The News Agents: ‘now that we've got the freedom and liberation of doing our podcast’

In 2022, three high-profile BBC journalists left the Corporation to start The News Agents, a daily podcast focussed on news and politics. The podcast blends serious news journalism with a light-hearted, and at times, deliberately humorous approach to the stories it covers. The setting up of The News Agents was part of a wider reorganisation of speech journalism in the UK, as seen extensively in how the BBC’s preeminent position has been challenged by a range of commercial providers. While Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall each had different reasons for leaving the BBC, departing from a public service media organisation where they were bound by objectivity guidelines has in the words of Sopel given them a new found “freedom and liberation”. This article explores that transition, arguing that while the presenters of the podcast at times substantially diverge from public service media news values, they have simultaneously retained a degree of adherence to the BBC’s strictures to which they were formerly bound. The article employs an empirical approach that draws on podcast ethnography, to discuss the parasocial relationships the presenters have built with their audience, which particularly focuses on their use of humour.