What’s going on at the Today programme?

For years the Today programme has been the flagship news programme on Radio 4. Since it was launched in 1957, almost seventy years ago, the programme has had some famous presenters including Jack de Manio (1958-71), John Timpson (1964, 1970–1976, 1978–1986), Brian Redhead (1975–1993), Peter Hobday (1983–1996), and more recently, Sue MacGregor (1984–2002), James Naughtie (1994–2015), Sarah Montague (2001–2018), John Humphrys (1987–2019).

Among the current presenters, the two veterans are Justin Webb (2009-) and Nick Robinson (2015-) and the three most recent appointments are Amol Rajan (2021-), Emma Barnett (2024-) and Anna Foster (2025-).

Over the years there has been some much coming and going of presenters but in the last ten years or so there has been more instability than usual. Since 2014 six presenters have left (Evan Davis in 2014, Jim Naughtie in 2015, Sarah Montague in 2018, John Humphrys in 2019, Martha Kearney and Mishal Husain both in 2024). Now Amol Rajan will be the 7^th to leave.

There are two striking features here. First, why so much upheaval recently? And, second, in the past when presenters left the Today programme, they either retired or moved elsewhere within the BBC. Evan Davis, for example, now presents PM, Sarah Montague left to present The World at One and Martha Kearney left to present other programmes.  More recently, however, presenters have left the BBC altogether. Mishal Husain left to work at Bloomberg and Amol Rajan has made it clear he may continue to work on other BBC programmes but will also set up his own company and present podcasts and programmes elsewhere.

Podcasts are the name of the game now. Emily Maitlis left Newsnight to present the daily podcast The News Agents on LBC Radio with former BBC veteran Jon Sopel and ex-Newsnight reporter Lewis Goodall. Mark Urban, a Newsnight veteran, has also left the BBC to become a writer and commentator for The Sunday Times, specialising in defence and foreign affairs.

This is part of a larger change in personnel at BBC News and Current Affairs. The old guard are on the way out. John Simpson, now 81, will surely retire soon. Edward Stourton (another former presenter at Today), Lyse Doucet and Jeremy Bowen are all almost seventy.

But there is a bigger change at the BBC. Newsnight has undergone radical changes in recent years. It has done away with short films and become a second-rate studio-based programme. It will surely vanish completely in a year or two. The BBC News Channel is clearly the future, focusing largely on American and other international news coverage.

Above all, podcasts are clearly the future as far as presenters are concerned. That’s where the money is. Look at the huge success of The Rest is History with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook and The Rest is Politics with Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell.

Or are they the future? Perhaps flavour of the month is more accurate? Everyone is keen to start a podcast but will audiences lose interest? Too much chat, too little serious analysis. How much do Stewart and Cambell really have to offer people interested in current affairs? Rory Stewart was always a minor Conservative politician and it’s over twenty years since Campbell worked in Downing Street. Such podcasts may have some good producers and researchers, but can they really compete with the resources behind Today or the other flagship programmes on Radio 4?

In other words, has Amol Rajan left it too late? Will the world of podcasts have lost its appeal by the time he jumps on the bandwagon? And is there really a huge appetite out there for interview programmes with the likable and energetic Rajan?

But the bigger questions are the ones facing Today. Who will replace Amol Rajan? One obvious choice would be Jonny Dymond, currently a superb presenter on The World This Weekend. However, the loss of Husain, and now Rajan, means that the Radio 4 flagship news programmes don’t have a single Black or Asian presenter and the contrast with presenters on the BBC News Channel such as Matthew Amroliwala, Maryam Moshiri, Geeta Guru-Murthy and Sumi Somaskanda is striking. It’s also worth noting that quite a few of the best of these presenters are female.

Then there’s a bigger problem facing the Today programme. Its ratings have been falling for some time, dropping from over 7 million weekly listeners in 2016 to around 5.6 million in late 2025, with some reports in 2023 showing it hitting lows not seen in decades. Last October The Telegraph reported that Today lost 363,000 listeners compared with the third quarter of 2024. Too often the programme seems out of touch with its audience. It’s as if its editors and producers don’t seem aware of the programme’s demographics. Too many items are about pop music and pop culture which may appeal to its 20something and 30something producers and researchers but are unlikely to appeal much to its ageing audience. Newspapers and news magazines seem to have a surer sense of their audience than the BBC.

Finally, there are problems with the kind of news Today offers its listeners. Far too much Trump. Far too much stuff about wildlife and nature. Too many familiar pundits like Dame Helena Kennedy and retired civil servants and politicians. And what exactly do Lyse Doucet and Jeremy Bowen offer listeners who really care about foreign affairs? Over the past year or so they complain that they aren’t allowed into Gaza or Iran, so what exactly are they doing, broadcasting from their homes in London? It’s not as if they are really experts about anything. The other day Newscast had a fascinating half-hour interview with Sir Lawrence Freedman who was so knowledgeable by contrast. Or listen to Lord Peter Ricketts or Sir Simon Fraser, both former senior diplomats, on international crises. They know a lot more about the state of the world than Bowen or Doucet.

The problems are piling up in the Controller of Radio 4’s in-tray. Perhaps if the BBC ever get round to appointing a new Head of News and Current Affairs they can get together and decide what to do about the mounting problems facing the Today programme.

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