:00:00. > :00:00.to govern for all Indians. Time now for Newswatch and this week, a
:00:00. > :00:12.warhorse of BBC current affairs comes under the spotlight. Hello and
:00:13. > :00:18.welcome to Newswatch with me, Samir Ahmed. Coming up: After to Malta as
:00:19. > :00:26.couple of years for the BBC flagship programme, where next for Newsnight?
:00:27. > :00:31.`` tumultuous couple of years. The editor is here to talk about its
:00:32. > :00:35.mixture of political and international coverage and its
:00:36. > :00:41.future without long serving presenter Jeremy Paxman.
:00:42. > :00:45.Ian took over Newsnight editor last September. In a moment we have the
:00:46. > :00:50.first broadcast interview with him since then but before we talk, here
:00:51. > :00:57.is a reminder of some of the issues he faces on a programme with a long
:00:58. > :01:02.familiar, that back in 1980 the idea familiar, that back in 1980 the idea
:01:03. > :01:05.of mixing news and current affairs, along with an occasional taste for
:01:06. > :01:12.the unexpected and quirky, was radical. Good evening and welcome at
:01:13. > :01:15.last to Newsnight. That has remained through the years, as has its
:01:16. > :01:21.capacity to arouse controversy, but it was the Government accusing Peter
:01:22. > :01:29.Snow of being patriotic in the way the Falklands law was covered, that
:01:30. > :01:34.interview with Michael Howard... Did you threaten to overrule him? Or
:01:35. > :01:38.more recently the highly damaging rows over its failure to broadcast
:01:39. > :01:42.an investigation into Jimmy Savile, following the calamitous error of
:01:43. > :01:49.the McAlpine report which led to the resignation of BBC Director General
:01:50. > :01:54.George Entwistle. Ian was hired a year ago from the Guardian, with a
:01:55. > :02:03.brief to revitalise the programme, which had lost a third of its
:02:04. > :02:11.audience in a year. He revitalised with things like this interview with
:02:12. > :02:15.Russell brand and this dance with Kirsty Wark. But there have been
:02:16. > :02:19.critics of this with out Nelson writing to us about the dumbing down
:02:20. > :02:30.and intellectual castration of Newsnight. And:
:02:31. > :02:35.Audience figures have stabilised but the challenge remains. How can
:02:36. > :02:38.Newsnight provide a distinctive offering which will make it
:02:39. > :02:40.compulsory viewing in a multichannel world with lots of news sources?
:02:41. > :03:02.This point was raised by viewers: One of the programme's raison d'etre
:03:03. > :03:08.has always been its in`depth coverage of politics. The task here
:03:09. > :03:13.is to make the subject compelling, a challenge exposed by Ian's in the
:03:14. > :03:17.mist wheat following this interview with Labour frontbencher Rachel
:03:18. > :03:26.Reeves, who he described as boring snoring. `` Ian's tweet. But viewers
:03:27. > :03:42.also found it revealing: Part of the mix is still lengthy
:03:43. > :03:48.films on serious subjects such as last week's 15 minute report on a
:03:49. > :04:04.slum skyscraper in Venezuela, made by the film`making residence at
:04:05. > :04:06.Newsnight. It also has a team that implies that serious journalism
:04:07. > :04:13.following the Jimmy Savile scandal is back. Jeremy Paxman is leaving
:04:14. > :04:18.next month, so how will the man many regard as the grand Inquisitor be
:04:19. > :04:25.replaced? Ian joins me now. Thank you for coming on Newswatch. When
:04:26. > :04:30.you got the job, Newsnight was in a state of crisis so what have your
:04:31. > :04:32.priorities being? There was an initial task of revitalising the
:04:33. > :04:36.show and bringing back the energy levels. There was a staff of
:04:37. > :04:42.fantastically talented journalists who had been through a tough year or
:04:43. > :04:46.so and just needed the energy and confidence back. That was the first
:04:47. > :04:50.thing. The second was to identify what was the formula for Newsnight
:04:51. > :04:54.that made it for so many years, I think, one of the most wonderful
:04:55. > :04:59.things on television anywhere in the world, and also to work out what was
:05:00. > :05:04.missing in the application of that formula and I think it was the
:05:05. > :05:08.breaking of original news, a classy analysis of the day that has just
:05:09. > :05:12.happened and the day to come, and an air of jeopardy and excitement about
:05:13. > :05:16.what might happen in the live show. Those other things I have worked on
:05:17. > :05:20.bringing back in the last six months or so. Jeopardy is an interesting
:05:21. > :05:24.word when a lot of what you know you are doing about rebuilding trust. I
:05:25. > :05:29.would say it is absolutely the case that when it comes to the reporting
:05:30. > :05:34.that Newsnight does, there was absolutely a task of re`establishing
:05:35. > :05:37.trust after McAlpine and Jimmy Savile. What you want with Newsnight
:05:38. > :05:41.is the sense that something exciting might happen during the live show.
:05:42. > :05:46.You want viewers to think that they might miss something that could
:05:47. > :05:50.happen live tonight that people will talk about later or tomorrow. Can
:05:51. > :05:54.you give me an example of something like that that you think has
:05:55. > :06:01.worked? Things like Matthew Perry arguing about drugs. Friends actor?
:06:02. > :06:05.Yes, arguing with Peter Hitchens, which we all watched with our faces
:06:06. > :06:08.in our hands in the gallery. We thought somebody might dump somebody
:06:09. > :06:16.during the interview. That was one of those moments. `` thump
:06:17. > :06:19.somebody. But also the interview with Terry Pratchett about his
:06:20. > :06:22.Alzheimer's, that was one of the most extraordinary arresting
:06:23. > :06:26.interviews, partly because we were not sure if it would work live.
:06:27. > :06:29.Investigations are back on the agenda and he took on some
:06:30. > :06:35.controversial stories, the Edward Snowden revelations and WikiLeaks.
:06:36. > :06:44.We can't do that at the BBC, can we? I have left the Guardian so I
:06:45. > :06:51.can't speak about that. I think Newsnight is in a fabulous position
:06:52. > :06:55.to tackle complex and controversial investigations. We have hired a team
:06:56. > :07:00.of really strong investigative reporters and we can give them the
:07:01. > :07:06.time and space and support to do difficult investigations. I would
:07:07. > :07:10.hope there is not a subject that we can't investigate. One of the
:07:11. > :07:13.subjects that we got a lot of emails about whether a jokey pay`outs.
:07:14. > :07:17.People can understand the idea of drawing in an audience, but they
:07:18. > :07:21.feel the juxtaposition with a serious story can make them feel
:07:22. > :07:26.uncomfortable. Is there a danger of trying to attract new and younger
:07:27. > :07:32.viewers and alienating the loyal older Newsnight viewers? Not
:07:33. > :07:37.everybody will love everything you do, which is an iron law, and when I
:07:38. > :07:42.look at the Twitter response to an individual Newsnight programme, if
:07:43. > :07:49.the response is running at 70`34 and against, that is broadly right.
:07:50. > :07:52.Humour has always been a strand of the Newsnight identity and it is
:07:53. > :07:56.true that I have tried to dial it up a bit, partly to answer the question
:07:57. > :08:02.of what Newsnight office at the end of this very long cycle, when people
:08:03. > :08:06.have been exposed to hours of news bulletins, and I think a humorous
:08:07. > :08:09.and distinctive take on the day is part of that answer. The key
:08:10. > :08:13.question is really whether it is at the expense of the seriousness of
:08:14. > :08:16.the show and I say emphatically that it isn't. Adding more fun to the
:08:17. > :08:21.show was not the same as dumbing down and you only have to look at
:08:22. > :08:26.our running orders over the last month to see that we are serious as
:08:27. > :08:31.ever. This challenge about how to make political news compelling is
:08:32. > :08:36.critical. That boring snoring comment, some people thought it was
:08:37. > :08:41.revealing that television should be about confrontation and
:08:42. > :08:45.illumination. How do you answer that? I make no apology for trying
:08:46. > :08:51.not to produce a boring show, which is something we try to do every
:08:52. > :08:55.night, or try not to do. There is a really interesting discussion to be
:08:56. > :09:02.had and I hope I have tried to have it about the balance between heat
:09:03. > :09:05.and light in interviewing, particularly political interviewing,
:09:06. > :09:08.and I think it is a really interesting question to ask, whether
:09:09. > :09:13.we have strayed in that balance too far towards the heat. I think what
:09:14. > :09:16.the Rachel Reeves affaire really pointed to was, frankly, an arid
:09:17. > :09:23.state of affairs in political interviewing. A lot of politicians
:09:24. > :09:27.come into a studio and their primary objective is not to move by a
:09:28. > :09:31.millimetre from the line that their party has taken. And we collectively
:09:32. > :09:36.go out to move them by one millimetre from that line. I think
:09:37. > :09:41.there is a moment now when it would be interesting to have a public
:09:42. > :09:45.conversation about how we collectively feel about these
:09:46. > :09:51.encounters, and to ask whether there is a more productive way of doing
:09:52. > :09:54.them, both for viewers and for journalists and politicians. Viewing
:09:55. > :09:58.figures are always going to be brought up and they are not great
:09:59. > :10:02.compared to five years ago, which is a long`term trend. What will you do
:10:03. > :10:07.about that and how far can you expect to reverse the decline? I
:10:08. > :10:12.would be very cheerful about the viewing figures at the moment. As
:10:13. > :10:19.you say, we have seen a 30% or 40% fall in viewing figures over five or
:10:20. > :10:27.six years. If you look at this year, which is really when my what kicked
:10:28. > :10:34.in and my new people arrived on the show, the audiences have been very
:10:35. > :10:38.stable. Two out of three months, we have been up on last year. Jeremy
:10:39. > :10:42.Paxman has been the most dominant face of Newsnight. How are you
:10:43. > :10:46.replacing him? You might have to ask me back to talk about that. You
:10:47. > :10:50.obviously thinking about it now because you know he is going at the
:10:51. > :10:55.end of June. I am thinking about it, that is right, but I cannot give you
:10:56. > :11:01.an answer because I don't have one. We are in an incredibly lucky
:11:02. > :11:04.position by having three strong presenters after Jeremy has gone,
:11:05. > :11:09.all of whom are brilliant at presenting the show. I think there
:11:10. > :11:14.are many other wonderful presenters in the BBC. We are in an incredibly
:11:15. > :11:18.lucky position. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments this
:11:19. > :11:32.week. You can call us with more thoughts on:
:11:33. > :11:43.Join us again next week. Until then, goodbye.
:11:44. > :11:48.In the last few days we have been advertising some very warm weather
:11:49. > :11:59.heading our way for the weekend, which has already arrived. Deadline
:12:00. > :12:00.for the weekend is very warm with fluffy Fairweather clouds. `` the