Sky News’ Political Correspondent has been on the road in the #LewisLorry travelling to towns and cities up and down the country, talking to voters on the ground.
He took a break from the road to speak to us about his sense of election from outside the London bubble.
Beth Rigby is the stand-out political broadcaster of our times. This is despite the former print journalist having been on our screens for only three years. No one asks the acute, no-nonsense yet empathetic questions like the new political editor of Sky News. And no one does it in her accent.
She drops so many Gs that Rigby dreads party conferences in Birmin’ham. We worked together on the Times, where she was a scoop-winning media editor – and when I saw her first steps on Sky News I knew, as her bosses obviously did, that a star had been born.
Then with the advent of 24-hour news channels and the internet, news became more immediate. The only delay between a story breaking, and you being able to read about it, was the time it took for a journalist to get on the scene and report.
However it ends, the battle royal for the right to own most of the assets of 21st Century Fox, and all of Sky, reflects deep and significant trends in global media. The resolution (in favour of suitors Disney, Comcast or both) may end up being less important than what the outcome tells us about market dynamics.
This battle is about the response of legacy media to accelerating shifts in consumer behaviour and to the threats posed by the big digital disruptors. In a market where content and distribution are increasingly intermingled and global, size unlocks the prize.
Speculation that BBC Two’s Newsnight might be axed was firmly squashed in February, when Sky News head of politics, business and specialist journalism, Esme Wren, was appointed editor of the flagship show.
Doubts about its future had re-emerged last autumn with the introduction of Nick Ferrari and Emma Barnett’s ITV series, After the News, and the announcement that Newsnight editor Ian Katz was leaving for Channel 4 to become its director of programmes.
Helen-Ann successfully pitched the idea of the campaign to Sky's CEO after witnessing the shocking plastic waste on a beach in Bermuda while working as a producer at Sky News.
Breaking News is the proving ground of a newsroom. In a breaking news scenario, all the machinery of the newsroom clicks together to tackle what is happening now, and deliver the events of the day to the audience as they arrive.
“Breaking news is our bread and butter,” explains Dylan Dronfield, Senior News Editor at Sky News. “That’s what Sky News was originally billed as doing.”
The new partnership will support young people (aged 16-17) who are from disadvantaged backgrounds and are interested in a career in journalism, by running an e-mentoring scheme.
The e-mentoring scheme will enable the youngsters to match with industry professionals and allow for a greater scope to find mentee's best suited to them.
Fewer people from poorer backgrounds are entering the industry and it is hoped this partnership will open the door to the next generation of journalists, regardless of their background.
Rigby had a front row seat to the Conservative campaign, as Theresa May’s approval ratings drooped in the aftermath of the controversial social care policy outlined in the Tory manifesto.
On election night in October 1974, the BBC’s anchorman, Alastair Burnet, announced a “welcome new addition” to the presenting team, Sue Lawley.
At least part of the reason for her welcome was that she was the first woman to play an on-screen role in a British election results studio.
Things have moved on, if not at breakneck speed. Emily Maitlis was again booked to be on the BBC’s set on 8 June. And, for the first time, a woman, Mishal Husain, was to play the Robin Day/Jeremy Paxman inquisitor role.
On ITV, Julie Etchingham was due to anchor – but only on day two.
