[Kojak]

What was wrong with having an automated ticker? I know the headlines on it were generally a bit dodgy, but that could have been easily rectified - just scrape the first paragraph from each article on the website, rather than the headlines.

Certainly, there must be a way of giving each web article an alt-headline that works for the ticker and then have the ticker automatically cycle through the ones on the home page. No need to actually involve anyone, you could even bulk it up with automated things like market data, etc.

Even if they genuinely believe that it is of no use to mobile phone viewers (who must surely be a clear minority of viewers), it just seems odd to just remove a service that can be done pretty much entirely via automation and which does have some value. (Though I do realise that this is far from the first decision within this transition that has made me go 'just seems odd to...').

I'm not sure they even need to do that - let's take a look at the first sentences from some of today's front page stories:


[*]S Club 7 star Paul Cattermole has died at the age of 46, weeks after the band announced a comeback tour.
[*]The firm that audits the SNP's finances has resigned, the BBC has learned.
[*]US journalist Evan Gershkovich has been formally charged with spying in Russia, according to local media.
[*]US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has said he believed luxury trips taken with a billionaire Republican donor followed guidelines.
[*]Broadway star Laura Benanti has said she performed on stage earlier this week while having a miscarriage.


I don't think any of those would look out of place on a ticker. The text is there - all that needs to be done is for some code to be written that scrapes that first sentence from each article and load it onto the ticker system. Once the code is written, it's there, so it's not as if it would be an ongoing cost.

It's small, simple things like this that can be so easily rectified with just a little creativity, yet put together they make a big difference to the quality of the channel. Tin foil hat on for a second - part of me does wonder if there is some sabotage going on, at all levels, to force some sort of rethink. Probably not, but then stranger things have happened...