News reading

[kernelbogey]

The lockdown-related formula for the 0800 news on R3, shared with the other radio networks, employs newsreaders with a different style from those we have been used to. Radio Four newsreaders have a sober, neutral style - I am reminded of John Snagge et al from my youth - which has a 'BBC stamp of authority' to it. Neil Nunes is an outstanding exemplar albeit with an interesting regional accent. He also reads news on the World Service, where the style of other readers is similar to the R4 style.

My occasional forays into Radios One and Two - mostly on long car journeys - have revealed a different style of newsreading, which I would dub the chatty style. The voice modulation employed by these readers is more varied, more conversational, occasionally conveying surprise or amusement where the item warrants it. There are one or two readers whose voice sounds slightly antipodean. Also common is a strangely nasal, south-eastern English delivery common also on some commercial radio stations.

We seem to be exclusively served in these new pan-station news bulletins by news readers of the chatty variety. I wonder what drove this decision - I have yet to hear Ian Skelly or Paul Guinnery, for example, during the lockdown. Is there an impllication that the formal style is too stuffy for Radio One and Two listeners? And if so, why?

[oddoneout]

I'm one who prefers the neutral minimal R3 approach, whereby I get the bare bones and can choose to follow up, but at least the new version is only at 8 and 1. The headline then more 'depth' format is OK but I really can do without the going to A N Other for 'more detail'. It reminds me why I don't watch or listen to 'normal' news programmes.
My concern is that this becomes a permanent arrangement after the current situation moves on sufficiently to allow changes towards normal/previous. Having dedicated newsreaders for such a minority(aka unimportant to them at the top) station as R3 would be an easy costcutter target?