‘Four white presenters feeling retro’ – is the BBC Today show over? | | Radio

For Radio 4’s Today programme, last week’s big news was on the radio: a BBC News review that the authors of these organizations prioritize platforms such as TikTok and Instagram in the context of TV and radio, including Lero.

The law is helping to “remove Today’s importance from the life of the country. This is a waste of resources plain and simple,” he bubbled in an internal report to the Guardian anonymously. (Though there is a fun media parlor game to guess which presenter’s voice sounds the loudest.)

The apocalyptic wording suggests that this could be the most dire of the show and, by implication, the radio station in BBC story. But one could argue that video-first shows are changing the way news is consumed and how audiences should be fed.

So let’s compare the “chalk v cheese” shouting that Today has always been special – with speakers booked to take the pro and anti line, showing the neutrality of the BBC.

From a position of acceptance of change, it can be said that, as the gathering of stories increases, the social networks of the culture become connected. Today began 69 years ago, before breakfast television existed in Britain and when controversial radio news was regional. Then came morning television and other international radio stations – first from the unsustainable 5 Live Breakfast and then from London-based LBC which spread across the UK and acquired Nick Ferrari’s muesli hour star. This has resulted in a gradual decline in Today’s audience to around 800,000 listeners per day. (Ahead of Ferrari’s 300,000, but the numbers are rising, while 5 Live’s 200,000 has also gone up.) Finally, re-regulating the power of the mail and the BBC listening to the TikTok news. And, somehow, Lero has been lucky: Radio 4’s The World Tonighta less expensive but equally respectable franchise, disappearing into the folds.

The other side would argue: look, friend, we are the Today show! The speaker can repeat the example used by the secret Guardian – after the “death of Putin”, breakfast. Radio 4 The film may not get first dibs on BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg because he is busy taking calls.

Showing the arrogance that the Today program sometimes enjoys – meaning the world has to hear the first story about the demise of the Russian president Radio 4 for breakfast, assuming he died in 3 hours – this example also shows the dissonance between the old and new waves of BBC journalism.

The source of the fear that Today may not have tomorrow is that BBC News is often confused when the director general is not a journalist. It was doubtful Tim Davie (2020-2026), whose background was in advertising, and added this doubt to the current DG, Matt Brittindirector of operations and marketing (although the great journalists – Alasdair Milne, George Entwistle, Tony Hall – may not always be among the leaders.)

With Brittin, another problem is that he has previously worked at Google, one of the digital empires that is considered to be the BBC’s successor. So his selection as DG is viewed by the most conservative media insiders as Darth Vader joining the Jedi.

But this re-digitalization is inevitable because the consumption of news is changing – which is the bad news of Today. Because major events will take place in 21 hours Today is not available on air, the future is for fast-moving news feeds. Perhaps the reason for the speaker’s change in our story today is that the show’s new editor, Rebecca Keating, says she wants to encourage chitchat between presenters who may be cut off from social media.

Apart from all this, the show has its own internal problems. These days are always built around duos – Brian Redhead and John Timpson, John Humphrys and Sue MacGregor, Mishal Hussain and Justin Webb.

After the preparation departure from Amol Rajana group of guests will be seen, in some savings, falling from five to four: Nick Robinson, Justin Webb, Emma Barnett and Anna Foster. Of these, Robinson and Barnett understandably seem to be finding it difficult to share a studio, while only the pairing of Webb and Foster feels like they’re equal. And, if BBC News is as future-proof as the TikTok tweak suggests, two white men and two white women on Today are feeling retro. Perhaps the best move now would have been to lure Husain – a devastating loss for BBC bosses – from his lucrative job at Bloomberg.

Whatever happens, Today has bigger problems – LBC, 5 Live, its show wars – than who comes first on Steve Rosenberg’s future series.