Three decades ago, the BBC green room set aside for guests waiting to appear on Newsnight was regularly graced by cabinet ministers, primed and eager to respond to a late-night parliamentary development.
The challenge of settling into that hot seat facing Jeremy Paxman was also a rite of passage for an aspiring opposition politician. What’s more, the show’s filmed reports from foreign shores repeatedly punched through the news agenda with fresh perspectives, just as its in-house investigative unit held its own with current affairs documentaries.
But for some former fans of Newsnight, the time has come to bury the show, not to praise it. This weekend, the BBC’s increasingly centralised team of news reporters is nervously awaiting the diagnosis. Will the flagship late-night news analysis show on BBC Two live to fight another day, or is it to be fatally wounded by £5m cuts to its £8m budget?
Last month, not only did its editor, Stewart Maclean, quit after two years to become Africa bureau chief for the BBC in Nairobi, but Kirsty Wark, the most distinguished remaining presenter, announced she will step down after the next general election. Threatened further slashes to the programme’s on-air editing team has left many staff fearing it will suffer a slow, painful and public demise.
With viewing figures down to 300,000, even some of the BBC’s supporters are calling for its swift dispatch or radical reimagining. “It was brilliant in its heyday but it is probably better to take it to Switzerland for a kindly ending rather than to watch it die on air with such a small budget,” said Dorothy Byrne, the former head of news and current affairs at Channel 4. “If it turns into a group of guests gassing at 11 o’clock, it is going to be pointless. I can’t see why viewing figures would not drop even more.”
Both Byrne and TV journalist Adam Boulton, another big name in British news during his tenure as political editor at Sky News, are keen to stress that several of the problems facing Newsnight are industry-wide.
“The advent of rolling news has shortened the news day for journalists,” said Boulton. “When I was on breakfast TV, we used to wait for the 10 o’clock news and Newsnight to set the agenda for the following day; now technology allows a story to be turned around quickly to get it out there. Parliament is also no longer debating late into the night.”
Boulton recalled noting the growing reticence among major politicians to appear on Newsnight, especially if they had been bitten before by an unexpected line of questioning. “Politicians no longer come on TV to hold themselves to account,” agreed Byrne, “and Channel 4 News has challenged Newsnight’s role.
“But if the BBC is now murdering one of its most famous brands just to save around £5m, actually a small amount for the BBC to find, you have to wonder why. I don’t feel it is right for a public organisation to make a significant decision like that, one that potentially impacts democracy, without any debate.”
A former editor of the show, Peter Barron, recalled how coverage of late votes in the House of Commons once benefited Newsnight before the reform of the parliamentary timetable, and how cabinet heavyweights like Kenneth Clarke and Norman Lamont were once regulars on the show. He also pointed to the huge growth in competition for viewers’ attention, not just from news but from streaming service shows. “There was a time when people who read a newspaper and listened to the Today programme in the morning then caught up on Newsnight at the end of the evening. But today the conversation has already happened on Twitter – although there is clearly still a big appetite for intelligent political discussion, as we see from the popularity of podcasts.”
Newsnight was launched in 1980 by journalist George Carey, regarded by Byrne as one of television’s greats, and it developed a distinctive, sophisticated tone. Early presenting stars such as John Tusa, Peter Snow and Donald MacCormick quickly gave it an enduring, insider-type appeal.
Occasionally it made the news as well as explaining it. Controversies have included the former editor Peter Rippon’s fateful decision not to screen an investigation into Jimmy Savile put together in 2011 by journalists Meirion Jones and the late Liz MacKean. The programme also faced criticism when presenter Emily Maitlis, who has left the BBC to podcast with Global, was judged to have shown bias in her opening monologue about Dominic Cummings’s trip to Barnard Castle three years ago.
Now, with its team of eight dedicated reporters jeopardised and its reported films likely to be replaced by more studio debates and interviews, the further shrinking of Newsnight could signpost a drastic re-evaluation of the licence fee once the BBC’s royal charter is up for renewal in 2027.
UK news services have already lost 30% of their resources following cuts imposed under the Conservative government, and last year the licence fee was frozen until the spring, making extra savings of £285m a year necessary.
Now Boulton sees a clear choice ahead for news bosses in light of “long-term underinvestment in Newsnight”. They must, he believes, work out what the show can offer that is distinct after the loss of “its excellent roster of film-making reporters”. The departure two years ago of programme editor Esme Wren, who presided over the notorious interview given by Prince Andrew in 2019 and left to run Channel 4 News, was, he argues, “perhaps the beginning of the end”.
Byrne, now principal of Cambridge University’s Murray Edwards College, suspects the only life raft for Newsnight may be the signing-up of a charismatic presenter – “a big personality. Someone you want to see politicians sparring with and who they might fancy facing. There was a certain cachet to Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark.
“It would be awful for it to become a talking shop – I can turn on Radio 4 or a podcast for that. The Newsnight name is a recognised brand, so keep that and reinvent it. Otherwise take it to Switzerland now.”
