Ros Atkins

Analysis Editor at Broadcaster

Speaker

Ros Atkins is the BBC Analysis Editor. He’s been labelled the nation's 'Explainer-in-Chief' and ‘The Facts Man’ due to his hugely popular “Ros Atkins on…” explainer videos. Since 2019, his videos have become a global phenomenon with vast audiences on social media and on the BBC's digital, TV and radio channels. The Sunday Times has credited him with having 'invented a new genre of reporting’, and, in a now widely used phrase, one BBC executive labelled Ros' approach as ‘assertive impartiality’. Ros regularly appears across the BBC’s highest profile output from the BBC News website to the BBC News at Ten to the BBC News YouTube channel. Audiences in the UK and beyond trust Ros to explain the most pressing and complex issues in the news. Ros has been a BBC News anchor for eighteen years. He created and presented the innovative and influential Outside Source which simulcast in primetime on BBC News Channel in the UK and on BBC World News for close to ten years. Ros has anchored coverage for many of the biggest global stories including Brexit, COVID19, the war in Ukraine, the death of Nelson Mandela, the Inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009, multiple World Cups and multiple US and European elections. Ros has anchored and reported all over the world. Ros also co-presents The Media Show on BBC Radio 4. In September 2023, Ros’ highly anticipated book The Art of Explanation was published to critical acclaim from the press and readers alike. It’s a guide for anyone looking to improve how they communicate rooted in Ros’ journalistic pursuit of clarity and concision. The book is part ‘how-to- guide’, part memoir. Ros is the founder of the 50:50 Project which started in the BBC newsroom in 2017. Its goal is to increase the diversity of contributors within media content. 50:50 expanded across the BBC and then to over 130 organisations in over 30 countries across a range of sectors. The BBC has described how 50:50 ‘unleashed a surge of creativity and innovation’ and delivered a ‘transformation’ that is ‘long-term and sustainable’. London Business School and Harvard Kennedy School have produced a case study of how 50:50 started and has evolved. In early 2022, Ros sprung a surprise by revisiting his days as a DJ with a drum and bass mix for BBC Radio 6 Music. The mix went viral and led to widespread press coverage. Since then Ros has returned to the turntables for both club and corporate events. Ros has made a number of documentaries. In 2023, he hosted an edition of Panorama which examined the UK economy and the long-term slowing in wage growth. For BBC World Service radio, he examined the relationship between tourist and host in Cornwall, Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas, the three places he spent his childhood. (Ros has worked extensively as a moderator in the tourism sector.) He also made an acclaimed and unusual podcast with US anchor Keith Olbermann and his wife Sara. Texting Keith Olbermann is still available via BBC Sounds. Ros is in demand internationally as a speaker on global affairs, journalism, media, innovation, creativity, communication and culture change