I'm not sure what's propelled the idea of closing Newsnight into our newspapers in recent days. It maybe the alignment of the stars; total shutdown was contemplated previously in 2018 and 2020.
Interim News boss Jonathan Munro has yet to complete his savings target. Will a new boss arrive before the axe is swung ? Might that new boss be Esmé Wren, currently at Channel 4 News, who started her journalistic career at Newsnight, and was editor and successfully passionate programme defender from 2018 to 2021 ? Esme has found time at C4 to complete the senior management programme at the Cambridge Judge Business School.
It's almost as if there's been a long-term plan to kill off Newsnight. First, cut its length by one-third and sack half the staff. No more investigations, they're too risky. Just half an hour of political talking heads kicking over the day's news agenda, what could go wrong? What indeed? The new format has seen Victoria Derbyshire doing possibly her best work ever, some of it on TikTok - y'know, wot the kids all watch - and Newsnight's viewing figures climb by about 30 percent. Dammit, that doesn't fit the plan. Face it, the Beeb has been drawing in its news horns for the last 15 years. There's no radio rolling news station any more (please, no-one argue 5 Live still fills that brief) and no domestic rolling news channel either (if you tune to 231 on your telly, you're watching BBC World now, with trailers when the ads go out abroad). That process was politically driven (Royal Charters and BBC governance pushed rudely aside) and, er, still is.
ReplyDeleteI'd be amazed if Esme Wren even applied for the job. Who wants to drive a Rolls-Royce when its tyres have been slashed and someone's nicked the Silver Lady off the front? Oh, and there's a bloke in the back seat telling you where you can and can't go.
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