Mark William Austin (born 1 November 1958) is an English journalist and television presenter, currently working for Sky News. Austin is best known as the former co-newscaster for the ITV Evening News, alongside Mary Nightingale, and the former co-newscaster of the ITV News at Ten, alongside Julie Etchingham. He also presented the ITV documentary series Real Crime from 2008 until 2011. From 24 September 2018, he has presented The News Hour and Sky News at 6 as part of schedule changes on Sky News. Education Austin was educated at Bournemouth School, a state grammar school in the town of Bournemouth, in Dorset, followed by Highbury College in the city of Portsmouth in Hampshire. Career Early career Austin started his career in the media as a general reporter on the Bournemouth Daily Echo (1976–1980). He then joined the BBC as a newsroom writer, becoming a general news reporter in 1982. He was made a sports reporter in 1985. Austin joined ITN, who produce the news for ITV, in October 1986 as Sports Correspondent. He was given his first assignment on day one – to cover England's successful Ashes tour of Australia, as well as the America's Cup. He stayed in Australia for four months and during this time unexpectedly found himself reporting on the "Spycatcher" trial. 1990s Austin has covered all the major sporting events for ITV News, including the Olympics, Wimbledon, the British Open, rugby internationals, football news and cricket. Austin was one of the first British journalists to report from the Gulf during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. From the start of the war early in 1991, he was in Bahrain, the base for many of the Tornado squadrons, sending back regular reports including those on the recapture of the islands of Qaruh and Um-al-Maradin. Austin was based in Hong Kong in 1993 as Asia Correspondent for ITV News. He returned there for his second tour as Asia Correspondent in 1996, spending over two years reporting, including the handover of the island to the Chinese in July 1997. He returned to London in mid-1998. 1994–1995 saw Austin in Johannesburg as Africa Correspondent for ITV News. Austin reported on the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa, Nelson Mandela's election victory, and on the civil war in Rwanda. He also briefly returned to sport as part of ITV's presentation team in South Africa for the 1995 Rugby