BBC Scotland has released the first picture of the team that will front the new channel’s flagship news programme.
Launching later this month, The Nine will focus on national as well as international stories from the broadcaster’s Glasgow base. Rebecca Curran and Martin Geissler will co-anchor the hour-long programme at 9pm from Monday to Thursday, while John Beattie and Laura Miller will present the Friday edition.
James Cook, previously BBC News North America correspondent, returns to Scotland as the programme’s chief news correspondent.
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The Nine editor Hayley Valentine said: “I’m delighted with the team of presenters and reporters we’ve put together. It has a great mix of experienced correspondents and new talent.
“Our viewers will get some of the best analysis of Scottish, UK and international news from this team. And I’m confident viewers will enjoy a very different approach to news presenting and storytelling.”
A four-strong team will report on politics from Holyrood (Lynsey Bews, political correspondent and David Lockhart, political reporter), Westminster (Rajdeep Sandhu, Westminster correspondent) and Brussels (Jean MacKenzie, Europe correspondent).
The show will also have a sports presence with Amy Irons joining from Capital Radio as sports presenter, Laura McGhie as sports news presenter and Chris McLaughlin as sports news correspondent. Other appointments for the programme include Laura Goodwin as innovation correspondent based in Dundee, Chris Clements as social affairs correspondent and David Farrell as entertainment reporter.
A 15-minute bulletin will air at 7pm followed by a review programme presented by Fiona Stalker and Nick Sheridan, with another 15-minute bulletin at 7pm on Sunday presented by Lucy Whyte.
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