Schmoozing

Press junkets are not always 100% successful, but yesterday's tour round MediaCityUK, hosted by BBC DG Mark Thompson and Director of the North Peter Salmon, for local, regional and national journalists, seems to have produced largely positive results.

On workspace and design, there's gentle ribbing in The Independent.   The Manchester Evening News picks up on Mark Thompson saying Salford will become a magnet for stars (Breakfast News on BBC1 will certainly be hoping that's true from 2012).  The Guardian majors on Thompson-fuelled speculation that more space could be taken at Salford, with the move of "a channel" there  - "it could be an opportunity to save money".  That'll have the Controllers on the 6th floor of TVC twitching this morning.  The Mail tries to chase down the money being spent, in it's usual alarmist way.

To spice up the copy for the hacks, there was also an announcement of 17 performances by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in June, from their new base at MediaCityUK. They'll be spread across the national radio networks and BBC Radio Manchester.   This burst of activity by the Orchestra may not be entirely selfless; the Delivering Quality First teams are still nagging away at the BBC running 5 orchestras (plus some financial support for the Ulster Orchestra) in the face of 20% cuts.  More on this soon.