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Could you read the news?
Neil Smith
BBC News entertainment reporter
Andrew Marr, the BBC's outgoing political editor, controversially suggested this week that newsreaders are paid too much money for merely "reading an autocue".
His comments were supported by John Humphrys, host of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, who said reading the news "isn't work" and "requires no brain".
Are newsreaders overpaid for doing a very simple job? Or is reading the news a demanding and highly specialised skill?
When asked for his opinion, former BBC correspondent Michael Cole is unequivocal.
"If it's done well it looks very simple," he told the BBC News website. "If it's done badly everyone can tell."
"It's an easy thing to snipe at, but a good news presenter is worth his or her weight in gold."
Perceived value
In some cases, this comment can almost be taken literally.
Sir Trevor McDonald earns a reported salary of £600,000 a year for presenting ITV's late evening news bulletin four times a week.
Five's Kirsty Young earns a reported £500,000 a year, while even relative newcomers like the BBC's Darren Jordon and ITV's Katie Derham can command wages upwards of £100,000 per annum.
But Conor Dignam, editor of industry newspaper Broadcast, says these figures merely reflect their perceived value in the marketplace.
"Their salaries seem quite big compared to other journalists or correspondents, but ultimately the market decides," he told the BBC News website.
Authority and presence
"That's what broadcasters are prepared to fork out for them, so they're not going to take any less."
Mr Dignam also rejects Mr Humphrys' suggestion that anyone - even the newsman's four-year-old son Owen - could capably fill their role.
"I don't think it is a job anyone can do," he says. "It's about authority, credibility and presence.
"If it was a job anyone can do, they wouldn't be paying them these huge sums of money."
Mr Dignam's comments are echoed by Nigel Charters, managing editor of BBC TV News.
"Anyone can be trained to read an autocue, but to present a news bulletin you have to know what you're talking about," he told the BBC News website.
He also suggests that Andrew Marr was being "deliberately provocative" in his comments on what he describes as "a tricky and demanding job".
"People in this field need to have a long and thorough journalistic pedigree," he said.
"By and large, 'newbies' don't cut the mustard."
'Patrician'
Mr Cole, now a public relations and image consultant, observes that in America such veteran anchormen as Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather have become "arbiters of the life of the nation".
Broadcasters in the UK have reflected this gender bias, frequently pairing older male presenters with younger female ones.
Mr Dignam, however, believes things are gradually changing.
"The men do tend to be more middle-aged, but the overall profile of newsreaders has become younger," he explains.
"The drive has been to make them more viewer-friendly than the more patrician days of the 1950s."
That said, he admits physical appearance still plays an important role.
"Unattractive broadcasters don't make it as newsreaders," he says. "There is still an element of the beauty parade about it."
