As Adam Boulton and Jon Snow step down from Sky and C4, what is the future of the TV host in a world of 24-hour news?
News broadcasting on television once meant a desk and an obligatory suit and tie. And even when female news anchors became as commonplace a sight on Britain’s prime-time bulletins as the sombre, clean-shaven men, the way to imply authority and impartiality was always to adopt a calm, formal tone of voice.
But with the departure this month of two of the great silverbacks of the news jungle, Channel 4’s Jon Snow and Sky News’s Adam Boulton, the future of the unflappable “voice of news”, coming out from above a sheaf of shuffled papers, is in doubt. A former generation of male titans, ranging from Richard Baker, Alastair Burnet and Reginald Bosanquet, to more recent stars such as Trevor McDonald and Jeremy Paxman, are no longer handling our headlines. And recently Huw Edwards-watchers have suggested the Welsh journalist may also be preparing to leave his prominent role at BBC News.
