There can hardly be a PR person in the land that does not aspire to
place an item, cause or client on the Today programme. It is the
high-minded but lively morning notice board for Britain’s busy decision
makers and opinion formers, a zone thankfully untouched by the petty
breakfast wars of Chris Evans and Zoe Ball.
As the media proliferates, a slot on the programme has become ever more
highly prized as the one chance to drop a word into so many important
ears before the day’s toil begins: a stunning 46 per cent of listeners
belong to the top social classes AB. Anyone who has ever worked on a
national newspaper will know how often an editor insists on a follow-up
to something it has just broadcast. And it’s not just politics where it
makes waves.
When sports presenter Gary Richardson verbally assaulted the father of a
13-year-old female boxer, his aggression became an instant talking point
- but the fixture was cancelled.
As Paul Donovan’s new book, All Our Todays - Forty Years of the Today
Programme, confirms, it maintains its authority by largely eschewing
free plugs for books or dodgy, poorly researched surveys. Its staff of
just 41 are, naturally, deluged with standard press releases and
suggestions, but at best throw their energies into taking the programme
into fresh new territory, to land the interesting insights and
interviews which may shape the day ahead.
But what few in this industry realise is that Today is on the brink of a
substantial increase in airtime, due to the thorough overhaul in Radio 4
schedules now being planned in meticulous detail. The programme will
expand its airtime by 27 per cent from next April, starting half an hour
earlier at 6am, and running a full three hours. By colonising the
Farming Today slot, its current brisk mix of around 24 or so daily items
will be significantly expanded. It will become a much hungrier and
somewhat less fussy beast. Politics will remain at its core, but the
agenda and time for debate will broaden.
Crucially, Today will be beefing up one of its weakest areas, business
and personal finance. The current audience is very interested in these
topics and it should be able to add new influential listeners at this
time of day. There has always been a place for the chairmen and chief
executives of major FTSE companies announcing results that morning. Now
the plan is to add a substantial whack of business news before 6.30 am
and another burst, aimed more at investors and savers still at home, in
the later half hour of the programme. And the expanded airtime means
that the programme will have the opportunity to develop on air, with
much more freedom to carry follow up rapid response interviews to items
broadcast earlier. My conclusion? Today is bound to remain a tough nut
to crack, but there will be a lot more to aim for.
