Nudging Naja

There's a vacancy for a new Director General at DR, the Danish public broadcasting service, with current postholder Rørbye Rønn announcing last week that she's stepping down after 15 years in the post. 

Former director general of DR Kenneth Plummer offers Naja Nielsen, currently Digital Director BBC News, as his top tip. Google translation: "She has quite a big job. Over the past five years, she has gained very heavy management experience from the mother of all public service companies, the BBC'

Media studies expert Timme Bisgaard Munk agrees: "DR is created in the BBC's image and the fact that she has carried out a digital transformation in the big brother, BBC, which is to happen in the little brother nest, DR, is a huge trump card"

Movie news

From "A BBC for the Future", March 2024

The challenge to our creative economy

We live in a time when culture and creativity cross national borders frictionlessly. There are huge advantages for consumers as global media and technology firms give people access to the world’s best entertainment. However, it also means there can be more on our screens about city police precincts in the US than our own, and more storytelling about high school America than secondary school Britain.

Films added to the BBC iPlayer for Hallowe-en: The Blair Witch Project, 1999, set in Maryland; Get Out, 2017, set in Alabama; US, 2019, set in California; Candyman, 2021, set in Chicago.

Experiences

 I've struggled with the growth of 'product' jobs at the BBC; in my youth it derived from the Latin, 'something produced', and was lightly abused by maths teachers, who used it as a synonym for 'the answer' in sums. 

As jobs making 'news' and 'content' are cut, the BBC now seeks a new Tweedledum and Tweedledee in 'Product'; a Director, Product Management - Platform and a Director, Product Management of Experiences. 

For job one "We need an established senior, enterprise product leader experienced in delivering transformational product strategies. They will be responsible for accelerating our transition to a platform-first product organisation, unlocking our teams’ potential to discover, innovate and deliver at scale best-in-class platform capabilities. "

For job two "We need an established senior, enterprise product leader experienced in delivering transformational product strategies. They will be responsible for driving user growth through BBC digital products, unlocking our teams’ potential to discover, innovate and bring to market best in class user-centred digital experiences." 

Clear ? Maybe the Board-level enterprise product leader, Chief Product Officer, Storm Fagan and Director of Product and Design, Monica Turska, can explain...

Some might say that the BBC is not a TV and radio company but a specialist in re-orgs.

But we're just mice so we can't comment.

— Peter's Technology Mice (@futuremice) October 25, 2024

Winners

Some headlines from the BBC News Online team today curating the 'winning of the weekend'... 

'I married the train driver who saved my life'

A puff on a joint - then six months of forced rehab in a concrete cell

How my investigation led to sex trafficking charges against ex-Abercrombie boss

And a searing insight.....

Bowen: Iran faces hard choices between risks of escalation or looking weak

Hard choices

Dear Naja and Deborah, 

Surely some of the effort involved in preparing this 'winning the weekend' chaff could be switched, say, to series of thoughtful, half-hour interviews with people in the news around the world ?

Sniff test

There's some odd stuff going on in BBC Nations & Regions journalism, and the drive to online. From BBC South today comes a detailed story about a row between an overseas student at Queens College seeking a D Phil from Oxford University, and failing an assessment in her fourth year of study, 2021. Many news editors, perhaps even those working on the Times Higher Education website, might deem it unremarkable, and not particularly newsworthy. 

The title of her doctorate thesis: Tenders of Affection: The Economy of Emotions in Shakespeare. She had support from her college in a challenge in 2022, but there's no real 'news' in her story. The University say their dispute procedure is exhausted; an appeal to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator also failed. The student has set up a GoFundMe page, alleging 'breach of contract', academic bullying, plagiarism and racism. She shares a letter of appeal to King Charles, and complains she has spent a total of £100k on her education, without reaching doctorate status. She got coverage in the Times of India a month ago, and there's a long interview with ANI on Youtube. 

If this is Digital Local, you can leave me out...

Ooops

It turns out that the latest re-shuffle of presenters at Radio 5Live is a bit of a 'domestic'. 

Drive host Tony Livesey, 60, (Fishermore High School, Colne and editor of the Daily Sport) appears to have done a Kuenssberg, and sent an email in some way critical of co-presenter Clare McDonnell, 57 (St Mary's Bishop Stortford, BA Humanistic Studies, Nottingham, Knight Ayton Management) to its subject by mistake. 

Tony has previously co-presented, without apparent hoo-ha, with Rachel Burden, Shelagh Fogarty, Anna Foster, Eleanor Oldroyd and more. He was first paired with Clare for the odd weekend Breakfast in 2013; Tony moved to Drive in 2015, and Clare became his main partner in 2022.

Radio Times 2022

Tony has been sent back to late night weekdays, whence he came. You could read a little tension into this, from over a year ago.... 

WimbleDrive won't be making a return this year...

🎤🎾Wimbledon veteran @TonyLivesey won't be joining @Gigi_Salmon and the 5 Live team this year, he's handing the mic to @ClareMcDonnell1.

😂Tony gave Clare his advice on working alongside 'professionals' during the tournament. pic.twitter.com/VJvJSrRa1h

— BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) June 28, 2023

Let's talk

The quarterly listening figures running up to September 15th bring mostly joy to all, as more people listened to radio than ever before - reaching a record 50.9m over the three months. 

Radio 5 Live had the pleasure of breaking 6.0m in weekly reach, boosted by the election, the Olympics, Wimbledon, the end of the Euros and the start of the Premier League. It's the station's highest reach since Q2 2014. 

At Radio 4, Today, drifting towards a Waitrose version of the established Radio 5Live Asda sound, added 300,000 year on year, and the station was up to 9.7m. 

Meanwhile LBC has added 476,000 listeners in the past year, reaching 3.4m  TalkSPORT put on 200k, to reach 3.2m. 

In the newcomers' fight for ears, Talk Radio was down down 16% to 576,000. Times Radio was up 16% to 557,000. Both will be frustrated by the growth of tv-soundtrack, GB News Radio, up to 611,000 – its highest figure so far. 

BBC Local Radio in England has lost 720k listeners year on year, falling from 5.3m to 4.6m. Radio Scotland is down 6% year on year, Radio Wales is up 11%, Radio Cymru is up 15%, Radio Ulster is down 7.4%. The Asian Network, about to lose a bespoke news service, is up 32%. 

Monsters of Radio

Regular readers will know this is a blog of surmise. I have no proof of an uprising by the 'talent' on Radio 4's Today programme, but it's a reasonable explanation for the tinkering with the ancient format round the Greenwich Time Signal pips in recents days.  

The ability to 'talk to time' and not blunder through the pips used to be a badge of pride for presenters. The format of recent years goes, roughly, cue the weather at 3 minutes to the hour;  run a pre-recorded trail for a programme other than Today; then one presenter runs through a list of items to come later on the show, self-editing to around ten seconds to the hour. That leaves enough space for "You're listening to Today on Radio Four, with X and Y"  before the five short and one long bursts of tone that alert you to the start of the new hour. 

If, of course, you can hear them. Jovial 'Uncle' Nick Robinson has never really qualified for the badge of honour; languid Justin 'And that's the point' Webb gabbles his way out of trouble; only Mishal Husain, cool, calm and collected, has strategies for editing the format to come out clean. 

Now Emma Barnett has arrived, bringing her special brand of Mancunian bonhomie to the microphone. "It's a pleasure to have your company" she trills. This has bolstered the confidence of the shy new boy, Amol Rajan. I can imagine a visit to Editor Owenna's workspace. 

"Look, love, why don't we just move the programme trails to the other side of the pips, then we can always fit them all in ?" says Emma. "I've been thinking that for a while" says Amol, looking down at his Louis Vuitton loungers. "Well", says Owenna "It's a tradition, and the way we do it has become a sort of  signature tune. Most listeners are there for only twenty minutes or so before setting off for work or school or whatever. Some get irritated by long trails for things they'll never hear...". "Oh come on, Owenna, let's irritate them, then.."

So the format changes. But this morning an Emma Barnett interview ran to 06.59, leaving weatherman Simon King less than a minute for his forecast; he finished right in the pips. "It's seven o'clock, as you can hear" came the effortlessly ad-libbing Emma. "Good to be with you, and good to have your company". 

Beat it

Deborah does tend of big things up. According the BBC News media release about US Election Night coverage, she said “An unbeatable team of BBC News presenters in Washington DC will be guiding us through the results night". 

The author of the release is thinking 'invincible', too. "The BBC’s unbeatable team of US correspondents will be with voters across the country in key battleground states – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada."   That's seven US correspondents in the field, all better than anyone else's. No pressure, then.