Shell-like

It's clearly hard to crack the carapace of BBC Audio & Music. The man leading the "SWAT Team" (c Neil Midgley) trying to find ways of "doing fewer things better" in the division has determined it's a full time job, less than a month into the exercise.  Ceri Thomas, Editor of Today, will be covered by acting deputy Jasmin Buttar, until the task is complete. 

In any business, anyone from outside a department coming in to save money must be as welcome as Vincent Price in Witchfinder General. The innate conservatism of the alpha males running the BBC Radio Networks (and Gwyneth Williams) makes the job doubly difficult.  Most have been schooled well by Jenny Abramsky in the art of acquiring budgets, rather than cutting them.  They have collectively seen off at least two inquiries by the NAO which sought to understand why BBC radio production costs so much more than that of commercial competitors  And, as managers, they know that 20% off a total annual spend of £600m, puts their coteries at risk.

Worse, Ceri, though running a radio programme, comes from the evil empire of News. It would look bad if he outthought them.  Game on, apparently.