In the last of four blogs, each one featuring a speaker from our Big Talk 2025 event, we get insights from Debbie Ramsay, Editor of 5 News. We had a panel of four senior broadcasters - alongside Debbie Ramsay there was Richard Burgess, Director of News Content at the BBC; Andrew Levy, Director of News and Current Affairs at ITV; and Jonathan Levy, Managing Director and Executive Editor at Sky News UK.
Debbie Ramsay joined 5 News in 2023 from Channel 4 News, where she was Commissioning Editor for News and Current Affairs. Under her tenure, viewership for 5 News grew by 4% in 2024. ITN, which produces 5 News, said this made it the best year for the programme since 2018.
The focus is on a more working-class audience than other broadcasters and are most interested in domestic news.
With such good results, it's no surprise that Debbie started her talk by bigging up the show, acknowledging the privilege of editing a linear show with growing figures.
To grow their audience, 5 News are going back to basics. In fact, when Debbie first joined, she wanted to find out all about the people on the other side of the screen: Who are they? What do they like?
Debbie Ramsay, Editor of 5 News, with Richard Burgess, BBC Director of News Content Who is the 5 news audience? After some research, the team reached the conclusion that their average viewer is 61 years old and heavily female (although this could be due to the time of broadcast at 5pm). The programme is typically very strong in the North East of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. And untypically popular in London and the Southeast.
The 5 News audience has conservative views, being pro-Brexit and anti-immigration. Debbie explained that the challenge is to address viewers without patronising them or telling them they are wrong to hold those views.
Debbie aims to give audiences all sides to a story, allowing them to make up their own mind about it, and not passing judgement on the opinion they land on.
She was also full or praise for presenter Dan Walker, who joined from BBC Breakfast in 2022.
What sort of stories does 5 News like? The programme focuses on domestic news, with a little bit of international and a balance between serious and lighter stories. Debbie explained that the audience who tune in at 5pm are light news consumers, so they want to make sure they hit that balance right.
Debbie admitted that there are challenges ahead. In their case, it's about persuading the channel to really focus on digital - something which is not easy given that their linear output is doing well. 5 News is at its infancy in terms of digital and has a lot to learn from the likes of Sky, BBC, ITV and Channel 4 regarding growing its online audience.
Debbie concluded that TV news is not dead yet, but it needs to start thinking in terms of video as opposed to news as a programme as this format may not exist in the future.
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