How news works now

The BBC, at least internally, has a new route for getting news stories to air. It's a project called "In Plain Sight", set in motion in the days of James Harding. It's being run by Dino Sofos, who explains how it works in a recent blog post.

"We have been running manager-free sessions, where we invite along staff from across the BBC to come and pitch ideas. There are no restrictions. No expectations on people to come up with a ‘peg’. We worry about that later. As long as their story is interesting and reflects a trend that’s happening in Britain then that’s all that matters.

"The stories are developed in the sessions with help of experienced producers and the best ideas are then presented to our Head of Newsgathering, Jonathan Munro and our Mobile / Online Controller, Fiona Campbell.

" Our first In Plain Sight story was about closures of sexual health clinics in England and Wales, and ended up on the Six O’clock News; News At Ten; Newsbeat; Radio 5 Live; Radio 4; our General News Service and of course online and on social media. Other stories from our first sessions include the rise of young British men travelling abroad for cheap hair transplant operations; the impact of unregistered religious and cultural marriages in the UK; and the increasing trend of ‘catfishing’, where people’s identities are stolen on social media."

Dino may be getting closer to one on the list...

@Emincakmak1968 Hi Emin. Dino from @BBCNews. I have a couple of questions about hair transplant tourism in Istanbul. What's the best way to send them to you? Thanks.

— Dino Sofos (@dinosofos) August 2, 2018

Dino might like to try this, from BBC3 in August 2016.