Life after Auntie

How's it going for Anne Bulford, recently parted from her salary of at least £435k p.a. as Deputy Director General of the BBC ?

She's just emerged as a new non-executive director at Reach PLC (formerly Trinity Mirror) where she will chair the Audit & Risk committee. The previous incumbent got £53k for the role; mind you, Reach worries about risk - the word is used nearly 300 times in the last annual report.

Reach chairman is Nick Prettejohn. Nick was a member of the BBC Trust for three years up until its demise in 2017, and made it to the final shortlist to replace Lord Patten; David Cameron chose Rona Fairhead.

Will Anne have to bite the hand that used to feed her ?  Reach is a member of the News Media Association which campaigns on the view that "The BBC News website has had a profound impact on the digital strategies of UK news media publishers who are forced to compete with a state-funded provider of news and information which is free to consumers at the point of delivery."  However, Reach is the biggest single beneficiary of the BBC Local Democracy Reporter scheme, running nearly half the 'shared' reporters which are funded by £8m taken annually from licence-fee income.

Meanwhile we note that Anne, who started her career with KPMG. has returned to the mother ship, and joined the accountants' UK Public Interest Board (salary undisclosed).