Target practice

BBC Director of Radio and Education James Purnell has set his first target, published on medium.com, but presumably also shared via an all-staff email.

"Four years ago, we were reaching 95% of 15–44 year olds. Now that’s 92%. We want to turn that around so we continue to serve all audiences.

"In my division, Radio and Education, we’ve set ourselves the goal of stopping that decline this year and starting to grow the year after."

The latest RAJAR quarterly figures show the reach of BBC Radio amongst 15-44 year-olds down year on year, from 56.4% to 56.2%. Commercial radio is reaching 73% of the same age group. James promises to deliver a new metric which will show reach to under-16s.

It may be August, but the talk around Broadcasting House has already turned to DG-succession; you may not have heard the starting gun, but the race is on. Team Harding are expected next on the track with some News stuff, mid-September.