Selling resources - again

One presumes that BBC Chief Operating Officer Leigh Tavaziva thinks it likely her current role will be 'restructured' by September.  “After five brilliant years, I have taken the opportunity to reflect on my own role at the BBC and have decided that the time is right for me to leave to pursue new opportunities.

The winner out of 'Project Ada' looks to be Frome housewife Storm Fagan, who will run BBC Media Tech, adding what's left of BBC Technology to the software specialists of her Product teams. But which side of the public service divide will the new group sit ?  Will BBC Media Tech be a 'commercial' enterprise, like BBC Studios ?   There's more, of course, with much more outsourcing, aimed at £100m pa savings. Probably these two helped.

Wordle Up

 

Pointed

Jo Ellison, (BA History, Edinburgh) deputy editor of the Financial Times weekend, and editor of the FT's How to Spend It magazine has been saving up some seriously sharp words about the current state of the Today programme on Radio 4. 

"Instead of serving news, the show has become a tepid taster of the carvery of podcasts each presenter is trying to shill. It’s a toothless simulacrum of its cantankerous former self. 

"The pugnacious political interrogation once deployed has been replaced by chummy conversation and presenters choking on their own empathy.  Instead of spicy debate and provocation it’s all windy chit-chat with thought leaders, and interviews that sound like quasi therapy.

"The National Year of Reading 2026, a campaign led by the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust, has prompted a fixation with children’s books. Every other item seems to be a story about some Edwardian classic now turned into a film. "

Hunt for compromise

A Florida sidebar: In Trump v The BBC, both parties have until Tuesday to "select a mediator, schedule a time, date, and place for mediation; and jointly file a notice of mediator selection". 

"If the parties cannot agree on a mediator, they shall notify the Clerk in writing as soon as the impasse becomes clear, and the Clerk shall designate a certified mediator on a blind rotation basis."

Threesome ?

Putting weekend press speculation together, it seems Samir Shah is struggling to get a threesome for the final round of interviews for BBC DG.  If Charlotte Moore has dropped out, then we're left with extruded-Tim-Davie-clone, Matt Brittin, formerly of Google; and mini-me-internal-Tim Davie, Rhodri Talfan Davies. 

The only woman I can suggest hasn't been ruled out is Jane Turton, 63 (St Andrews and MBA, Cranfield) who has been Chief Executive of All3Media since 2015.  They supply programmes ranging from The Traitors through Gogglebox to Call The Midwife.  

The polls toll

So what does Gorton do to the BBC's formula for rationing appearances on big political shows, famously overruled by Deborah Turness in the case of Reform UK in the last General Election campaign ? Presumably, as many Greens as, say, Reform UK from now on, and a real wind-back on Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives ?  It's all up to Chief Political Adviser, 'Ric' Bailey....

Debbie does Washington

 

Former BBC News CEO Deborah Turness has resurfaced in the USA - in her words, "the land of second chances". 

She told a conference in Washington that she personally he ruled that Nigel Farage be given equal ranking in the 2024 General Election campaign, when the formula previously used by editorial advisers didn't give him that by their calculations. 

She mused "Do I think that the BBC Newsrooms would, in percentage terms, vote the same way as the nation right now in the UK in terms of Reform UK ? Do I think that the newsrooms are in lockstep with that sudden social change ? No, I don't. What that means is that you've got to work even harder to maintain that impartiality".

On the Panorama Trump edit that cost her job ? “It wasn’t up to our editorial standards, but I don’t accept the charge that it was a sign of institutional bias,”

And the winner is...

Who's been out and about from the BBC at 'over £10k' in the last three months of 2025 ?

Maryam Moshiri, Customer Contact Week

Amol Rajan, for CMS

Katya Adler, for Deloitte

Amol Rajan, for Charles Russell

Amol Rajan, for JLA Speakers

Nick Robinson, for BNP Paribas

Nick Robinson, for CIPD

Amol Rajan, for Euromoney 

John Simpson, for FANE

Amol Rajan, Association of Corporate Treasurers

Amol Rajan, Health Financial Management Association

Matt finish ?

The Times tells us Matt Brittin is a contender to follow Tim Davie as Director General. In many ways, he's a sort of taller Tim; middle class outer London family, private day school, Cambridge graduate, career change (Tim from marketing to broadcasting, Matt from property surveyor to tech business strategy and Google). 

Lots to say about Matt, but here's his public job application, accepting a fellowship from the Royal Television Society, 18th November. (Tim Davie resigned on 9th November)

Matt treated 2025 as a sort of late gap year, after leaving Google EMEA in 2024, but has been acquiring some jobs, notably as Senior Independent Director at the Guardian Media Group.  You can see in this speech that he's been networking with some vigour. 

The correct category ?

 A vacancy at BBC Plymouth:

Presumably you should be able to order things alphabetically...