Balancing Gender Representation in BBC Local Radio

The BBC's director general has said he would like to see more women hosting or co-hosting breakfast shows on the corporation's English local radio stations. He has set a new target of 50 per cent by the end of 2014; currently, just 2 breakfast programmes out of 41 have sole female presenters. Steve Hewlett speaks to the BBC's creative director Alan Yentob about the decision and asks former managing editor of BBC local radio John Ryan about the practicalities of getting more women on air. Also joining him in the discussion is media and communications consultant Lisa Kerr who considers whether quotas are the best way to achieve this. Also on today's programme; as the Co-op supermarket prepares to pull a number of lads' mags from its shelves, we ask the launch editor of Front magazine what this might mean for an already struggling magazine sector. And Stewart Purvis will be in the studio discussing his new book, which examines the lengths reporters on the front line of war and famine go to in order to get a story. Producer: Katy Takatsuki.