[Omnipresent]

Apart from occasionally having guests in the studio from the region, it's pointless sending C4 News presenters to Leeds.

There were reports C4 was looking to recruit a permanent presenter for the Leeds studio, but nothing has evidently come from it.

This doesn't directly affect C4 News but there was been speculation with more C4 staff being based out of London, they may sell their Horseferry Road HQ.

[Newsroom]

Has anyone ever asked what benefit there is to Channel 4 News that it comes from both Leeds and London? I've been watching recently and can't quite fathom the benefits.

Regardless of the fact that C4's HQ is in Leeds, which the average viewer couldn't give two shoots about - what is the point?

The short answer is politics.

The longer answer is it was an attempt to prevent the government from putting it up for sale, by claiming coming partly from Leeds was in line with the government's leveling up agenda.

Reality is it's essentially a fairly pointless, but presumably expensive gimmick.

Among other things I think it was seeing Cathy Newman bouncing between studios that promoted me to ask the question. 

Also I don't think it's that often we see that many guests in the Leeds studio. 

And let's not forget the health/strike special just recently that was live in Leeds yet was utterly pointless. One key guest was down the line from Grays Inn Road and the other travelled from London to Leeds for the programme. 

Nonsensical.

[Steve in Pudsey]

Although quite handy when GIR had its power meltdown a little while ago

[m_in_m]

Over time as more of the production team, and if they recruit a northern based presenter, it should shape the programme to be a bit more representative and reduce the London focus. It is a change that the results of would be seen long term.

[Brekkie]

Over time as more of the production team, and if they recruit a northern based presenter, it should shape the programme to be a bit more representative and reduce the London focus. It is a change that the results of would be seen long term.

In that regard though have we really seen any major change over the last decade of BBC Breakfast and sport coming from Salford?

[m_in_m]

Over time as more of the production team, and if they recruit a northern based presenter, it should shape the programme to be a bit more representative and reduce the London focus. It is a change that the results of would be seen long term.

In that regard though have we really seen any major change over the last decade of BBC Breakfast and sport coming from Salford?

I would suggest yes. Certainly Breakfast demonstrates better representation of northern voices than it did based in London. 

I think Sport has similarly but it is harder to tell given they appear to have less sports news output than when they moved.

[all new phil]

Has anyone ever asked what benefit there is to Channel 4 News that it comes from both Leeds and London? I've been watching recently and can't quite fathom the benefits.

Regardless of the fact that C4's HQ is in Leeds, which the average viewer couldn't give two shoots about - what is the point?

The short answer is politics.

The longer answer is it was an attempt to prevent the government from putting it up for sale, by claiming coming partly from Leeds was in line with the government's leveling up agenda.

Reality is it's essentially a fairly pointless, but presumably expensive gimmick.

Well, not really. You’re falling into the trap of assuming that all that is based there is what you see on screen for a start. It isn’t “politics” for creative opportunities to be available somewhere other than London.

[Matrix]

The short answer is politics.

The longer answer is it was an attempt to prevent the government from putting it up for sale, by claiming coming partly from Leeds was in line with the government's leveling up agenda.

Reality is it's essentially a fairly pointless, but presumably expensive gimmick.

Among other things I think it was seeing Cathy Newman bouncing between studios that promoted me to ask the question. 

Also I don't think it's that often we see that many guests in the Leeds studio. 

And let's not forget the health/strike special just recently that was live in Leeds yet was utterly pointless. One key guest was down the line from Grays Inn Road and the other travelled from London to Leeds for the programme. 

Nonsensical.

I feel like I'm going to bat back again for 'the regions'--and I completely understand the summation that it is nonsensical--but just to put the argument: Channel 4, like others, cough Newsnight, shouldn't solely be anchored from London. There is a wealth of stories and issues which should (arguably they need to focus more on this) come from right across the UK. 

For my two pence, I quite like seeing places other than London shown on screen. It gives a sense that not everything happens in London, nor should it.

[Brekkie]

The studio base and the reporting aren't the same thing too - C4 News was already pretty good at covering stories outside London - indeed I think it was part of their remit. Newsnight historically has been more politically and internationally focused so a different beast really. Not sure if they've continued with their occassional venture out of London but when they and the BBC News at 10 do so based on their own agenda rather than the news agenda it feels like it's for their benefit rather than the viewers benefit.

[DTV]

I'd agree that the BBC's ventures outside of London have always felt rather forced - the problem is that the dates have clearly been decided based on nothing other than 'we're going out of London on those days'. I know that it is not possible to be wholly reactive in where the news is coming from, but there are more than enough pre-planned events (or at least news stories with a few days of warning) that doing non-London based bulletins could actually feel like it has some purpose to it, rather than simply being quota-fulfilling.

Also, from a presentational perspective, the fact that the BBC's sojourns have either come from odd standing positions or incredibly cheap-looking makeshift sets has just made it look half-hearted. The rollout of these national-quality sets in the regions with sykline backdrops could actually provide an opportunity here - on a pre-planned event day (e.g. a party conference in Birmingham) you could have the 'BBC News at Six from our studio in Birmingham'.

Anyway, getting a bit sidetracked - as others have said, I do think it's important for out of London news programming to be either habitual (and demonstrated in the reporting) or actually relevant to the content of the programme (otherwise it just feels box-ticky).