Mad men

Someone using the name "Billy Blofeld" has sensibly followed up reports that the BBC spent 86% of its external recruitment advertising budget with The Guardian in 2004, by lodging a Freedom of Information request. The results are that the good times seem to be drawing to close, though perhaps not fast enough for some. 

If the 2004 figures are right, then the total ad budget was £269,702, with the Guardian taking £231,944.

By 2007, the total spend had shot up to £1,016, 560.98.  The Guardian still got the biggest share - £275,412 plus £58,110 for ads on guardian.co.uk - but the share represented only 33% of the total.   (Beneficiaries of this diversification were many.  The Sunday Times got £81k, The Belfast Telegraph got £27k, The Western Mail and People Management both got £24k - even Gumtree got £19.95). 

The overall spend rose further in 2008, to £1,128,132.98, with the Guardian still doing well at £246,045.50 and guardian.co.uk £94,360, but overall share slipping further to 30%. .

Someone seems to have noticed all this in 2009.  Total recruitment advertising slumped to £368,154.89 - with the Guardian taking £50,808.75 and guardian.co.uk a mere £35,350, down to a 23% share.

These figures will puzzle (and irritate) many staff at the BBC, who thought Mark Thompson was cutting back the headcount over the three years in question, re-settling employees to avoid compulsory redundancies, and advertising most posts only internally.  Maybe turnover is higher than we thought.