As Oscar Wilde – were he a media correspondent – might have said, to lose one presenter is misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness. Emma Barnett’s departure from BBC Radio Four’s Today programme means two frontline presenters have now bitten the dust in ten days. She lasted just over two years. Amol Rajan, who left the week before last, managed five. Even British Prime Ministers sometimes survive longer than that.

Today however, is a very different beast. As the programme insider put it ‘The ghost of John Humphrys looms large, still’

Today however, is a very different beast. As the programme insider put it ‘The ghost of John Humphrys looms large, still’

It wasn’t always like this. John Humphrys and Brian Redhead, both of whom I worked with on the programme, lasted 18 years, and current presenter Justin Webb has clocked up 17 so far. So what on earth is going wrong?

Three words: planning (and) decision making. 

Planning first: Today bosses should have seen the PR cluster f**k coming a mile off. They knew Amol’s last program was going to be on 2 September, but they also knew Emma’s future on the program was looking increasingly shaky.

This was partly because of severe health problems. Her endometriosis and other severely debilitating health conditions caused her ‘bone grinding, life altering pain’ and once, it is said, caused her to blackout on air, during a........

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