Puffery

The tangled ball of elastic bands that is the UK publicity eco-system is illustrated today by Jeremy Vine in the Daily Mail.

With the issue of BBC top presenter pay still alive, Jeremy has freshened up his forthcoming part-memoir with a few thoughts, and lo, the Mail, which needs the BBC to fill pages almost as much as it despises it, has published a generous extract.

It turns out Jeremy deemed himself underpaid as a Newsnight presenter, and when Radio 2 beckoned, he hired an agent (Alex Armitage of Noel Gay) and "told him to charge at the facing players like a fly-half after ten espressos."

Now he's on somewhere between £700k and £749k, which also covers Eggheads, Crimewatch, Points Of View and election graphic dancing - the BBC's fourth-highest-paid directly-employed presenter. His current view on BBC Management ? "The organisation seems to navigate by crashing into things."

Jeremy's book is called "What I Learnt: What My Listeners Say – and Why We Should Take Notice" (is there a possibility Jeremy has dispensed with the services of an editor ?) and is published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, part of Hachette. Hachette also published regular collections of Daily Mail crosswords on the Hamlyn imprint.

Meanwhile Alex Armitage's outfit, Noel Gay, represents a range of BBC presenters who don't make more than £150k, including Emily Maitlis, Sarah Montague and Katie Derham. The Christmas party will be fun this year.