Happy birthday to BBC Director of News Fran Unsworth, 64 today, and looking forward to an exit from the Corporation at the end of January.
There's a degree of restlessness in her troops, who are wondering why there's still no announcement of a successor. Does it mean that the successful candidate is more likely to be - sharp-intake of breath - internal ? Or, if external, they are either currently out of work, or likely to shown the door sharpish by their present employer ?
This isn't meant to be disrespectful, but I am surprised Desmond Tutu wasn't bigger. If you do a Twitter search across 'dinner' and 'Tutu', there's a veritable cascade of reminiscences, many from BBC hacks.
Sir Craig Oliver has decided he has something to bring to the world of podcasts, and launches a series of interviews (largely with former broadcasting colleagues) in the New Year. They're aimed at "people hoping to live a simpler, more fulfilled life."
The production company is Creators Inc, where the audio side is run by former Beeboids Gloria Abramoff and Wendy Robins. Sir Craig's series producer is another who's been in and out of the BBC, Barney Rowntree.
Still no sign of a new chair for Ofcom. Perhaps it's time to remind ourselves about this blog post, from Monisha Shah, back on gov,uk in November 2020. Monisha is a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, as well as being a former BBC member of staff who sits on Ofcom's Content Board.
"Media stories alleging key national appointments have been pre-decided by ministers before they are even advertised discourages good people from putting their name forward. It undermines trust in the administration and creates unfair pressures on so many others who serve their Boards in the best spirit of public service. This loss of public confidence in public appointments – and the potential loss of talent - won’t just be a loss to those institutions, it will be a loss to us all."
The long legal fight to protect the reputation of Kids Company trustees has made a sizable dent in the public purse.
"The Official Receiver has paid the following costs in connection with the Keeping Kids Company Limited directors’ disqualification proceedings:
Defendants’ legal costs pursuant to the Judgement of Mrs Justice Falk: £8,249,890;
Official Receiver’s external legal costs (including solicitors’ and counsels’ fees and other disbursements): £1,274,022;
Data hosting costs: £8,612."
There's a new provider of 'official' web stats from January. Ipsos Mori have won the five-year contract to provide data for the UK Online Measurement (UKOM) organisation, taking over from Comscore.
Ipsos have already provided data for the months of October and November - and in November, Reach plc overtook the BBC to move into fifth place in their charts (behind Google services, Facebook/Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.)
The BBC might have seen this coming; Ipsos' system is based on one already provided to the BBC called Compass. Compass already has a panel of 2,500, who share data from their smart phones, tablets, laptops and pcs via an app. Now, they form part of a 10,000-strong panel.
The incentive ? An online points reward programme. You get £20 worth of points for successfully joining the panel and a further £5, £7.50 or £10 worth of points for each month you continue to participate, depending on the number of devices you have.
In November, Ipsos calculate that Reach sites were visited by 38.1m 15+, with the BBC on 38m. Reach has nine national titles including the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, Daily Record and Sunday People as well as OK!; 110 regional offerings including the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Mail, Western Mail and Bristol Post; and 80 different online brands.
BBC Xmas Selector Charlotte Moore on Xmas Day ratings - could it have been written in advance ?
“Viewers chose the BBC on Christmas Day and entertained them in their millions with Strictly taking the top spot. Nothing brings the country together at Christmas quite like the BBC, there was something for everyone with the seven most popular programmes across the day that caps off a brilliant year on the BBC celebrating British creativity where we have delivered hits and award-winning work and seen huge audiences come to our shows."
Delightfully, just outside the Top Ten, was Mrs Brown's Boys, down a million on last year, at 2.8m.
Season's greetings to all readers, and especially suppliers of leads and lines, wherever you may be. I met a new reader last week, who, through selected posts, had come to the conclusion I was anti-BBC. I hope I haven't strayed too far from my ambition of being a proper, critical friend of the organisation that is at the heart of this country's culture and values, and needs all the support we can give it. Let me know if I go beyond teasing, please.
And while DG Tim Davie directs all new BBC activity outside London, BBC Archives don't seem to have got the message. In late 2022, they're moving the BBC's back catalogue from Perivale (and Bristol) to... Ruislip, nestling neatly inside the M25.
Working mother-of-two Carrie Johnson (recently photographed toiling on the garden terrace of No 10 during lockdown) follows more than 2,500 accounts on Twitter.
So it's probably by chance she's swept up quite a raft of GB News staff...
Alex Phillips, Darren Grimes, Mercy Muroki, Tom Harwood, Alastair Stewart, Dehenna Davison, Rache Sweeney, Mark Dolan, Dan Wootton, Calvin Robinson and Liam Halligan.
What is it with BBC News and the urge to pretend to viewers that you are somewhere other than where you really are ?
For anyone interested in TV technology, my live on #bbcnewssix from home used the LU Smart app and was all done on an iPhone 12 Pro. Huge thanks to @_danmcmillan for technical support and to the studio gallery @jonnywhitaker pic.twitter.com/fIsbtWDV8P
— Fergus Walsh (@BBCFergusWalsh) December 22, 2021
Here's a worrying bit of wonky shopping trolley stuff from Radio 4: 17th January sees the recording of a comedy pilot called Unsafe Space, ‘provocative, unorthodox stand-up comedy for the open-minded, bringing diversity of opinion to BBC Radio 4'.
Participants are set to include GB News presenter Andrew Doyle and Leo Kearse, who stood for Laurence Fox’s Reclaim party in May’s Holyrood elections.
It seems to be the work of Comedy Unleashed, whose Twitter account spookily boasts BBC non-exec Sir Robbie Gibb as a follower.
Nigel Farage has failed to sustain the audience figures achieved by his fireside chat with Donald Trump. He still heads GB News' top fifteen shows in the most recent week of BARB figures, but with just 83,000 viewers.
Changes ahead in the New Year at GB News. Darren Grimes, who is probably beside himself, finally gets a show, to be called Real Britain, at weekends. Colin Brazier moves to 4-6 weekdays. Alex Phillips moves to 2-4. Anne Diamond joins for eight weeks at weekend breakfast. 8pm Monday to Thursday becomes People's Question Time. And you'll be able to hear all this on DAB Radio, whether it makes sense or not.
Somebody presumably loses out, but their contributions are not celebrated in the press release.
Muriel Gray is to represent the interests of Scotland on the BBC Board.
Her first appearance as a BBC presenter was in February 1984 (aged 25) as a co-host of Saturday Live (there are very few new radio titles under the sun) on Radio 1, with producer Mark Radcliffe. Her first credit on tv was as part of Daytime on 2 in September 1985: "Casebook Scotland: 2: Developing New Products - Muriel Gray finds out how ski-bobs, soft toys and cash dispensers are designed."!
The first indication that Laura Kuenssberg wanted an easier life came in The Guardian at the end of October. The paper said she fancied a gig as as Today presenter. Now Laura has confirmed via Twitter that she will leave her role as Political Editor in April. It looks like, at this stage, what's left of BBC News management can only promise her a portfolio of presenting and reporting roles.
And now we cross to the complaints department of standards watchdog Ofcom, where the hard-pressed team investigated just 33 cases over the calendar year, finding breaches of their codes in 20 of them.
The quango still seems to set store by the bald numbers of complaints, rather than focus on the underlying validity of the claim and the damage caused. Notice anything about the top ten ?
The latest top ten from BBC Sounds, for January to November 2021, suggests there are already some long-lasting habits in the racy world of podcasts...
From a recent Freedom of Information enquiry to the BBC:
The total annual base salary cost for the 14 full time equivalents (EFT) Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) individuals with responsibility for both workforce and creative diversity and inclusion is £895,448.
...which is an average of just under £64k each.
Huw Edwards, like some other broadcasting giants (Piers Morgan, Eamonn Holmes, Holly Willoughby) has taken to speculating on career moves in public - almost as if he was negotiating his next job.
In The Sunday Times, he publicises a forthcoming S4C documentary, Huw Edwards yn 60: “By [January] 2023 I’ll have done 20 years as the face of the News at Ten. That is a milestone, isn’t it? I can’t foresee what’s going to happen, but do I want to leave now? No. Would I like to reach the ‘20 years’ milestone? Yes."
Sir Robbie Gibb, BBC non-executive and part owner of The Jewish Chronicle, has tweeted for the first time in 50 days.
This is a falsehood. I worked on many BBC election programmes. Staff may have had private feelings in all different directions, but the idea they would be so unprofessional as to express them in the context of an election programme is absurd. File under things that didn’t happen.
— Robbie Gibb (@RobbieGibb) December 18, 2021
Euronews is moving into the hands of a Portuguese investment firm, Alpac Capital.
It's been a rocky couple of years for the Lyon-based multi-lingual channel. NBC sold its 25% stake in the company in 2020, after ditching all sorts of big plans for Europe. That gave MGN, Media Global Networks a 90% holding.
Now MGN's Egyptian owner, Naguib Sawiris, is unloading his interest.
“In the coming months, we will have to build a resolutely digital project so that, with this transformation, Euronews can take its rightful place in Europe,” said Pedro Vargas David, chief executive of Alpac Capital.
Just a reminder that Sue Gray, the top civil servant who will be investigating whether the country's toppermost civil servant, Simon Case threw a party when he shouldn't have, is also charged with finding a new chair for Ofcom.
Bloomberg this week suggested that Tory peer Lord Grade is under consideration. Bloomberg's previous piece on the matter said that Tory peer Lord Black of Brentwood, better known as Telegraph Media Group Deputy Chairman Guy Black was approached to apply, and declined.
Perhaps headhunters Saxton Bampfylde have uncovered a list of Conservative members of the House of Lords...
The scale of the churn inside BBC News is huge. "Around 90% of people in the preference survey process will have had their first choice, just under 60% will be in a new team, 325 people will be in a new role altogether and 90 people have been promoted."
It's just a pity that, according to the NAO (see previous post), News has not really baselined the changes to measure success (or failure).
The latest National Audit Office report on the BBC's hunt for savings makes grim reading, especially as the Tories play a typically-shambolic-Johnsonian waiting game on settling the licence fee.
Here's some bits. The BBC is £41m short of its self-imposed savings target for 2021/22. You can get to £41m by combining, for example, the content spend on BBC4 and BBC6music.
The BBC has massively increased the amount of third-party funding for its own productions. The NAO warns "It has traded potential but uncertain long-term returns, in order to secure guaranteed funding to meet short-term cost pressures".
Between 2016-17 and 2020-21 the BBC’s staff costs fell by less than 2% in real terms. Yet the underlying size of the BBC workforce fell by almost 6% between 2016-17 and 2020-21. Between 2016-17 and 2020-21, income from the licence fee fell in real terms by more than 8%.
More than 1,800 staff were made redundant between 2017-18 and 2020-21, with almost 1,000 of these only taking place in 2020-21. Almost 1,100 of its redundancies were in the BBC’s Nations and News divisions, which together employ about 40% of the BBC’s workforce. About one third of the 1,100 redundancies involved front-line journalist roles.
The inertia over making savings in the BBC's News and Nations division cost real money. By the time things got going in July 2020, each month of delay cost about £1.7 million a month in lost savings in its News division.
Two warnings about the News reforms: "News unable to provide meaningful data demonstrating the roll-out of its reforms or the baseline level of performance against which improvements arising from the initiative will be assessed" and "A restructuring of senior management roles. Past NAO government audit experience shows that structural changes have limited impact on improving ways of working. Instead it is creating the right management/leadership environment that has most impact."
The number of staff working in the BBC's commercial operations from 1,325 in 2016/17 to 2342 in 2020/21 - a rise of 76%. Yet the return to licence fee payers in 2020-21 totalled totalled £210 million, exactly the same as 2016/17.
"We found no evidence of the BBC taking a consistent approach to the identification and application of lessons, specifically from its implementation of savings measures across the organisation"
Applications for BBC Director of News and Current Affairs closed on 22nd October; can headhunters Korn Ferry deliver a successful candidate before Christmas ? Have they timetabled in hoovering up of youthful social media outpourings ?
Meanwhile the News Content division, under Jonathan Munro, is more than doing its diversity bit.
We are delighted to announce four new appointments:
— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) December 14, 2021
🌟LGBT and Identity Correspondent: @LaurenM0ss (Salford)
🌟Midlands Correspondent: @NavtejJohal (Birmingham)
🌟Community Affairs Correspondent: @ashnagesh (Leeds)
🌟South West Correspondent: @JennyKumah (Plymouth) pic.twitter.com/Ah0ciGD7ee
Adam Smyth has been given custody of BBC Northern Ireland, while Peter Johnson drives the BBC further and deeper into impartiality.
Adam, 47 (Royal Belfast Academical Institution and MA English Language & Literature, Oxford) has been in charge of News and Current Affairs in Northern Ireland since 2018, but joined the BBC as a Northern Ireland trainee 26 years ago. He's recently been part of the Fellows Programme at Westminster Abbey Institute. His Twitter bio: Father. Penitent sinner. Baggies. Ravenhill. East Strand. Donard. Indie disco legend.
Viewing figures for Nigel Farage's GB News show featuring Trump, just released to the general public, confirm an audience of 183,000. However, all other shows in the network's Top 15 for the week were below 86,000 - even Farage's other appearances.
The Mail On Sunday tells us that Today presenter and former Political Editor Nick Robinson has been tapped up to apply for the job as BBC Director of News and Current Affairs.
How timely, then, is this extract from Tory MP Mark Francois' self-published biography, about his time leading the Bristol University Conservative Association, and his engagement with elections to lead the Federation of Conservative Students. He stood, and lost out to John Bercow.
I've enjoyed watching this story drop down the running order of the Mail Online through the day, and the social media ridicule it's attracted.
"Boris Johnson has condemned the BBC as 'shamefully frivolous, vengeful and partisan' over its coverage of the No 10 'Partygate' row.
The embattled Prime Minister turned his fury on the Corporation in the belief it has neglected its 'primary duty' of publicising the need for booster jabs to combat the new Omicron variant of Covid.
Mr Johnson angrily told friends that the BBC's exhaustive coverage of the party scandal has 'wasted' too much 'public time and attention' when it should be concentrating on urging the public to get their jabs now that 'Omicron is starting to rip'."
It was written by Glen Owen, who beat Jack Doyle to the role of Mail on Sunday political editor back in 2018. Jack Doyle is now, still, Director of Communications at No 10. Who might be the friends of Boris mentioned by Glen ? Could it be someone who shared a glass of average red wine with the Prime Minister when he was offered control of Ofcom ?
More BBC jobs are moving from London to Cardiff, where Huw Edwards recently demonstrated the scale of available office space. The 'Radio Science' team, producing The Life Scientific, All in the Mind and Inside Health, decamps next year. (I wonder if this mean All In The Mind and Inside Health have been recommissioned by Mohit Bakaya).
The staff will form part of a new "Audio Hub" with network radio producers already working Bristol. They can all ask Rhodri Talfan Davies about the best commuting routes to Cardiff. Cos that's where the new Senior Leader naturally required to run the Hub will be based.
The Free Speech Union has tweeted that it is supporting its member Professor Tim Luckhurst in his current tribulations at Durham University.
It was founded by Toby Young, and features on its Media Advisory Council, Paul Blanchard of the Media Masters podcast, Julia Hartley-Brewer of TalkRadio, Allison Pearson, Telegraph columnist and Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes.
Radio 4 listeners could be forgiven for thinking there's a new Letter from America-type slot emerging just after the World At One. Since the start of December, it's been home to the ten-part Male Order, an investigation of the US-based online sperm donor market. It was presented by Brooklyn-based Aleks Krotowski. Next week sees the start of The Hackers, a ten-part series hosted by Gabriella 'Biella' Coleman, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University and faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Are these cultural choices - or are US-made podcasts cheaper ?
Simon McCoy is leaving GB News. If we knew the notice period in his contract, it might be possible to work out what triggered the decision. He started out on the network in June, in his preferred afternoon slot, though paired with trainee presenter and former Brexit MEP Alex Phillips. In August, he was moved to the breakfast show, paired with Kirsty Gallagher. In October, Simon married actress Emma Samms.
Jack, 42, was brought into Mr Johnson's team of reputation burnishers by Lee Cain just after the General Election, from his job as associate editor for politics at the Daily Mail. He eventually became deputy to another old Mail hand, James Slack, before emerging as No 10's Director of Communications in April.
He started in journalism with the Press Association, moving from home affairs to the Westminster beat. In that role he moved to the Mail, where, after a largely scoop-free spell*, he became associate editor for politics and chief leader writer, under Paul Dacre and Geordie Greig. He did, however, appear back in the Mail's news pages when Boris and Carrie moved into Downing Street in July 2019.
* In 2010, Jack reported that, by his calculation, Mohammed had outstripped Oliver as the most popular name for baby boys (by adding the various spellings - Muhammad, Mohammad, Muhammed, Mohamed, Mohamad, Muhamed, Mohammod, Mahamed, Muhamad, Mahammed and Mohmmed.)Jack D is gonner but 🛒 will be thinking: 'not now, gotta keep him as the sacrifice for Case's inquiry then - Im shocked shocked I tell you to discover there was a party & I was misled - do a deal with Jack to keep all the wallpaper horror buried...'
— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) December 10, 2021He was 'Highly Commended' in the 2015 British Journalism Awards, alongside David Jones, Sam Greenhill, and Ian Drury for "US Gulag That Shames the West" – the campaign for the closure of Guantanamo Bay and the release of Shaker Aamer
They'll get the hang of it eventually. Toilers supporting BBC Chairman Richard Sharp have released three more sets of board minutes, for June, July and August. Except that the link for June takes you to the August minutes....
Anyway, there were new tasks for some Board Members handed out in July. Sir Robbie Gibb, clearly a man of outstanding business acumen, was appointed Chair of the Fair Trading Committee as of 1 August; and the Chairman himself has to turn up for the Scotland Committee and the Audit & Risk Committee until further review.
Richard Sharp already chairs the Nominations Committee, and Sir Robbie leads on England, but has yet to produce minutes of a meeting.
The BBC, under the watchful, embedded eyes of the National Audit Office, has a Critical Projects Portfolio, to which things get added when they are either eye-wateringly expensive, becoming eye-wateringly expensive, or at risk of failure. The Board has added the Diversity and Inclusion plan and the BBC’s diversity commitments to the list. "This would ensure more detailed oversight of all aspects of workforce and creative diversity initiatives, with a monthly report submitted to the Operations Committee and subsequently to the quarterly Audit and Risk Committee."
We note that in August, a month after this meeting, Anne Foster, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, left the BBC (where she said she'd always wanted to work as a child) to return to a job in the Commons. Her BBC salary never bothered the list of those on more than £150k; a fair distance from that awarded to June Sarpong. Maybe, as the Board recommended, there's an interesting topic for 'a more systematic approach to exit interviews'.
Paul Dacre, 73 (University College School, Hampstead and BA English, Leeds) has shared his post-Ofcom-dalliance thoughts with The Spectator, and they don't seem to be paywalled. Here's the opening, highlighting the Prime Minister's approach to fair selection.
'You can appoint your own chief executive,’ boomed the PM over a rather sad bottle of wine. He was asking if I would like to chair the media regulator Ofcom because, he declared, he was determined to do something to end the usual suspects’ control of our public bodies. It was soon apparent that I couldn’t appoint my own chief executive. Or take people with me. And as all the key positions at Ofcom are chosen by ‘independent’ panels, the chairman’s role is heavily circumscribed.
BBC News is taking the knee in support of Tim "Across The UK" Davie, as he picks the next Director of News.
Last night, it was clear that the producers of the 10 O'clock News have to insert new codes in presenter Huw's scripts - COFF and CON - which instruct the sensitive Welshman to put his black overcoat on for some items, and remember to take it off for others, as he travels the country to present from a balcony and shiny office desk, wherever the day's main news stories aren't happening.
It's also clear that the directors are worried that this new on-the-road look might insufficiently distract from the programme content. So again, last night from Salford Quays, a perfectly standard explanatory interview with Health Editor Hugh Pym was visually interrupted three times by drone shots of the site - for 7 seconds, 11 seconds and 9 seconds, in a 2m 50 sequence.
The logic is surely that, when back in London, Huw is doing one of these visually-boring factual interviews, the director should cut away to a shot of the lift shaft, with lifts moving up and down.
After two years of negotiations, BBC Studioworks is to operate the new TV studio at Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. The facility is firmly aimed at entertainment shows, and is co-funded by the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council.
It should open in the autumn next year. Now all they need to find is clients.
Congratulations to Cecilia Persson, working recently as a Project Director at BBC Studios, on her elevation to Managing Director BBC Children's, charged with implementing the move to the commercial side of the BBC. Until January she was with Warner Media, as VP Programming & Content Strategy EMEA; Acquisition & Co-Production International. Who says it's only the BBC that layer up job titles ?
The BBC has a secret squirrel project in the States coming next year, and needs a big cheese to make it a success - someone, it seems, who has a full understanding of mangled English...
BBC Studios is the commercial arm of BBC. A new marketing department has been created to support all divisions within studios including news, streaming services, content licensing and consumer products. The biggest initiative is a new direct to consumer service slated to launch in 2022. The ideal candidate must operate in a startup environment, where leaders are owners, wear multiple hats, and effortlessly think and act both strategically and tactically: from the development of broad strategic ideas, to execution. They must be comfortable in the context of constant innovation, striving for the highest standards, while also maintaining flexibility and agility as we iterate with customers.
There are 30 ministers who attend Cabinet meetings, and a further 86 who don't. All busy this morning.
One wonders if Cleo "Gazelle" Watson, the Downing Street special assistant who left No 10 alongside Dominic Cummings, will have something to say soon. She was rehired as "Chief of Staff" to Alok Sharma in his COP 26 role in January this year. In May this year, she was said to have written a novel, provisionally titled "Whips !".
Toilers at the Daily Mail in Northcliffe House, Kensington, can relax - they're not being prised from their leased HQ, home to their operations since the move from Fleet Street in 1988. The Times recently shared a rumour that they were off to a disused department store area of the Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd's Bush.
Now they've signed a new 15 year-lease on 103,000 sq ft (perhaps just three floors ?) as the whole building is being refurbished and renamed Barkers Building. The deal will see the Daily Mail make a temporary move into another building on Kensington High Street owned by the same landlord, for a two-year period while the works take place, moving back in the second quarter of 2024. They are promised "upgraded wellness-focused features", which should please Paul Dacre.
Professor and Mrs Luckhurst having a post-Liddle discussion with students.
(1) pic.twitter.com/hNKWUgnewL
— Redd_Duskedd (@RDuskedd) December 4, 2021
Bunch of inadequates thought it was clever to walk out on a speech tonight because they were afraid of what the speaker said… @South_CollegeDU
— Dorothy Luckhurst (@LuckhurstDot) December 3, 2021
"The BBC's Alan Yentob" is again on the reporting beat across all BBC News outlets. He's flown to Santa Monica, in California, to meet his son's godfather, Mel Brooks, who has his autobiography "All About Me" out in time for Christmas.
Presumably, the BBC's News commissioners believe there's something new for audiences to discover. Mr Brooks' film The Producers, has been shown on the BBC 13 times; Young Frankenstein 10 times, and Blazing Saddles 14 times. On the BBC 10pm News, presenter Huw Edwards directed us to a longer version of Mr Yentob's feature, to be shown on the BBC News Channel on New Year's Eve.
As a former Today colleague of Rod Liddle and Tim Luckhurst, it's interesting to follow what happened at South College, Durham University last Friday night, when Rod was guest speaker at the invitation of Tim.
South College is new, yet has perhaps surprisingly acquired a vintage veneer - with formal gowned dinners, a Latin motto (Libertas, Aequalitas, Civitas Totius Mundi, which they translate as Freedom, Equality and Global Citizenship), and a crest. Here's the crest explained...
Our crest includes the Torch of Liberty, St Cuthbert's Cross and an owl. The torch lights the way to freedom and enlightenment. It represents our support for the free exchange of ideas and individual liberty. St Cuthbert is the North of England's best-loved saint. His cross is a widely admired symbol of Durham University. It expresses South College's pride in the historic University and county of which it is part. Owls live in the woods near college. They represent wisdom. The the owl in our logo also represents a popular and distinctive College mascot. Oswald, the carved wooden owl plays a central role in the college matriculation ceremony, at formal dinners, and at college balls. He is also represented on the college lectern.
The dinner is being investigated at University level: "The University categorically does not agree with the comments reported from a speech given by an external speaker at this occasion, and is concerned at reports that the behaviours exhibited at the occasion fall short of those that we expect." Perhaps they'll be having a word with Tim in both his roles, as Principal of South College and as Associate Pro Vice Chancellor (Engagement)
The BBC's expenses system started spluttering back into life in Quarter 1 2021/22, with an number of senior managers out and about entertaining.
One was Chief Content Officer, Charlotte Moore. Over the three months, she records hospitality for two meetings with drama producers, a production meeting with drama writers, and a meeting to discuss drama projects. Either Director of Drama Piers Wenger wasn't there, or he didn't move to pick up the tabs...
As our BBC bulletins, particularly on radio, are peppered with the voices of new, as yet unfamiliar reporters, it's worth remembering the experience that has been shed to create space for them. And the shameful technique of meaningless re-locations that was used to edge that experience out.
Meanwhile, over at the technical edge of BBC News, new jobs as Lead Technical Architect, News Online, and Senior Product Manager, BBC News Apps allow successful candidates to choose their base, from Cardiff, Glasgow or London.
The Times (paywalled) has news of financial difficulties for Paul Blanchard, known to many as the apparently-charming host of the Media Masters series of podcasts. It used to be home to many conversations with BBC News people, past and present, perhaps flattered by the title 'Masters'; this line of guests seems to have petered out since Mr Blanchard's management style featured in Private Eye.
The most recent Beeboid appeared in April; before that, he featured Stephen Sackur, Tim Harford, Jonathan Munro, Jon Sopel, Lorraine Heggessey, Jamie Angus and Richard Frediani. Has he captured the next Director of BBC News and Current Affairs ?
Is it too late for Martin Clarke, outgoing editor of the Mail Online, to apply for the job running BBC News ? His departure was noted by BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan in his new regular Media Studies slot on Today, Radio 4.
Martin, along with others at the top of the Mail, has been obsessed with stories about the BBC as much as those featuring Kardashians. From Gravesend Grammar, he worked on the student paper Epigram at Bristol University, joining a local press agency straight from college, before moving to the Mail in 1987. He made his reputation as a picture selector, bringing 20 to 30 new snaps to editorial meetings. That formed the basis of the Sidebar of Shame that drives much of the Mail's Online traffic - and led Esquire to describe him as "Britain's most influential newspaperman of the past quarter century" in 2016.
While we're on about old Tweets, my attention has been drawn to another from corporate strategist, Tom Wrathmell, now elevated to BBC Director Across The UK Strategy. T'riffic career advice for someone to consider if they want to follow in Tom's footsteps...
Congrats Jacob - sounds exciting! Strategy is just identifying and then making choices. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s more complicated than that. Good luck!
— Tom Wrathmell (@media__type) December 8, 2020
A stretched day at the Mail yesterday, with most of their big names deployed on the apparently crystal clear injustices meted out by the Court of Appeal in the matter of Ted Verity v Meghan Markle; Piers Morgan, Stephen Glover, Comment, plus four other pieces, including "Questions that should have been heard in court".
So the pursuit of Amol Rajan, the BBC's republican Media Editor, is limited to a full collection of his past anti-Royal tweets - and the deployment of Dame Jenni Murray: "It makes me uncomfortable that his impartiality continues to be a cause for concern. And if nothing else, he has already broken the number one rule for journalists: ‘Don’t become the story’.
I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the production meeting, when they discussed Huw Edwards, where he'd land on a sexy scale, Clive Myrie and Nicholas Witchell.
The Mail, under new seven-day editor Ted Verity, has been worrying the ankles of BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan, digging up old pieces he wrote at The Independent, and deploying Janet Street-Porter to be rude about him.
It's got to him.
2/ … I would like to say sorry for any offence they caused then or now. I’m completely committed to impartiality and hope our recent programmes can be judged on their merits
— Amol Rajan (@amolrajan) December 2, 2021
Maybe Amol will cover all this in the paper review, when he's next on Today....
Whilst Nadine Dorries may not be sure how long the BBC will last, someone in the DCMS is allowing Auntie to sign new contracts that will run for 22 years. It's looking for a property developer to help provide a new base in Birmingham...
The BBC is expanding its operations in Birmingham. Additional BBC Radio and News teams will be moving to Birmingham in the next few years. The BBC has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to increase the amount of content it produces in the Midlands, particularly in Birmingham.
The expansion of the BBC in Birmingham coincides with the BBC's current lease at The Mailbox expiring in June 2026, as well as clarity on the BBC's sustainability strategy, the adoption of new hybrid working patterns, and wider technological changes.
The initial term of the contract will run for a period of 22 years plus two optional additional extension period of 12 months each.
Value of contract
£50,000,000
Whilst David Blunkett's article accusing Radio 4 bosses of 'taking their audience for granted' gets widespread republication, there seems to be kink in the pipeline of new commissions.
We were promised news of the successful bidder for the "Consumer Journalism Strand" (aka The You and Yours slot), the Science Magazine Slot (aka Inside Science) and Health Magazine Slot (currently occupied by All In The Mind) in November. My calendar says it's now December...
Garry Richardson's sense of humour, perhaps not the most highly-tuned of his many assets, led him to read Today's horse-racing tips out with lip-smacking relish at 0630 this morning. "Two for Haydock - at 20 minutes to 1, it's Number 8, Seymour Cox..."
By 0730, the horse's name was corrected to "Seymour Sox".
