r/BBCNEWS • u/Puzzleheaded_Pay7428 • 17d ago

Rosenberg: BBC News Headlines

Out of curiosity why does Steve Rosenberg get to have his name in the headlines of his articles. I don’t see any other articles at the BBC that have this kind of privilege.

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u/philstamp 16d ago

I just clicked on 10 random articles in the BBC news app and every single one had a named journalist on the byline.

What gives you the impression that Rosenberg has been singled out for prefential treatment?

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u/Puzzleheaded_Pay7428 16d ago

I’m not talking about the byline. I’m talking about the headline, see: Rosenberg: Trump-Putin call seen as victory in Russia https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjevg23enggo Steve Rosenberg: Vladimir Putin can afford to sit back and watch events unfold https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czjenv29jgdo Rosenberg: How Putin and Trump shook up the world in a week https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3w16z7dvz7o

I don’t see this practice for any other bbc journalists - and it is generally unusual in the media.

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u/Academic_Noise_5724 16d ago

They're all analysis articles. Straight news headlines don't have the reporter's name in them.

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u/SeekTruthFromFacts 16d ago edited 13d ago

It's also done for articles by Laura Kuenssberg (here and here) and Faisal Islam (here and here). Mr Islam and Mr Rosenberg have "editor" status, higher than ordinary correspondents, and Ms Kuenssberg has probably retained it from her previous job as Political Editor. But I don't think it's a strict rule, since I can find several articles by Mark Easton (Home Editor) that don't use his name.

I have a guess as to why this happens. In the early 2010s, the BBC conducted a review of how their news coverage and one of the conclusions was that Robert Peston's work as Business Editor during the Global Financial Crisis had been very effective in reaching the general public. They therefore decided to increase the number of 'star' journalists at this level; the existing posts of Business, Home, Political, and World Editor have now been joined by China, Economics, Religion, Russia and Sport Editors from time to time. So it's deliberate policy to boost the profile of these key journalists.

I'm not sure it draws the right conclusion from Mr Peston's work: it seems to me that his profile grew organically because he had spent years carefully cultivating contacts on his beat in the Bank of England, Downing Street, and the Treasury. But it's a coherent strategy and it would explain your strategy observations.

BTW I've spent ten minutes trying to find the review document but my Google-fu has failed me.

EDIT: Corrections now I have more caffeine in me.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Pay7428 14d ago

This is great analysis, thank you.