Twiddle

The Guardian reports that BBC DG Lord Hall has decided to elevate Fran Unsworth, fresh into her new role as Director of the World Service Group, to the Executive Board (or possibly not - 1145am update below).

This follows some lobbying over recent years, with MPs and others arguing that World Service ought to have its own seat "at the top table". Since the axing of the post of DDG/Director of Journalism (Mark Byford) it has been represented solely by the Director of News.  Mark Byford handed the Candle of Journalism to Helen Boaden in June 2011, and she in turn passed it flickering onwards to current candle-holder James Harding in August 2013.

The move helps the board's gender balance - which moves to 5/4, or 9/5 if you include the non-executive directors.

Fran, with BBC Worldwide Director Tim Davie, has the biggest target yet set by the BBC - to get to 500 million viewers/listeners/users around the globe. She might reasonably expect a salary enhancement ahead of that - currently on £190k, compared with James Purnell's £295k.

One imagines former Director World Service Group Peter Horrocks, now with the Open University, can only sit and applaud this belated structural change.

• 1145am update: Fran's joining not the Executive Board, but the Management Team, where lurk the likes of Alan Yentob and the Controllers of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.