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"But by the same token we won't ignore entertainment news. It is important, too"

Depends on your definition of "important", I suppose.

News, yes; interesting, yes; fascinating, also; prurient, that too. But important??

Global warming is important. Zimbawe is important. Iraq is important. Palestine is important. Oil prices are important.

Don't get me wrong; I enjoy reading the entertainment news as much as anyone, though I occasionally wince at how detailed and intrusive it can get.

However we need to get real. The health and activities of of Amy Winehouse are NOT important, except to her and her family, although I have no doubt that they are fascinating and sometimes newsworthy. Ditto Posh and Becks, and most of the other entertainment reporting.

really you should try and encourage the younger audiences to take the real news on board and take it more seriously, rather than pandering to what they want, celebrity status in this country is already something which seems to have got out of hand and you just seem to be facilitating the habit of these entertainment junkies

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Hi Rod,

I stand by my vehemence I'm afraid, and I would say that the people at the Radio Festival (and your senior radio "news" exec) who disagreed with our comments are probably a little too close to the problem to see what it is.

You say "we won't ignore entertainment news. It is important, too."

It isn't

It really just isn't

Some people may find it interesting or maybe even thrilling to look into the lives of celebrities, but "important" it is not.

As a follow up to my comment above I think entertainment news can easily be compared with fast food;

Some people wouldn't touch fast food with a barge pole - these people are normally quite fit and healthy.

Some like the occasional splurge - I would say these people are of good health, but could do with a bit more exercise.

Finally there are those who just live on burgers and chips - these people are generally obese and have a multitude of other health problems

Entertainment "news" can do the same thing, it may fill you up, maybe even make you feel satisfied and happy, but there is no real nutrition in there at all. And for all your laudable aims of providing "accessible and relevant journalism", all you are really doing is turning a generation of people into the mental equivalent of a couch potato.

I listen to radio 1 a klot of the time, and ALWAYS listen to newsbeat at 5.45 on my way home from work, i think covers a great variety of topics, and is always good when they do real stories and get the uk audience involved, such as going out on the streets to talk to people and get our view on it. In comparison to other radio stations (local and regional) they dont even come close. I would like to thnak you for a different view on the news, and want you guys at newsbeat to keep it up.

Interesting to find that "Audiences, especially younger ones, are ever more demanding and have re-defined the parameters of what is news."

So because some (younger) people demand information about a load of rubbish, it then becomes news?

In my own younger days, the younger audience (me included) thought Andy Pandy and Bill and Ben were really important.

There was even a faction who thought rag, tag and bobtail were important (that was my little brother).

Thing is, none of it actually was important, and the demands of the "younger audience", however stridently expressed, couldn't and didn't make it important, except to the self-obsessed children themselves.

Please get a life. Your "entertainment news" is not news, and not at all important.