Newsreaders Pay

This feature on newsreading from The Times is worth a read:

Here is the news: it's not as easy as it looks
Joe Joseph, Grace Bradberry and Jonathan Gornall
So TV news anchors are overpaid for reading an Autocue? Three Times writers tried the job for themselves, and ITV news presenter Nicholas Owen judged them
www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1681346,00.html

Interesting article!

I certainly agree that Michael Buerk is an excellent newsreader. His countenance can be a little unfortunate sometimes; he gives the appearance of smiling, even smirking, which can sit uneasily with a serious story. But otherwise he combines gravitas with clarity and appears trustworthy.

Sir Trevor McDonald... I can see why people like him, but I've gone off ITV news so completely that he's been downgraded in my esteem. It's "tabloid tv" these days, and I'm afraid he goes with that. A superior tabloid perhaps (if the lunchtime news is the Mirror, the 10:30 is ... the Mail? the Express?- hard to see either of those as any good!) ... but not the quality of the BBC or C4.