Sophy Ridge says there is a greater ‘hyper engagement’ with the news than before

Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge has said there is a greater sense of “hyper engagement” with the news than there has been before.

After fronting the broadcaster’s flagship weeknight political show, Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, the presenter will now helm its new breakfast programme and co-present for the first time alongside Wilfred Frost.

Despite growing competition to retain younger audiences, Ridge said she is “more optimistic” about the direction media is going and the opportunities it brings.

She told the PA news agency: “What I think we have is people who are way more engaged in the news than at any time. It’s hyper engagement in news and in journalism.

“People are super-engaged in politics, in domestic news and international news as well. So, I think that there is actually real opportunity there.

“People are finding their news in different places and they want slightly different things from presenters, and from the people that they trust. They kind of follow individuals around a little bit more.”

The new breakfast programme, Mornings with Ridge and Frost, will air Monday to Thursday from November 3 and will be accompanied with a new 10-minute podcast, Cheat Sheet, with the presenter emphasising the need to maintain a multi-platform approach to help find viewers “where they are”.

Ridge added: “I personally don’t really agree with how people talk about old media and new media, because I just think that the best media companies you can’t actually box off like that.

“A lot of the papers, for example, who are successful now are doing great video, for example.

“I think with a breakfast programme, we’re going to be finding the viewers where they are and making content that I think will translate across lots of different media.

“I think we can perhaps bring a bit more of an informal relationship, and more personal relationship with people who are watching as well. So, talking to viewers like you and I would talk, or if you were like down the pub, or talking to one of your friends, but still keeping the content of the programme – that really informed news that people want from Sky News.”

Speaking about what viewers can expect from the new programme, Frost, who has presented on Sky News Breakfast and contributed to a range of US media outlets including CNBC, said: “We want to have a really warm, a really inviting tone to it which will also be much less scripted than in the past.

“The fact that we’ll be together now allows us to really lean into that warmth, that fun, that very invitational tone for people.

“We will have conversations that people will be having at home, at the breakfast table – deliver important information, but in a very digestible way.

“I think British broadcasting is less conversational, it’s more scripted and I think we’re going to make it a bit more like what I was used to in the past (in the US), what I’ve yearned for, which I think is just a lot more fun.

“A viewer knows and is more drawn to something that’s live because you don’t know what’s going to happen next. That could be a high-profile interview where someone’s being held to account. It can be a group chat with two of our brilliant editors free flowing, or can just be the two of us having a chat about something, and the jeopardy that a viewer can sense of not knowing what’s about to happen next, I think is very unique to live television.”

Mornings with Ridge and Frost airs from Monday to Thursday from 7-10am on Sky News, with Cheat Sheet published weekdays at 6am on all podcast platforms.