A declaration of interest by SNP MP John Nicholson, interviewing prospective Ofcom chair Lord Grade at the Culture Select Committee this morning - Lord Grade's sister, Anita Land used to be the bouffant tv presenter's agent.
Lord Grade said he first contacted the headhunters for the job on November 26th; entertainingly, the DCMS revealed on November 29th that they'd extended the deadline for applications to December 13th. Paul Dacre wrote to the Times on November 19 to say he hadn't re-applied.
Retention of diverse staff is an issue for the BBC.
In the most recently published BBC Diversity and Inclusion Plan for 2020-23, a number of employees had feature pages.
Anne Foster, Head of Workforce Diversity & Inclusion, left in August last year.
Miguela Gonzalez, then Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Nations, moved to Cardiff University in 2021 and is now with protein research group Abcam
Jackie Christie, then Workforce Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Race, resigned last month.
Still there - Tyler Edwards, who was a BBC Wales Digital Journalism Apprentice, and is now a BBC Wales journalist; Mike Sweeney, Radio Manchester; Leena Haque, Senior UX Designer & BBC Neurodiversity Lead; Neil Johnson, BBC News floor manager; and Su Brown & Caz Brett, Co-chairs, BBC Pride staff network
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Enda Brady, a Sky News correspondent for 17 years, is leaving to set up a media consultancy.
Enda, 46 (St Mary's Christian Brothers School Enniscorthy and BA Journalism, University of Central Lancashire) started out with PA, then moved to the Yorkshire Post, where he won 1998 BT Young Journalist of the Year for Yorkshire and the North-East. The screen then beckoned with ITV Meridian and ITV Central, before joining Sky in 2005.
Two new non-executives have joined the all-new BBC Commercial Board. Gunjan Bhow, 51 (Sharda Mandi Vinay Mandir private school, Ahmedabad, University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Business School) was most recently Global Chief Digital Officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Since leaving last year he has assembled a range of board memberships, including one with BUPA starting this month. One presumes he may be spending some time in the UK, rather than his home in Palo Alto.
Bhavneet Singh, 49, (all I can find is Manchester Business School) moved to the Surrey stockbroker belt last year, not far from the old Top Gear airfield. Poptropica, Tiny Bop and Hopster are in his product portfolio. "Away from work, Bhav is a huge Pink Floyd fan and a passionate cricket follower, who loves to watch all forms of the game."
As you might expect with a frozen licence fee, the big totals in the BBC's Annual Plan for 2022/23 are unchanged, but there are winners and losers. 'Online' faces a £36m cut; Orchestras and Proms have to make do with £2m less; World Service is better off by £33m.
Elsewhere, 'technology' gets an £8m cut, whilst 'marketing' adds £5m to the previous year's budget.
Here's a new target from BBC Director General Tim Davy. "By 2027 we want 25% of our staff to come from a lower socio-economic background."
The BBC is thought to be the first media organisation in the UK to set such a target, which was first promised for July 2021. It'll be tricky; in the most recent internal surveys, only 80% of existing staff were happy to share their 'school type', which is not always a guide to socio-economic background. On sharing class, there was 'no data' or 'prefer not to say' returns for 21.5% of UK public service staff. 21.2% were prepared to say 'Working Class/Low socio-economic'; just 7.7% had experience of 'free school meals'.
Breakfast with Eamonn and Isabel has finally broken into the list of Top 15 programmes on GB News. For the week beginning 14th March, the duo recorded an average of 47,400 viewers on Tuesday morning, and 47, 200 on Wednesday. Farage still tops the list, with 96,000 viewers on Wednesday.
In the same week, Kay Burley at Breakfast on Sky News average 190k.
"We strive to become the UK’s most inclusive employer." And, to that end, it seems the BBC needs a new Director of Diversity and Inclusion, who will report to the Chief People Officer, whoever that might be at time of interview.
It seems the job doesn't report to the BBC's most expensive executive, June Sarpong, who is Director of Creative Diversity. As far as I can tell, Anne Foster, who was billed as BBC Head of Workforce Diversity & Inclusion, left before August last year. This time, the job vacancy is being recruited via Audeliss, who claim 'to level the playing field for diverse leaders'.
Readers have asked about the disappearance of Up All Night on Radio 5 Live. In case you think Covid's no longer a problem, the station's management say there is a shortage of staff, and overnight programming has been "temporarily suspended" until at least April 4th. So you get another transmitter tuned to BBC World Service between 1am and 5am.
April 25th is the launch date for TalkTV. The theme, from Sitting Duck Music, feels more portentous than, say, Sharon Osbourne. Sitting Duck was founded by Rob May and Simon Hill, who have worked with TalkTV's style guru Erron Gordon on GMB and Peston.
#TalkTV launches Monday 25th April and so does @piersmorgan’s new primetime show @PiersUncensored 👀 pic.twitter.com/jat6c6dU6g
— Erron Gordon (@errongordon) March 28, 2022
Can't be long now until the publication of the new BBC Annual Plan. Not the Soviet style document you might think, it has become a mishmash of marketing speak and pious hopes, with very few key performance indicators and measurable objectives.
The BBC says "The Annual Plan is an essential part of our accountability to licence fee payers and is a key document in the relationship between the BBC and Ofcom, which is our regulator. It provides a framework on which we can be judged as to whether we have delivered our mission and public purposes."
Mmm. Will it honestly reflect the changes that flow from a frozen licence fee ? What will Michael Grade, the only real reader that now matters, think about it ?
The BBC is claiming at least a share of the credit for "The Power Of The Dog" which won an Oscar for Jane Campion as Best Director. Rose Garnett, departing Director of BBC Film, and an Executive Producer on The Power Of The Dog, says: “We’re proud to have supported The Power Of The Dog from its development, and so thrilled that Jane Campion’s work on this beautifully crafted film has been recognised by the Academy. Congratulations to Jane and the entire team on this fantastic achievement.”
Other executive producers were Simon Gillis, COO of See-Saw Films (they worked with Jane Campion on 'Top Of The Lake'); and John Woodward of Brightstar.
The Power Of The Dog has been available on Netflix since November.
Someone at Radio 4 news has been sitting on their hands for too long.
This person has been itching for a fight - a fight to lead the 8am national news. They probably didn't even try very hard when Grace Jones slapped Russell Harty on prime-time tv in 1981.They didn't get their way when Jeremy Clarkson landed at least two blows on Piers Morgan at the 2004 British Press Awards. Not a muscle moved when Stephen Gerrard was allegedy involved in Southport bar fracas in December 2008. They failed to get Clarkson's fracas with Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon as the lead headline in March 2015. They might have had a facial twitch when Conor MacGregor and Machine Gun Kelly brawled at the Video Music Awards in September 2021.
This morning's most important news: An America actor and comedian has slapped and shouted at another American comedian.
What the World's Greatest Living Foreign Correspondent takes on the road...
"I take Chinese Keemun tea bags, which are hard enough to get in the UK let alone in those countries with no proper tea tradition. On long, difficult trips, I also like to take a plastic bottle of single malt whisky – the plastic makes it less detectable – and Cuban cigars in case there’s time to relax and look at a view. And when I go to countries where the oysters are good, I try to remember a little bottle of Tabasco sauce."
And presumably some extra cushions to make the howdah more bearable.
The Oxford Literary Festival, which started yesterday, is peppered with BBC names as 'interviewers'.
Nick Higham, former media correspondent, talks to Delia Smith, Nicolas Crane, Muir Gray, Derek Frost and chairs a panel on the Oxford Vaccine. Former World Service boss Mary Hockaday interviews Lionel Shriver, Chris Bail, and former BBC correspondent Martin Bell. Former BBC News producer and presenter Matthew Stadlen gets no less than 15 events to chair. Former News 24 presenter Gwenan Edwards gets 4. Lucian Hudson, one time BBC World editor gets 2. Hanging on in there, James Naughtie talks to Edmund de Waal.
Does Rupert Murdoch know that Rebekah Brooks is investing in a new tv channel based on a presenter who's talking like this ?
Piers Morgan takes on Keir Starmer.
— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) March 24, 2022
Don't miss Piers Morgan Uncensored on TalkTV!@piersmorgan | @PiersUncensored | #TalkTVpic.twitter.com/xBdn1OZ869
Paul Hughes is stepping down this summer, after 23 years as director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the BBC Singers. His last gig will be the first night of the 2022 Proms, which might help get the leaving do through on expenses.
It means Controller R3 Alan "Wavey" Davey will have to find someone new to lead/drag the Orchestra to Stratford East Bank, away from their beloved and still-unsaleable Maida Vale.
With a frozen licence fee, the BBC often ruminates on its Orchestras. They're still trying to find a new base for the BBC Concert Orchestra, somewhere "Across The UK", probably beyond their three-year Great Yarmouth residency.
Former BBC Executive Helen Boaden reviewed RTE's Orchestra 'problem' in 2018, and recommended a transfer of the Symphony Orchestra and associated Choirs to the control of Dublin's National Concert Hall. That move finally happened in January this year, with 8 million euros 'saved' by RTE, and transferred with Government support to the NCH.
Meanwhile former R3 and Proms Controller Roger Wright (in the days when doing both jobs was fashionable and good value) has just been named Concert Hall Manager of the Year for his work at Snape Maltings.
I know it's early days, but if you had to save either BBC3 or BBC4 before the end of the financial year, the figures lean only one way...
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The funsters at GB News are piloting a comedy quiz show at the end of this month. "Ministry of Offence" will be hosted by Steve N Allen, the pan-faced newsreader from The Mash Report, with teams lead by GB News 'Headliners' regulars Diane Spencer and Leo Kearse.
Which Michael Grade has Nadine Dorries appointed at Ofcom ? The plain-speaking public servant, blessed with a genuine common sense and good communication skills, or the slightly dyspeptic showbiz luvvie-turned-commercial opportunist and Tory peer who doesn't quite understand how news works ?
"I wish those in the BBC who asked for more money from the Government would watch their own news bulletins and see what is going on, with people having to decide whether to heat or eat, and the increased use of food banks. There is a complete lack of reality about what is going on in Britain with this regressive tax. " House of Lords, January 2022
“It is the BBC’s journalism that too often lets the corporation down. The Iraq war broadcast about the dodgy dossier that ended with the death of Dr David Kelly; the failure to transmit its own exposure of Jimmy Savile; the unforgivable and mistaken traducing of Lord McAlpine; the coverage of the arrest of (the innocent) Sir Cliff Richard – the list goes on and on. To this charge sheet must be added widespread accusations of bias about election coverage from all parties, Brexit bias, unbalanced coverage of the Middle East, Scottish politics and a host of other topics.” Telegraph May 2021
“Given the available evidence, or rather lack of it, it is worrying that the BBC has so far defended its report that there were ‘clearly’ anti-Muslim shouts from the bus, while the antisemitic gestures were only ‘alleged’. They need to provide the evidence to support their defence or rethink and issue an urgent correction and apology.” Lord Grade to Jewish News, December 2021
“An emotional interview is conducted with the father of a dead Palestinian youth who had been killed committing a fatal terror attack. However, the report failed to show the emotional distress caused to Israelis by any of these recent attacks. This is inexcusable." Criticising an Orla Guerin report on the BBC in October 2015
“You have to look to see what you would lose and what you would gain. What you would gain from privatisation is you could build a really big media business around Channel 4. I think the channel needs to be freed up really to move ahead.” On possible Channel 4 privatisation, December 2015
“The place is so bureaucratic it’s terrifying. It’s caught up in processes. Talk to producers outside, agents and so on and the BBC is in danger of becoming the last resort. You go to the BBC when you can’t sell a programme anywhere else because it’s such a nightmare.” On BBC TV in 2015
Eddie Mair, 56, has formally announced his intention to retire from LBC later this year. Mischievous reporters have suggested that's because he's had an hour lopped off his drivetime show, to accommodate Andrew Marr's (62) bi-media extravaganza
In a hardball commercial radio, that might suggest a salary reduction - something it was claimed that Eddie was at least reluctant to contemplate at the BBC, where he was on £300k +. But in fact, Eddie says his decision was taken before Marr hove into his view and airtime.
He joined LBC in September 2018 to host his own afternoon show, shoving Ian Dale to 7pm. In that time, he has increased his weekly audience by 53%, to 1.1 million listeners. By my calcs, he added 381,000 weekly listeners...
Record listening figures for @BBCPM. 4.2 million people can't be wrong. And if they are...who cares? 2nd biggest news show on @BBCRadio4
— Eddie Mair (@eddiemair) February 9, 2017
The modern BBC eschews hierarchical organograms, but Tim Davie is probably on permanent antibiotics for pecking order problems.
Following the announcement that his HR leaders are packing it in, the BBC DG has announced that their replacement will sit on his Executive Board, an honour denied to the current incumbents. Odd move, you might think, as Chief Operating Officer Leigh Tavaziva already sits on said board, and the new HR Director will report to her.
It can sometimes be uncomfortable having a deputy alongside you at board meetings, especially a point-scoring, corner-defending operation like the BBC Executive But, seen in conjunction with the move of Bob Shennan to the Elysian Fields of BBC Studios, it highlights the position of Bob's star recruit, the part-time Director of Creative Diversity, June Sarpong, pro-rata the BBC's most expensive manager.
June reported to Bob, and now reports to Leigh. A new HR Director (and probably the organisational ascetics of McKinsey, still patrolling the wide-open spaces of New Broadcasting House) would argue that it would simply wrong for a key advisor to have a board seat, when the overall senior manager in charge of staff in a people-heavy company, did not.
Blimey. Has my teasing gone too far ?
Wendy Aslett and Rachel Currie, the top BBC HR job sharers, are leaving. They got the gig in October 2019, replacing Valerie Hughes D'Aeth.
Rachel only took home £63k in 2021; Wendy landed somewhere just above £150k. This made the pair considerably cheaper than Val, who was on £330k when she left.
The new replacement will report to Chief Operating Officer Leigh Tavaziva, with Bob Shennan off to do radio things again. HR and Finance in the same division ? Who knows what savings can be made, eh ?
Only marginal pickings in the latest list of senior BBC staff expenses.
BBC News Content supremo Jonathan Munro flew to Washington in early October, for a mere £3,491.67. Later that month Jon Sopel announced he was leaving the role of BBC North America Editor.
Controller Radio 4 Mohit Bakaya managed a visit to the Altstadt Hotel, Potsdam. Controller Radio 3 Alan Davey managed a couple of trips to Nottingham, as he tries to track down an acceptable base for the BBC Concert Orchestra. Head of Sport Barbara Slater popped over to the Novotel, Monte Carlo.
Busiest traveller was topman-with-trainers Tim Davie, who managed nights in Manchester, Cambridge, Richmond, Birmingham, Cardiff, and Newcastle, as well as seven stays in London hotels, when Henley was clearly too far away. He also popped over to The Hoxton, in Amsterdam, where presumably leisurewear is de rigueur in the dining room.
Not, at first sight, anywhere to sit down in Channel 4 News' new Leeds studio....
Channel 4 News just broadcast our first ever trail from new Leeds Studio pic.twitter.com/8oPLWvapMs
— Oliver King (@oliverjamesking) March 22, 2022
A new crossroads for public service radio is coming up on the satnav. BBC DG Tim Davie has moved 'Covid' Bob Shennan, currently Group Managing Director, into the commercial world of BBC Studios, as its first Director of Audio.
The Managing Director's responsibility for HR, diversity, talent development and pandemic communications moves into the control of the Chief Operating Officer. It's a headline saving of £310,00 in terms of Bob's salary, but Leigh Tavaziva might get a wee boost. There'll will be some anxiety in Bob's immediate entourage, but expect some to move with him.
Bob's new focus will be on 'growing the audio business with colleagues across the organisation'. In some ways, this takes him back to December 2007, when he left the BBC to become Director at Channel 4 Radio, in charge of launching three new national stations. Channel 4. The project was cancelled within a year, citing an advertising slump.
If Bob can make the business case, he can set up unlimited streaming services and podcasts very quickly. But what about these 'colleagues across the organisation' ? Network Radio Production, alongside News, Sport and Children's, escaped the grasping arms of BBC Studios when tv production was moved out of salary scrutiny. Children's is now belatedly preparing to join the Studios family. Will Network Radio Production, run as BBC Audio by Graham Ellis, be in Bob's sights ?
The old argument against 'privatising' more of BBC radio programme making was that the outside market wasn't big or mature enough to cope with the scale of the output. But there was also an almost spiritual belief in 'public service sound mixing' (Were The Beatles better mixed at Maida Vale than Abbey Road ?), and the 'special requirements of speech broadcasting'.
Those arguments are harder to make now; indies do sound mixing for The Proms, BBC Studios Events do state occasions, and LBC and Times Radio (and myriad podcasters) make speech programmes of style and quality. And bench-marking of radio production costs is not in BBC Audio's favour. The landscape of BBC Radio will change dramatically over the next (and last ?) licence fee period, and it will be harder to separate from the future of the BBC as a whole after that.
An important new job for the BBC as it tries to reconnect with under 30s: a Commissioning Editor, Popular Music TV. The archives of the 60s, 70s, and 80s remind us that recording great current artistes in performance used to be second nature at the BBC. Now, we spend most of the licence fee on festivals, leaving the studio stuff to the patchy Jools Holland show. Longer performances are tied to old-fashioned album releases, in uncomfortable deals with big record companies.
Lorna Clarke is in charge of choosing the right candidate. I hope she had little to do with the detail of the job advert, in which a computer has hand-blended marketing and HR speak, with a flavour of someone writing in their second language, sprinkled with crumbled freeze-dried bollocks.
You will develop distinctive talent led music discovery with enhanced choice and control that builds relationships with fans, artists and audiences. You will harness your brilliant working relationships with the music industry and our partners to build genuine creative ambition around talent discovery, breadth of artist stories, refreshing ways of using our great archive, and ambitious music on-demand treatments. The vision for Pop Music across the content portfolio is to deliver the best music for audiences and fostering the BBC’s crucial role in developing new talent. This role will need to utilise the might of the BBC drawing on the scale of Radio 1 and Radio 2 and the specialist audiences on 6 Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network to foster some exciting collaborations across the BBC’s Pop portfolio.
I'm guessing that Radio 4 are ready to say goodbye to Roger Bolton when they decide who gets to make Feedback for the next four years. The tender documents say:
"There are those, you hear, who feel the BBC is overly dazzled by the ubiquitous Rajan"; Catherine Bennett in today's Observer.
I think it's time for a chat with June Sarpong. I feel BBC producers across the board, in a desperate hunt for better on-air diversity stats, are simply being unhelpful to the wider ethnic community. Amol Rajan hosted the Asian Network's Phone-In Show on a stand-in basis in 2016, then weeks at a time of the station's Big Debate; that led to covering presentation on Any Answers ?, Start the Week, sitting in for Simon Mayo on Radio 2, hosting The One Show, then The Media Show on Radio 4, and Front Row Late on Radio 4, and The Daily Politics on BBC2 - all during 2017, whilst fitting in guest judging on Masterchef and a Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. The year ended with him sitting in on the Chris Evans Radio 2 Breakfast Show, before moving to cover Jeremy Vine in the New Year. I won't go on.
A similar thing is happening to Clive Myrie; after a slow burn of nearly ten years when his Radio Times credits were mainly for the News Channel, he appeared as a panellist on Have I Got News For You in 2016. Celebrity Eggheads followed in 2017, with a guest spot on Radio 3's Essential Classics, and a go at Richard Osman's House of Games and Would I Lie To You ? George Floyd and US politics took Clive to the States in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, he co-hosted 5Live Drive, 5Live Breakfast and covered Naga Munchetty's show for a week at a time, was back on HIGNFY, hosted some Prom Concerts and started on Mastermind. Oh yes, and got a Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, appeared as a guest judge on The Great British Menu and hosted a whole edition of HIGNFY.
The pile-in continued today, with three hours on Radio 3. The Mail on Sunday tips Clive to fill some of Emily Maitlis' shifts on Newsnight.
Still plenty of loose ends in the P&O story. Were the 'East Europeans' standing by to crew the ships already in the UK on visas ? How can they be paid less than the minimum wage ? Were the old P&O crew employed via 'Jersey contracts', therefore removing UK employment rights ? Is it true that P&O has retained 50 staff employed on Dutch and French contracts ? Do any other UK ferry operators use agency labour ?
I'm not sure who hired who, but Piers Morgan, former talent show judge, has announced that Sharon Osbourne, former talent show judge, will be joining Rebekah Brooks' latest money spinner, TalkTV, for its 'spring' launch.
She will have a one hour show each weeknight, to be called The Talk. For 11 years, she's been a regular 'co-host' on CBS' "The Talk", a format largely based on ITV's Loose Women. According to The Sun, for the UK 'Talk', Sharon "will host five opinionated famous faces as they hash out the big issues of the day."
Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, tells the latest Avenue Magazine that he "well remembers the note that came out of the office of Alan Yentob, then head of BBC Drama, Entertainment and Children’s programming, when he wrote the 1995 television adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Little Lord Fauntleroy, which read, “the audience for class-based period drama is dead.”"
The BBC Board is looking for two editorial advisers to work for them for 15 days a year, on a 'competitive' salary. But the ad is clear that they must be 'independent', with 'significant experience outside the BBC'.
To make it even clearer, they list these criteria (which, if applied at Ofcom, would exclude 75% of the current Content Board).
The criteria by which independence will be assessed will include whether a candidate:
The models of consistency that run BBC News have apparently told Today and Newsnight that they can have some dedicated reporters back, as long as they're based "Across the UK".
Private Eye says that Jonathan Munro and Jamie Angus have recognised that the Catering Corp of News Content Reporters have failed to deliver sufficiently tasty 'news pizzas' to these 'flagship' programmes. A case in point on Today this morning: Lucy Manning's lame run-round of a family in Kent about to receive a pair of Ukrainian refugees. Not even a good quality Margherita.
There's head scratching among more senior BBC management about how News can make such promises, when another big round of headcount reductions is required by the licence-fee freeze. Perhaps it's a decision from the Editor In Chief...
Late for the morning meeting, but...
A big news machine like the BBC should have done much better with P&O. Anyone hear the name of the interim chief executive, Peter Hebblethwaite, in place since November ? Anyone report that his predecessor, David Stretch, cut 1,100 jobs during 2020 and 2021 ? Anyone look at their pension problems ? Any one do any calculations on how they can save 50% of their wage bill by employing 800 agency staff ? Who are these agencies ? Anyone dare consider that freight routes Hull/Rotterdam and Liverpool-Dublin might have been hit by Brexit more than Covid ?
Never been a big fan of metadata, in which hacks are required to categorize their output to make it easier for computers to sort. In my humble view, let the computers do ALL the work if you want to do that sort of exercise.
Therefore I'm slightly dispirited to learn that BBC World Service journalists are required to tag their work, in many languages, under categories "inspire me”, “divert me”, “educate me” and “give me perspective”, or more often “update me” and “keep me on trend”.
The number of contributions from people of black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds working behind the camera for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky has fallen over the past year, as has the number of women working in senior positions, according to the Creative Diversity Network.
CDN executive director Deborah Williams, said "Five years on from our first report, the vast majority of our industry’s power-brokers - who commission content and run indies and broadcasters - are still from such a narrow range of backgrounds. Too much activity has been focused on increasing diversity at entry levels rather than breaking down the barriers to senior level representation."
Here's the breakdown of the latest figures provided by Project Diamond about representation in front of, and behind, the camera at the BBC.
New BBC non-executive Sir Damon Buffini has stepped down from his role running the Board-level Remuneration Committee at bankers Schroders. There the Annual Report regularly contains ten or more pages justifying top directors' pay (£6m plus for the CEO, £3m plus for the CFO).
He hasn't yet landed any sub-committee roles at the BBC - remuneration may be smaller in scale, but it's perhaps more exposed to scrutiny.
On today's Amol Rajan BBC channel, an interview with John Lewis chair Sharon White. Five minutes ended the Today programme (featuring one 'you guys'), and you get 59 minutes on BBC2 at 9pm tonight. Expect at least four transmissions on BBC World (once they've got the Nile Rodgers episode out of the way). Six days ago, Amol's sit down with Sharon, and Waitrose, had the benefit of a plug for 'free coffee' on the News (note 'News') website.
Insiders remain puzzled as to why the indefatigable scoop hunter has not yet secured an hour with the Peer-du-Jour, Lord Lebedev.
Former BBC HR thought-leader Lucy Adams has blogged on the topic of the age-old company struggle between Personnel and Finance for the position at the CEO's elbow. Whilst her short thesis starts off politely, it ends very firmly...
"Rather than trying to be as credible as the finance team by copying their language and approach, HR can build our credibility by being deliberately different. We will have a stronger and more powerful voice if we own our role as the people experts. We can do so much better than being a second-rate finance partner. We should stand proud as HR – the experts on human beings."
Renaissance man James Purnell, Vice Chancellor of the University of the Arts London, has given a lecture to students seeking to acquire a Master of Arts in Public Relations (course home fee £11,550, foreign students £23,610) on the topic of "Media Relations, Messaging and Influencing" - the slide stack has not been publicly shared. It follows a YouTube appearance with Grayson Perry trying to encourage applicants to UAL. At time of writing it had just 342 views, but I'm sure my readers can help spread the message more widely.
I hope Richard Sharp is keeping an eye on the appointment of a new Commissioning Director BBC Factual, Arts and Classical Music. This role, previously held by Patrick Holland, is essentially No 2 to the Chief Content Officer, Charlotte Moore.
In succession planning terms, both Charlotte Moore and Deborah Turness (if she ever turns up at Broadcasting House) are the obvious in-house candidates for DG-after-Davie. Equally, the new No 2 at Content runs the engine room that drives the audience; not necessarily in directly commissioning, but in selecting the next generation of taste-makers, and steering them. Is BBC tv of the next ten years to be a bulk commissioner of soporific daily quizzes, antique shows and cooking programmes - or something more challenging ? The Chairman should be interested.
Lord Young of Norwood Green, the peer who was banned from making a speech because he'd slept through most of the debate, was a BBC Governor from the days when it wasn't unusual to give a place to union leaders.
As Tony Young, he was elected Senior Deputy General Secretary of the Communication Workers union in 1998 while he worked as Governor of the BBC (1998-2002). He became a member of the TUC General Council in 1989 and was President in 2001. As a BBC Governor, he provided ballast to Chairmen, Christopher Bland (1996-2001) and Gavyn Davies (2001-2004).
An FOI set of questions, glanced to fine leg by the BBC:
Over at Radio 4, more programmes are going out to competitive tender, including Feedback and a 'religious discussion' show to go at 4,30pm on Mondays.
An analysis of most recent listening figures against the competition suggests continuing with these sort of programmes between the big news shows may not be the long-term way forward, but, 'twas ever thus.
The latest list of Top 15 shows on GB News, for the week beginning 28th February, is still topped by Farage, with an average of 90,600 watching his Tuesday show. No sign of Eammon Holmes' claimed 'sixfold' increase in viewers registering publicly with BARB, though the Ulsterman may be slightly galled by the appearance of Stephen Dixon and Anne Diamond's Saturday breakfast show at No 10, with an average of 54,100. 43,000 the field, as I believe they say at Cheltenham.
"Written and hosted by Rebel Wilson". One hopes never again. She had a five-strong 'team' behind her in the credits, who deserve to be named: Georgie Kanekiyo, Jenny Rodriguez, Karin Darnell, Mikey Kardashian, and Sam Kennedy. The commissioning editor for the BBC was Katie Taylor. Executive producer Katherine Allen has been involved in BAFTA coverage for 22 years.
The Charles Finch/Chanel pre-Baftas party is a certain-sort-of-celeb fixture, as are some of the guests.
Albertine, the wine bar and restaurant at the bottom of Wood Lane, W12, is closing its doors at the end of this week, after 44 years (with the odd hiatus). Allegra McEvedy says "I’m personally saddened to my core that I couldn’t keep the bar afloat that my mum set up and I first walked into when I was 7 years old, I know we gave it our absolutely best shot and sometimes you just have to call it a day."
Saturday will see a sale of fixtures and fittings, some of them probably with BBC memories.
The end of this month sees 50th anniversary celebrations for the Soho Poly Theatre, which moved operations to a basement in Riding House Street W1 in 1972. It closed there in 1990, but there's a long legacy of radical lunchtime theatre, and the University of Westminster is raising funds to restore the ground floor and basement as a (still tiny - 50 seat) performance space.
David Edgar wrote Backshot for the Poly in 1973, later televised as 'Sanctuary' by Scottish TV. In the same year, Edgar's 'Baby Love' transferred from the Leeds Playhouse, and made it to BBC's Play for Today in 1974.
Howard Brenton's "The Saliva Milkshake" based on Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad, was first performed there in 1975, and made it on to BBC 2 in 1977.
Barrie Keefe's most famous play, Gotcha, first produced at the Soho Poly in May 1976, also went on to became his best-known work for television in April 1977 when it formed part of a Play for Today double-bill that included Brian Clark’s play Campion’s Interview in which a headmaster takes the opportunity of a job interview to complain about political interference in education.
Hanif Kureishi's second play, The King and Me, premiered there in 1980.
Do you think the University might approach BBC Studios for a modicum of sponsorship ? Will we ever see a one-act play on the BBC again ?
The BBC has lost its top full-time diversity executive. Miranda Wayland is off to Amazon, where she takes up the US-styling, Head of Europe Diversity Equity and Inclusion for Amazon Studios and Prime Video. News of Miranda's departure from the BBC came in The Times on March 3.
More work for June Sarpong, perhaps the most expensive per diem BBC employee....
Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode have announced that their weekly film review slot on Radio 5Live is coming to an end on April 1, after 21 years. (Technically, the pair were first on air together at the BBC from November 1994, when Mark came in to do movie news on Simon's Radio 1 show). One suspects intellectual property lawyers will be involved before the pair re-emerge with a similar offering on another platform.
Kermode will continue to present Screenshot alongside Ellen E Jones on BBC Radio 4 and his regular film review on the BBC News Channel.
The BBC said 5 Live Drive would move an hour earlier, to 4pm, following Kermode and Mayo's departure, with announcements on other schedule changes to follow in due course.
BBC Studios, from their new creative centre in New York, are planning a new direct-to-consumer service "to launch in 2023, which brings together news, documentaries and podcasts into one single service, under one subscription, available via multiple platforms".
The ad, for a new Vice President, Product Strategy and Creative, suggests that this will bring together bits of the work of BBC.com, the BBC News and Sport apps outside the UK, BBC Select, and BBC Podcasts.
You have to be able to work in the USA to apply; you have to be familiar with mangled English to understand the job: Lead direct to consumer digital product and creative strategy for BBC Studios outside the UK, articulating emerging new company priorities and strategies as world class product and service concepts
The Saturday edition of the Today programme has traditionally been more relaxed; a place for longer items, some more reflective discussions; the odd presenter try-out.
But it still needs production and scrutiny. Today's editors and the big Editor should consider sitting down with Martha Kearney for a full playback - only two hours, after all - and count the number of times her lazy opening questions contained the phrase "Give us a sense...".
(This started way back in 2014 with Huw Edwards, was noted by Tim Vine in 2016 who suggested turning it into a drinking game, and infected Today in 2020)
Born into a travelling RAF family, he used to have "Hong Konger at heart" on his Twitter feed. He came back to Henley College for his A-Levels, then to Nottingham Trent for a BA in broadcast journalism. His cv says he was the first BBC TV reporter on the scene of the Potters Bar train crash in 2002.
After more than six years, Sian Williams will shortly step down from presenting news bulletins on Channel 5. Dr Sian, 57, will continue to work with ITN and C5 on specials, including Mind Matters.
“Broadcasting and psychology are, in some ways, complimentary - in both jobs we’re helping people tell their stories and giving them a voice,” she says “I’m excited about continuing to combine these elements, in new and different ways, while also delivering psychological support where it’s most needed.”
The tribute comes from ITN's (still) Deborah Turness: "Sian has brought warmth and humanity with a real ability to connect with our audience and understand what’s important to them.”
Delighted that Beth Rigby can open her new Sky News interview show tonight in conversation with the Prime Minister.
Perhaps Beth ("I wish I hadn’t gone — it was a mistake") can extract a proper partygate admission and apology from our world-beating leader....
As Charlotte Moore waits in the Lulu Lyttle Meeting Room atop Broadcasting House, the analysts of Marketing & Audiences are sorting and re-sorting the overnight figures.
The early news from ITVs big News and Soap Schedule is not good. On Monday, and again last night, the Soap Head to Head at 7.30pm was won by Emmerdale, with 4.1m (25% share), with Eastenders watched by an average of 2.7m. Though we don't have separate figures, it looks like the second half of the new hour-long ITV National News, starting at 6.30pm, beat The One Show from 7pm.
At a certain level of BBC News job interview, the questioners quite reasonably indulge in tests of thinking on the spot - 'hypotheticals', quick judgements on the relative importance of that day's news, etc. It may be the first (and only) time the recruiter meets the applicant, and both sides need to be comfortable about basic instincts and approaches to news events, before they get to air.
At a higher level, you can see showreels, research the on-air past performance of candidates, ask questions of people who have worked with them. The interview itself is usually a much more grown-up discussion, about deeper issues, areas of inquiry, long term development of coverage, tone etc.
Which is why I find this line from Guido Fawkes extraordinary, about the recruitment process for the next Political Editor at BBC News, the highest profile reporting job in the country. "According to one person who was in the running, the interview process has been arduous, with interviewees asked to improvise on the spot impromptu reports in front of the interviewing panel."
If true, it's wrong-headed. No-one should be at final interview if there are doubts about their core skills. It's more than an audition, Mr Munro.
How close is the launch of TalkTV ? Those who like watching loops and colour bars have spotted test transmissions, and Piers Morgan has tweeted what looks like an authorised trail.
A year ago today, he was forced to leave a job he loved.
— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) March 9, 2022
Now he's back: Piers Morgan Uncensored.@piersmorgan | #piersuncensored pic.twitter.com/yOkv47RIDw
Very proud to show off the brand identity of our new show @PiersUncensored coming soon! pic.twitter.com/bpZAYAF46D
— Erron Gordon (@errongordon) March 9, 2022
Great to have my former ‘Peston’ team mate joining us!! 🥳🥳 https://t.co/T2uD16m2lo
— Erron Gordon (@errongordon) March 7, 2022
BBC Audio has a new management member. Colin Paterson, currently Head of BBC Radio Wales and BBC Wales Sport, will run programmes such as Any Questions?, Farming Today and Composer Of The Week, all made in Bristol and Cardiff.
Since 2016, Colin has moved a range of female talent in and out of the schedules of Radio Wales, led by Lucy Owen, now back concentrating on tv; Claire Summers at breakfast; Behnaz Akhgar, weather presenter; Carol Vorderman; Alex Jones; Kiri Pritchard-McLean; and Joanna Page, from Gavin and Stacey.
In June 2013, Radio Wales' weekly reach was just shy of 500,000; latest quarterly figures put it at 371,000.
GB News has decided to contribute some data to audience measurers BARB, and we have a list of top shows for the week beginning 21 February.
1 Farage (Tuesday) 99,600
2 Farage (Thursday) 91,200
3 Mark Steyn (Thursday) 75.600
4 Dan Wootton (Tuesday) 72,700
5 Farage (Wednesday) 69,300
The most recent previously shared week, starting 3 January, had a Top 5 spread of 61,000 to 78,000, so there are some indications of growth. There's still no sign of Eamonn Holmes in the top 15 list, despite his claims to have increased the breakfast audience six fold.
We can only be delighted that the BBC Studios operation in Australia is growing so fast that it now needs a Resourcing and Talent Adviser, if only for three days a week.
They might also consider hiring a proof-reader, or at least someone who knows how spell checkers work.
Hard to believe, but it's almost as if Amol Rajan is deliberately not reading the notes offered here on Today presentation.
This morning, we had at least three 'gives us a sense' questions, one preceded by 'let me come to you first'; we had massive outbreaks of 'later in the show'; one gratuitous reference to 'Jerry Bowen', and a brand new waste of space 'it's fourteen minutes to eight and therefore it's time for...'
DCMS civil servant Sarah Healey suggests that we might be close to interviews for the next chair of Ofcom.
Sky News suggests that the final three might be Lord Gilbert of Panteg, Lord Vaizey and Lord Grade.
I wonder if Michael Simmonds, of Yonder Consulting, née Populus, is still on the interview panel.
Lord Gilbert was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party before his elevation to the peerage in 2015. Two months later he joined Populus as a consultant. Simmonds founded Populus in 2003, alongside Andrew Cooper, himself elevated to the Lords as Lord Cooper of Windrush in 2014.
In 2001, Ed Vaizey, alongside Michael Gove and Ian Dale, edited a series of essays "A Blue Tomorrow", to which Michael Simmonds contributed the prescient "Believe in Britain? Britain doesn't believe you!".
Last month Lord Grade re-confirmed his interest in the job: 'I became suspicious of the process, until I realised Sue Gray was back in charge of the appointment after her Partygate exertions'.
Could someone advise - is this 'Across the UK' or not ?
BBC1 has commissioned STV to produce 25 episodes of "Bridge of Lies", "as part of a competitive initiative to find new quiz formats made in Scotland."
The commission was placed in June last year. STV's Head of Entertainment, Gary Chippington, celebrated the news - he lives in Brighton. At that stage, he didn't have a presenter for the new format. Ross Kemp emerged in July. He lives in Cookham, Berkshire.
The shows were recorded in Glasgow.
The World's Greatest Living Foreign Correspondent John Simpson, currently close to the action in Finland, clearly had his lunch interrupted on the BBC News geo-political discussion programme Dateline. Before they could get to the closing credits, he was chomping on some variant of porilainen...
As the Today Programme shifts to the Today Show, it's probably only me that thinks that the maladroitly choreographed Amol Rajan personal tribute to Shane Warne was tacky.
Other notes from this morning's programme: Why, when hosting a two-person 'disco' is it necessary to say 'Let me come to you, Ambassador/Professor, first' ? Why not just ask the question ?
Whilst numbers of BBC News presenters seem to be jostling elbows in the departure lounge, one is coming back, after less than a year away.
Katty Kay, last seen with Christian Fraser in Beyond The Pale 100 days, is to be "US Special Correspondent for BBC Studios", working across documentaries, podcasts and news.
We're told "Katty’s projects will appear on the BBC’s international platforms, including BBC.com, the BBC News App and World News, plus BBC Select and BBC Podcasts, which are exclusive to North America. They will also be available in the UK on BBC Sounds, the BBC’s domestic TV channels and BBC iPlayer."
The move of some World Service output onto shortwave for Ukraine will cheer many who though it should never have stopped. It's not clear whose transmitters are being used; one seems to be based in Yerevan, Armenia. The argument against shortwave used to be it was expensive (in terms of electricity) and the valves were no longer being made - but I'm sure someone can correct me...
You can listen for updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on BBC World Service live online 📱 https://t.co/ZpQiRUoNHP
— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) March 2, 2022
And the map shows our shortwave radio reach in #Ukraine
📻 15735 kHz 16:00 – 18:00 GMT +2
📻 5875 kHz 22:00 – 00:00 GMT +2 pic.twitter.com/q1wa2o3j4g
Despite the map, the 15735 frequency has been heard clearly in Canada and on the US East Coast.
Who thought of it first ? Was is that grand old man of broadcasting, Simon Bates - this from five days ago
I’ve written a note to Chris Bryant, who is not my MP, asking him to obtain Foreign Office funding for short wave transmission to Russia of BBC World Service in Russian, 24 hours a day. Their coverage of Ukraine has been superb. I’m no good at campaigns, but maybe you could help
— Simon Bates (@SimonBatesUK) February 26, 2022
Interim Director of News Jonathan Munro wasn't at the BBC when Mark Byford, Keeper of the Candle Of Journalism, left with the biggest redundancy package the organisation has ever seen. Maybe Jonathan just doesn't remember, and that's why his latest memo to staff ends, quoting Mark's thoughts.... ..
"He’s been kind enough to write a few times, and I’m sure he won’t mind my sharing this example:
“Very pleasing to see the extended TV News tonight and the special coverage on the website, as well as excellent radio programming during the day. An exceptional response in a very challenging circumstances.”
I couldn’t have put it better. Thank you"
It may surprise some viewers that the geographically-self-defining GB News bases its current prime-time schedule round a host based in Woodsville, New Hampshire.
Canadian-born author and part-time crooner Mark Steyn (pron: Stine) has set up home there. His father was Irish, his mother was Belgian, and they moved to Toronto where Mark was born in 1959, though he was educated in the UK, at King Edward's Birmingham. No sign of university beyond sixth form; he next surfaces as a weekend dj at Beacon 303 in 1982, with "Beacon Classics", "Beautiful Music" and "Well Did You Evah ?". In 1986, he was 'musicals' critic for the Independent, having carved out slots on BBC Radio 2's Starsound Extra and Radio 3's Music Weekly discussing Jerome Kern, etc during 1985. By 1987, he was part of the Kaleidoscope roster of presenters on Radio 4. He expanded in the the more radical elements of the network, on Loose Ends and Quote, Unquote; in 1993, he persuaded producers to let him host Postcard from Gotham in the BBC's New York studios.
He met proofreader Karol Sheinin at the Independent, and they married in 1988. Karol says she was born in Soviet Union and brought up in Brooklyn. She worked for a time as a publicist in New York, and blogged at alarmingnews.com. They have three children.
Tim Davie (and Sir Nick Serota) have set a lot of store by thematic reviews of BBC output to 'prove' impartiality.
There will be critics who say he's starting in the wrong place by hiring Sir Andrew Dilnot and former BBC producer/broadcaster Michael Blastland to conduct the first of these reviews, into reporting of taxation and public spending.
It's apparently already started, with a view to reporting in the summer.
Extracts from the terms of reference:
It will specifically assess News and Factual output that refers to overall taxation and public spending and some specific areas of public spending but will not be limited to News and Current Affairs. The review will include taxation and spending in the devolved Nations of the UK. It will not be possible, without devoting excessive resources and time to the project in the time available, to assess every piece of coverage of every aspect of public spending across the UK.
It will attempt to include major areas of public spending in particular where it is itself controversial and/or relates to public policy and political controversy. The period over which content is assessed will be timed to take in major announcements about taxation and spending, borrowing and debt, such as Budgets or Spending Reviews [haven't we missed both of those ? Ed].
The Review will be tasked to concentrate on evaluating impartiality and bias in output and not on simply reviewing output and news coverage. However the absence of some sorts of output or coverage may give rise to findings of bias by omission.
In addition the assessment of impartiality should consider the following:
Accuracy: inaccuracy, especially when repeated or persistent, can give rise to perceptions of bias.
Interviews: the tone and approach to interviews can often draw accusations of bias. The Review needs to examine whether this criticism is ever justified.
Labelling of interviewees: giving additional information about them when it is relevant to their stance.
The accurate and comprehensible presentation of data and statistics.
The casting of discussions.
The use of language and tone: does it suggest a one-sided approach?
Ideology: Are there systemic approaches to the subject from one side of a debate, e.g. a statist or a liberal market perspective?
Underlying assumptions: could these entail bias?
The use of social media: Does it reveal preferences e.g. through tweeting or re-tweeting?
Can we have a piece about Odessa, ports, pipelines and control of the Black Sea ? A discussion of the axis between Russia and Turkey, and perhaps a reminder of HMS Defender's 'patrol' along the Crimea last June....
Another week of missing data from GB News: no public BARB figures for the seven days beginning February 14th.
Breakfast presenter Eamonn Holmes told a C4 programme this week that the audience is up 'six fold'. Unofficial figures for the 28th January show the all-day average figure for the fledging channel was 32k, compared with 252k for Sky News and 310k for BBC News.
ITV seems to be betting the bank on a new 'product', ITVX, as an all-encompassing landing point for ITV content. On the back of good pandemic profits, it's investing £45m to launch the platform, which will carry ITV-produced and ITV-bought programmes way before traditional broadcast dates, and users can choose to watch for free, with ads, or via subscription, without ads.
It seems to be a replacement for the much-derided ITV Hub, but also seems to subsume Britbox - with no mention so far on what happens to the BBC's content on that SVOD offer. Britbox lost £61m last year (apparently in line with expectations) while ITV revenue overall was up 24%.
It's the other side of the ITV broadcast shift to live magazine shows, soaps and news. Within ITVX, programmes will also be organised into streamed channels, such as all-day episodes of The Chase, and The Oxford Detectives, offering Morse in all his forms.
I suspect my former university friend would be less than amused that Gazprom Energy's UK sales operation is based at No 1 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester....
Did I mention that 'digital' was getting all the investment at BBC News ?
"The size of the digital team across Washington, New York, LA and Toronto is more than doubling to 40 journalists. There will be more writers, editors and specialist reporters as well as new hubs focused on production, visual journalism and growing our audience.
Help us manage that huge change - and shape the BBC’s daily coverage - by applying for one of the new digital news editor positions in Washington, DC."
"This is a local hire position and eligible candidates must be able to live and work in the US (US citizenship, Green Card or work authorisation)."
The world of streaming has taken a pair of key talents away from the BBC. New York-based production company A24 has made money from dramas for Netflix, HBO and Amazon Prime since its formation in 2014, and has more recently signed deals with Apple TV and Showtime.
The company has poached Piers Wenger, BBCDrama boss, and Rose Garnett, BBC Films boss, to launch a UK operation; they'll leave Auntie in May. Presumably they haven't been asked to clear their desks, because A24 has stuff in production for the BBC. But they clearly can't make decisions for three months - so Ben Irving becomes acting drama supremo, and Eva Yates looks after Films.
It may not be the same as losing Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, but it looks clumsy.
BBC Sounds seems to have lost That Peter Crouch Podcast to commercial platform Acast. “Joining Acast is just like signing for one of the world's biggest football clubs. We get all the support to develop as much as possible, while we also get the chance to reach an even larger, global audience. We look forward to working with Acast to grow further,” says Mr Crouch.
Acast, founded in Sweden in 2013, inserts ads and more around podcasts, depending on where you're listening. "That Peter Crouch Podcast" sprang from Radio 5Live in September 2018, with the help of BBC-employed producer George Cottam. But in February 2021, it seems both Peter and George seem to have been allowed to transfer operations to TON Ltd (Tall Or Nothing, geddit ?), where George is now billed as Head of Content.
Very few people would present the BBC bulletins at 1, 6 and 10 on consecutive days. Clive Myrie has done it whilst sheltering at night in the centre of Kyiv. I hope he's being straight with his team about how long he can keep going.
