters leaving or being moved to other BBC jobs leaving a huge gap in the line-up.

So now you have 50% of good, experienced presenters and 50% of new ones who are still learning and almost training. Last night a woman I never saw before presented WNT. With Dobbie out, weekends are now completely in hands of former regional presenters. How do you go directly from regional news to international news network? Or from nothing to int news? Shouldn't there be something in the middle?

Again, I'm not saying all the new, younger presenters are terrible or even bad, it's just that they can't measure up to the type of presenter World got its viewers used to.

Well, Peter Dobbie has gone and one other weekend "presenter" is also going!

So, it leaves an even smaller pool of good/bad presenters to choose from.

Personally, given the cutbacks at the news channel of late, I wouldn't be surprised to see Tim Willcox appearing more on World at weekends. Another one to look out for is Ben Bland, who is presently on loan from one of the regions. Ben has proven himself to be a very capable presenter on World. I would like to see him being given the chance of a permanent assignment on World at weekends.

Alice Baxter, James Menendez, Alpa Patel, Tim and David Eades will probably be the weekend complement for some time, until permanent decisions are made.

One thing I've always advocated is more simulcasting with NC at the weekends. Maxine in Studio C could more than adequately deliver news domestically and internationally, being a known face on both outlets and - importantly for the BBC - reduces costs by having a partially shared news service at weekends.

Due to the Breakfast coverage on domestic, such sharing would only be logical for the daytime mid shifts on both channels, as opposed to early mornings or late evenings.

I hope Tim gets a permanent weekend slot. He's done them often recently.

Im starting to get sick to death of these cut backs, and who is every running this department needs shot. This is one department where money does need to be spent or better. Short staffed etc mind you we had the delights of good pairings. Since August there has been no fixed rota for the news channel with anyone turning up here and there. I also think BBC world needs to buck up its ideas.

Incitement to murder...you heard it here first!

Does it really matter who presents when?

Have you mist some of the above posts about bad presenters? I also think your mist the boat here.

Ben Brown presenting the news channel just now! Saturday night backshift, the mighty have fallen!

With Ben Thompson and Steph McGovern away, the biz team have been shuffled about.

Victoria Fritz is up in Salford doing Breakfast biz updates.
Susannah Streeter is on Business Live and AM NC updates.