Adam Boulton to leave Sky News after more than 30 years
Adam Boulton has announced he will leave Sky News at the end of the year, with a parting suggestion that the era of big-name television news anchors is coming to an end.
The veteran journalist said the Sky News boss, John Ryley, has “made it quite clear he believes the future of news is digital”, with more emphasis on the knowledge of specialist reporters and less of a role for studio-based presenters.
As a result, “the direction which Sky News wants to go over the next few years is not one that’s a particularly good fit for me”, Boulton told the Times.
Reflecting on the push for onscreen diversity on the UK’s television channels, he also suggested there were too many white middle-class men in television news. He said: “We all think we got there on merit. I like to think we did, but nonetheless, on balance, a disproportionate number of people like me got there on merit, if you see what I mean.”
Boulton has been with the rolling news channel since its launch in February 1989, including a 25-year stint as its political editor. The 62-year-old, who is the channel’s editor-in-chief and presents the morning All Out Politics show, will remain as an occasional contributor but will also look to work elsewhere.
His departure comes at a time of transition for Sky News, which was an integral part of the initial channel lineup for Rupert Murdoch’s pay-TV satellite service. The channel was known for being fast to break news and gained influence by offering politicians and journalists the chance to appear on air – making it a constant presence in MPs’ offices and newspaper newsrooms.
However, in common with other rolling news channels, it now has to work out how to serve audiences who are less tied to television screens and more likely to get breaking news through social media on their mobile phones.
The main Sky News channel continues to have a substantial reach, with an estimated 7.5 million Britons watching some of its output in the last month. But many people dip in for only a few minutes at a time and viewing figures for individual shows can be low. As a result the much smaller rightwing upstart channel GB News sometimes pushes Sky News close in specific time slots.
When Murdoch sold the entire Sky business to the US media conglomerate Comcast in 2018, the new owners
agreed to subsidise the lossmaking Sky News for a decade – giving an effective deadline to find a future for the outlet. Staff at the channel have become increasingly intrigued by the role of David Rhodes, an American former boss of CBS News who joined Sky this summer and has been taking an interest in how the news service operates.
The other big question at Sky News headquarters is whether any presenters could be tempted to jump ship to Murdoch’s forthcoming talkTV channel, which is due to launch next year and will be fronted by Piers Morgan.