ITV News

Why shame its ITV?
Surely a talented journalist like what Laura is would thrive in a new challenging position reporting major Business and Economics stories. I for one would watch with interest how well she does when she starts working at ITN in September.

Because Laura is a very good journalist, and ITV News is (at the moment) deep down in the pits in terms of editorial quality. Not the fault of ITN but of the suits at ITV.

I agree with Nicky.

If she was joining Channel 4 News, I wouldn't have that reaction. But right now there seems little going for ITV News except some of its personnel, who in my opinion would be better suited to other organisations. I now include Laura in this category.

Agreed, there's a bit of a fine line between the two roles, but the BBC seems to do okay with both - Robert Peston (Business Ed) and Stephanie Flanders (Economics Ed).

Maybe Laura Kuenssberg will help to pull ITV News out of the editorial doldrums.

Its easy to dismiss that she may have done it for clever career progression. At the BBC she is way down the pecking order and would have to get past all of the editors, then the many news channel staff (both regular and relief) before you even get to those who regularly present on BBC1. At ITV, its very easy to move up and being an editor already puts her quite near the top. That means some form of presenting role will crop up sooner or later which may be what shes aiming for, and if shes recieved well she could become more permanent. Also just because shes a political correspondent doesn't mean she wants to stay as one.

I've no idea who she is, but whatever happens it's probably a good move on her part. She'll either work her way up to a senior position (Political Editor, or presenter if that's where she aspires to be) at ITV News, or ultimately raised her profile enough to return to the BBC in a more senior capacity as Nick Robinson did.

The BBC and ITV have a long history of trading faces in the newsroom.

I very much doubt Laura's career objectives at this time are to do with presenting BBC 1 bulletins. I'd imagine the goal would be Political Editor - something the likes of Jon Sopel have admitted in interviews would be a great job to move to (Jon of course having a weekly BBC 1 show and having appeared numerous times on BBC 1/2 output). It's more the fact that Business Editor at ITV News is a bigger, more prestigious role than political correspondent at the BBC (remember she's only titled 'Chief Political Correspondent' when on the NC, not on national bulletins). Though I imagine she'd still like to return to the beeb in the future - Nick Robinson commented recently on air about how much better it is to work for the BBC than a smaller news organisation.

You can never say what is and what isn't anyones career objectives, but she could have aspirations to become a newscaster at some point (most journalists do) and that is easier done at ITV than the BBC. She'll also make appearances on Tonight as well as being en editor, so she does have a much better job offer and I assume she'll be on much better pay which is always the bottom line for a new job. Saying she should stay at the BBC because there is an interesting 12 months in politics coming up is just stupid.

Did he say why?

Something about it being a bigger organisation with better resources, and so being senior on air staff at such an organisation was impressive. Presumably this also goes to explain why Nick would move from ITV to the BBC to do the same job, other than any other perks (such as salary). He made similar comments when Craig Oliver joined Downing Street - commenting on how it meant so much for someone to be working for the BBC over other places. His comments weren't snobbish or critical of other organisations, just making an objective (or as objective as can be) comment about the BBC.

New 24 hour online service from ITV News to launch on mobile, tablet and PC in December. It's being run by Julian March who joined from Sky a few months ago.


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