SN
From the Indie
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5562/natashafivenewsge1.jpg
EDIT: I love the sofa, not too sure about the background though, but you can't really see it anyway.
Despite what the article days, I still think that she looks pretty informal, it's hardly a propoer trouser suit really.
Quote:
It's a dilemma. You hire a presenter on £1m-a-year and want to make a big splash about it. But this is not a chat show you are making here – it's a news bulletin.
So a Five News poster campaign featuring Natasha Kaplinsky with the slogan "News with Personality", alongside a huge shot of the host wearing jeans, has created something of a presentational problem for the presenter. The all-new Five News, she insists, is not the Natasha Kaplinsky Show.
"It's exceedingly boring to hear that I'm having a new haircut or that I'm wearing this or that," she says. "You know what? I'm coming here to do a job and I really think the attention that is being showered over what I'm going to look like is irrelevant, frankly. I hope I'll look smart, but if people start noticing my clothes too much it's detracting from the stories. I'm not here to be a fashion show, I'm here to be a news presenter. The clothes are incidental and so's the hair, let me tell you."
Her editor, David Kermode, appears equally irritated by the distraction of the chatter over Kaplinsky in denim. "The personality thing is a marketing slogan. In terms of a news programme, Natasha would have no desire to have her personality stamped all over the news and I have no desire for anybody's personality to be stamped all over the news, either."
Yet as the pair reveal the look of their new studio, they both acknowledge that, even in the news arena, appearance counts for a great deal ("This is television at the end of the day," Kermode points out). So when Kaplinsky hosts the first edition of the new-look bulletin this evening, she will not be perched on a desk, like the original Five News presenter Kirsty Young, but on something more luxurious.
"The sofa is a modern chaise longue in a deep magenta colour, which looks a bit funky but is also serious," says Kermode. "The back descends as it goes along, which gives it elegance. It looks, and in fact is, a really expensive piece of bespoke furniture."
As a former host of the BBC's Breakfast, Kaplinsky has presented the news from sofas before, but says she is conscious of entering new territory. "There's a completely different atmosphere here at Five. I completely adored working at the BBC and I hope one day I'll go back there but, for the time being, this is a really young, exciting, vibrant, enthusiastic place to be," she says.
"We are not pretending that we are BBC news – that's the whole point about it. We are going for something different and at the moment across the board, news programmes are haemorrhaging viewers. Attracting younger viewers towards news is really key to us."
When Five News began, back in 1997, it quickly won a reputation for looking differently from the more established bulletins. It was fast, accessible and fresh. But with this re-launch the big gimmick is: there is no gimmick.
"The big screens and plasmas that have become ubiquitous in TV news now, the 'my screen is bigger than your screen' that I always refer to as industry willy-waving, well, we are not going to play that game," says Kermode. "The theatre of news has closed its doors as far as I'm concerned, and people prancing around in virtual environments with huge stonking great screens have gone. For us, anyway."
He has chosen a simple colour scheme that combines a dark "inky" blue with an "electric" shade of similar hue. "I've always been in no doubt that blue is the best colour for news. It's the best colour to make people look good, too."
Kaplinsky, 35, a former presenter of the BBC's Six O'Clock News who broadened her constituency by appearing on and winning Strictly Come Dancing, which led to her being dubbed "Spangles" by colleagues, is happy working in "just a straightforward set". "[It will] give people a different experience of news, where you don't have to be wowed by all the gimmicks; you can just sit. People can enjoy watching a news programme without feeling stupid at the end of it. I hope the set provides that warmth and is inviting."
Five News will achieve standout in more subtle ways, through a broad mix of stories and a sense of informality conveyed through use of language. Kaplinsky will have a dedicated script-writer, Richard Zackheim, who formerly worked at the BBC and ITN. Kermode describes the writing style as "consistent, informal, direct and just really grabby".
The presenter, after some practice sessions, is delighted with the pacy approach. "I have been amazingly impressed. I had a session yesterday with the writers. Every journalist always hopes to write neat, tight scripts without any wasted words, and my word – I have been so impressed with these scripts, it's just really smart writing."
Kermode and his team have lined up some "high-profile, really good and expensive investigations" for the week of re-launch, though he is wary of overdoing the number of ready-made packages.
"I don't want to just present the viewing public with 'Here's one we prepared earlier', because it's a news programme."
He points out that Five News has a strong track record and is shortlisted with the BBC's Ten O'Clock News and the ITV early-evening bulletin in the news programme category of Wednesday evening's Royal Television Society television journalism awards. "You don't get that for froth – you get that for good, strong, serious investigative journalism and there'll be plenty more of that."
He is even more confident now that he has a new presenter "with natural authority" in place. "She has a really warm, empathetic interviewing style, which puts people at ease. And, though she'll be embarrassed by this, she's hugely striking as well and that's incredibly important," he says, reiterating that "it's television at the end of the day".
Kaplinsky emphasises again that she will not be seeking to force the imprint of her personality on the bulletins, which go out at 5pm and 7pm. "I'll bring what I've always hoped to bring to news, besides being a vessel of information – some warmth, empathy, a bit of humour and a very small sprinkling of sparkle at the end to the programme."
She later heads off to have her first publicity shots in her new gimmick-free studio. This time she leaves the jeans in the wardrobe and selects instead a sober, black trouser-suit.
So a Five News poster campaign featuring Natasha Kaplinsky with the slogan "News with Personality", alongside a huge shot of the host wearing jeans, has created something of a presentational problem for the presenter. The all-new Five News, she insists, is not the Natasha Kaplinsky Show.
"It's exceedingly boring to hear that I'm having a new haircut or that I'm wearing this or that," she says. "You know what? I'm coming here to do a job and I really think the attention that is being showered over what I'm going to look like is irrelevant, frankly. I hope I'll look smart, but if people start noticing my clothes too much it's detracting from the stories. I'm not here to be a fashion show, I'm here to be a news presenter. The clothes are incidental and so's the hair, let me tell you."
Her editor, David Kermode, appears equally irritated by the distraction of the chatter over Kaplinsky in denim. "The personality thing is a marketing slogan. In terms of a news programme, Natasha would have no desire to have her personality stamped all over the news and I have no desire for anybody's personality to be stamped all over the news, either."
Yet as the pair reveal the look of their new studio, they both acknowledge that, even in the news arena, appearance counts for a great deal ("This is television at the end of the day," Kermode points out). So when Kaplinsky hosts the first edition of the new-look bulletin this evening, she will not be perched on a desk, like the original Five News presenter Kirsty Young, but on something more luxurious.
"The sofa is a modern chaise longue in a deep magenta colour, which looks a bit funky but is also serious," says Kermode. "The back descends as it goes along, which gives it elegance. It looks, and in fact is, a really expensive piece of bespoke furniture."
As a former host of the BBC's Breakfast, Kaplinsky has presented the news from sofas before, but says she is conscious of entering new territory. "There's a completely different atmosphere here at Five. I completely adored working at the BBC and I hope one day I'll go back there but, for the time being, this is a really young, exciting, vibrant, enthusiastic place to be," she says.
"We are not pretending that we are BBC news – that's the whole point about it. We are going for something different and at the moment across the board, news programmes are haemorrhaging viewers. Attracting younger viewers towards news is really key to us."
When Five News began, back in 1997, it quickly won a reputation for looking differently from the more established bulletins. It was fast, accessible and fresh. But with this re-launch the big gimmick is: there is no gimmick.
"The big screens and plasmas that have become ubiquitous in TV news now, the 'my screen is bigger than your screen' that I always refer to as industry willy-waving, well, we are not going to play that game," says Kermode. "The theatre of news has closed its doors as far as I'm concerned, and people prancing around in virtual environments with huge stonking great screens have gone. For us, anyway."
He has chosen a simple colour scheme that combines a dark "inky" blue with an "electric" shade of similar hue. "I've always been in no doubt that blue is the best colour for news. It's the best colour to make people look good, too."
Kaplinsky, 35, a former presenter of the BBC's Six O'Clock News who broadened her constituency by appearing on and winning Strictly Come Dancing, which led to her being dubbed "Spangles" by colleagues, is happy working in "just a straightforward set". "[It will] give people a different experience of news, where you don't have to be wowed by all the gimmicks; you can just sit. People can enjoy watching a news programme without feeling stupid at the end of it. I hope the set provides that warmth and is inviting."
Five News will achieve standout in more subtle ways, through a broad mix of stories and a sense of informality conveyed through use of language. Kaplinsky will have a dedicated script-writer, Richard Zackheim, who formerly worked at the BBC and ITN. Kermode describes the writing style as "consistent, informal, direct and just really grabby".
The presenter, after some practice sessions, is delighted with the pacy approach. "I have been amazingly impressed. I had a session yesterday with the writers. Every journalist always hopes to write neat, tight scripts without any wasted words, and my word – I have been so impressed with these scripts, it's just really smart writing."
Kermode and his team have lined up some "high-profile, really good and expensive investigations" for the week of re-launch, though he is wary of overdoing the number of ready-made packages.
"I don't want to just present the viewing public with 'Here's one we prepared earlier', because it's a news programme."
He points out that Five News has a strong track record and is shortlisted with the BBC's Ten O'Clock News and the ITV early-evening bulletin in the news programme category of Wednesday evening's Royal Television Society television journalism awards. "You don't get that for froth – you get that for good, strong, serious investigative journalism and there'll be plenty more of that."
He is even more confident now that he has a new presenter "with natural authority" in place. "She has a really warm, empathetic interviewing style, which puts people at ease. And, though she'll be embarrassed by this, she's hugely striking as well and that's incredibly important," he says, reiterating that "it's television at the end of the day".
Kaplinsky emphasises again that she will not be seeking to force the imprint of her personality on the bulletins, which go out at 5pm and 7pm. "I'll bring what I've always hoped to bring to news, besides being a vessel of information – some warmth, empathy, a bit of humour and a very small sprinkling of sparkle at the end to the programme."
She later heads off to have her first publicity shots in her new gimmick-free studio. This time she leaves the jeans in the wardrobe and selects instead a sober, black trouser-suit.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5562/natashafivenewsge1.jpg
EDIT: I love the sofa, not too sure about the background though, but you can't really see it anyway.
Despite what the article days, I still think that she looks pretty informal, it's hardly a propoer trouser suit really.
It does look good though.
