Ian Payne, Presenter
Ian Payne is the main Presenter for Tyne Tees' flagship news programme North East Tonight. Before that he was their Senior Sports Presenter and he continues to be involved in sport, recently making a half-hour programme about a charity trek across the Sahara which was aired on the station in a primetime slot.
Can you briefly describe what your job involves?
I'm the main News Presenter (joint) for North East Tonight. When Tyne Tees was re-launched in September 2006 the transmission area was split in to two - north and south - and I co-present to North Yorkshire, County Durham and Teesside. I do a half hour programme five times per week and I occasionally present other bulletins, eg once a week I do the late news slot for ITN. Before this job I was the Senior Sports Presenter. I still cover sport and it's important to me to keep that link - that keeps me going.
I also have a consultancy role in the English Federation of Disability Sport and I'm often involved in things to do with that in the morning before I go in to work. That might include going to a school to help them with access arrangements for pupils with disabilities. I meet people through that work and that can generate other stories. I'm also patron of two other charities and I was involved in a Variety Club of Great Britain Charity Challenge in the Sahara. I made a programme about it which wasn't commissioned by Tyne Tees, but when they saw it they liked it and it was shown. That's the seed of an idea I'm trying to continue - to get organisations to self-fund programmes that can then go on air.
Can you describe a typical working day?
There is an informal shift pattern. On a typical day I'm in the office by 11am. By then the day's stories have been assigned to the reporters and I familiarise myself with what's going in the programme. From 3.30 onwards I'm working solely on the 6 o'clock programme - recording titles, promotion spots, taking in live links - at that stage the only thing is that day's programme. After the programme there is a debrief until about 6.50pm.
The time between 11am and 3pm I'm doing follow ups on previous stories and forward planning. I do less reporting now that I'm a Presenter but we try to show ourselves going out and about - the station's motto is ‘closer to home'. The pressure is off when I'm not in that day's programme. I might record interviews for later in the week and occasionally we cover special events. The job has freed up time to reinforce my face as a regional Presenter and there is value in being out and about.
What are the typical working hours?
It's a 40 hour week but I'm employed to do the job rather than the hours. The hours are 11 to 7 or 3 to 11 if I'm presenting the late bulletin, but nobody is watching the clock. I sometimes put in extra hours and the calls on my time can be very unpredictable, especially in sport, though at the moment I'm getting used to having weekends to myself for the first time in 14 years. They don't count the hours and neither do I.
What's the pay like?
In the ITV regions there will be 17 regional news programmes and they are all a double header (one male and one female presenter) - that's 34 jobs with presenters earning between £50 and 80k, I'm led to believe. So it's a sought after job. But someone well-known who has been doing it for years will not be on the same banding structure.
How did you get in to the industry?
I'm from Ipswich originally but I studied sport at Newcastle Poly and I did a placement with TV Sport and Leisure (TSL). They were working on a programme for C4 about the Seoul Olympics and I got the bug. If the work placement hadn't happened I might be a PE teacher now. When I got back to Newcastle I knocked on the door of Tyne Tees and asked if there was anything I could do to get more experience. I was still doing my degree, but I did an afternoon a week checking captions, goal times, that sort of thing.
When I finished my degree I got a job with Film Nova, an independent company in Newcastle, part of Nova International, run by Brendan Foster. The plan at that stage was that Nova International would stage the Great North Run and Film Nova would televise it. They organised and sponsored it but in the end the BBC televised it. So I spent three years with the company making corporates for companies like Swan Hunter and Nissan. I'd travel down to London overnight and do the editing at Molinare.
How did you reach the current point in your career?
I got production experience at Nova and I was still getting my sport fix because the company was involved in sport but after three years I decided I wanted to try broadcasting. I had maintained my links with Tyne Tees and by then I had my sports degree and production experience so they took me seriously. That's often the case - if people try to get in but don't succeed at first but they go away and come back in six months with more experience under their belt and prove they're genuinely keen, they can get in. Tyne Tees allowed me to apply for an internal vacancy and I joined as a Sports Assistant. In six months I was voicing pieces and doing football reports and in a year and a half I was presenting sports bulletins.
The good thing about being in the regions is that you can make mistakes and learn - you're given a second chance. With live broadcasting there's nowhere to practise - it's a bit like sport - until you run out in front of a crowd you don't know how it will be, how you will perform. Everyone needs a second chance.
I've worked on the Champions League and been all over the world through working with ITV sport and it enhanced my reputation at Tyne Tees but it also made me appreciate working there as well. It has been a stepping stone to better things in the region rather than the network. And although it looks from my CV as if I've been 14 years with one company, in fact I've worked for Yorkshire, Granada, and now the Independent News Group - so I've been a bit more ambitious than it looks. There's not a rung above me on the ladder at the moment though in another couple of years the industry will have changed again with the digital switchover.
What aspect of your work do you enjoy most?
When I was working in sport I enjoyed being part of the enthusiasm and passion of the North East - it's unbeaten anywhere in the country. And to be respected for having the knowledge and the authority. I was very proud of that. Now I'm bringing that to news. It's a very responsible position to be in and you have to get it right.
I also enjoy the position of responsibility within the company. The team work. Some people are going home as I arrive but I know that they will watch the programme later and I'm the person sent out to deliver what they've been working on, maybe standing out in the cold and rain - so I should do my best to call the viewers attention to it, not detract and, hopefully, enhance it.
Are there any aspects of the job which you don't like?
I think the programme should be a regional magazine rather than a news programme. We live in a multichannel, 24 hour media culture and news is less about scoops now, so it's not good to take yourself too seriously, which news does sometimes. Also I don't like to put out a pessimistic programme. If I haven't smiled very much then for me it's not a good programme, but unfortunately sometimes you have to bring bad news.
What makes someone suitable for this kind of job?
You have to be a bit extrovert and be confident to take the stage. The key is saying things with confidence. You also have to have flexibility and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and not be frustrated by the parameters you're working within. Your career will be dictated by those parameters - eg if you put down roots somewhere and have kids. If you're young and single make the most of it. And if you're fortunate to get some profile, don't lord it over people. It can go very quickly - and there's nothing worse than a minor TV personality.
If I wanted your job how would I go about it?
My mantra is that you should be interested in what you do rather than how you do it. I don't think TV is difficult. I have a degree in sport and sport is my passion and it's a means to communicate that. It's best to be qualified in a subject and be genuinely interested in it - eg if you want to be a political journalist, rather than doing a media degree, do politics and then do a postgraduate journalism course.
When I go to media colleges to talk to students I think it's important to be clear, honest and pragmatic. Working for the BBC and working for the ITV regions are two very different jobs. In ITV, programmes are a necessary cost to generate the advertising space. There's a lot of cost cutting in budgets and it's important that people understand that. There are only ten slots in the region and there will be no commissioned programmes. I'm not enamoured of that but you have to embrace it and go with it.
People often ask me how they can get their ideas or stories on TV. I cut the Sahara Challenge on Avid Xpress Pro. It's easy to do on a laptop. If they can do it they should. New media is the way it is going and the benchmark is Meridian. The Tyne Tees website is about to be re-launched in house and it's being brought in to the ITV local experiment. My audience is currently people sitting at home watching TV, but soon it will be people on buses. News will go on to the web and podcasts. You can put something on the internet now that can be seen all over the world. Work with it.
What has been your best career decision?
When I was at Poly I had two offers for my work placement. One was as a Sports Assistant/Duty Manager in Ipswich and the other was the two weeks with TSL in London. If I'd gone to Ipswich I might be a Director of Recreation for a local authority now.
Also, applying to be a contestant on Blockbuster when I was at school. I didn't win, but it showed me how exciting TV could be.
What has been your best piece of luck?
There is a degree of luck in any career but you also make your own luck - you might have crossed someone's path some years before, done an okay report that they remember. You lay the foundations along the way. You have to be on the ball enough to know which opportunities to take.
How do you promote your skills - do you have an agent?
No. I hope work will come to me. There have been times when it might have been useful to have one, eg when negotiating fees outside the region. But I'm happy with the level of publicity I've got. I'm not looking for another job. I'm at the stage in my career when my next job will probably be something that's offered to me, but I would never reject an opportunity without giving it proper consideration.
Have you had any recent training?
Yes. ITV has undergone major changes in the last two years. There used to be three people crews (camera, reporter, editor) but now the reporter edits as well, so it's just two. So I've had technical skills training. Also Health and Safety. But my editorial training has been on the job. You have to be a jack of all trades so make sure your weaker areas are strong enough - eg I'm a better reporter than editor, but I can edit.
Have you ever had any careers advice?
Not in the industry. I have chatted with people I respect and asked them things like ‘should I stay in front of the camera or move behind?' etc. But, for example, I planned to be the main Sports Presenter but the job is now redundant so any career planning had to change. You just have to leave as many doors open as possible.
Any other points or advice for someone who wanted your job?
I wouldn't want to put anybody off, but be wary - many media courses are taught by people who used to work in the industry and they have a slightly rose-tinted view of things, but the industry has really changed. It's a good job but it's not glitz and glamour. Someone once said ‘TV is a medium that is rarely well done'. It's a vehicle to communicate a message, but it's just one medium, like the internet, radio, talking to someone. It's no big deal. Just get on with it. But, that said, it's also a great job.
