Celerity

The speed-dating-style recruiting of senior management favoured by BBC Director of News James Harding moves relentlessly forward today, with first interviews for a new Director of World Service. So certain is Jim of finding a sensible short-list that the final interviews are scheduled for tomorrow.

For younger readers, this is almost like The X-Factor moving from the snaking queues of open auditions straight to the final, without the boot-camps, wildcards, judges' houses, live shows or public votes that pass for reasoned consideration.

• I wonder if James uses a human Timeform system to assess candidates. Clearly Renaissance digital journalism prefers the lithe and lissome to the louche and lardy, and a range of BBC hacks are keen to share their latest running times. The departing Director of World Service Peter Horrocks recorded 1.36.14 in the Oxford Half Marathon at the weekend, as other colleagues ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon. Peter bettered them all - indeed more than ten minutes faster than ITN refugee Jonathan Munro, currently erasing the distinction between "Home" and "World" newsgathering at the BBC. A story is a story is a story, seems to be the mantra of Munro, and all we need is storytellers.