A news presenter is, broadly speaking, a person that presents a news show on television, radio or the Internet. The term is not commonly used by people in the industry as they tend to use more descriptive - and sometimes country-specific - terms. Examples include "newsreader", "newscaster", and "news anchor".

Newscaster

A newscaster is a presenter of a news bulletin who is himself or herself a working journalist and news gatherer as well as a participant in compiling the script to be delivered in a news bulletin.

Prior to the television era, radio-news broadcasts often mixed news with opinion and each presenter strove for a distinctive style. These presenters were referred to as commentators. The last remaining news presenter of this type is Paul Harvey. The term newscaster came into common use to distinguish presenters of straight news broadcasts from commentators.

However in the UK, ITN's presenters are referred to as newscasters (and have been since the 1950s), whilst those working at the BBC are called newsreaders.

News anchor

In the United States and Canada, presenters of news broadcasts are referred to as news anchors (sometimes anchorperson, anchorman, or anchorwoman) instead of "newscasters". An anchor traditionally is a television personality who presents material prepared for a news program and, at times, must improvise commentary for live presentation. Many news anchors are also involved in writing and/or editing the news for their programmes.

The term "anchor" was coined by producer Don Hewitt. PBS cites its first usage as being on July 7, 1952, to describe Walter Cronkite's role at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. According to Hewitt, the term was in reference to the "anchor leg" of a relay race.

See also

• List of news presenters by nationality
• List of television reporters

  Category:American television journalists