And repeat

In a Today programme of very little enlightenment, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper handed off Amol Rajan on the Chagos Islands, with a plodding display of Mandarin-influenced speakak.

tradingaswdr · yvette cooper

Persistent questioning

The Head of Unanswerable Questions is clearly on duty curating the front page of the BBC News website at midday. 

Headlines include: 

What sort of welcome will Trump get at Davos ?

Beckham v Peltz Beckham: Could Brooklyn torpedo the family brand ?

Could US Congress stop Trump from taking over Greenland ?

Why is Emmanuel Macron wearing sunglasses indoors at Davos ?

What went wrong for Radacanu in Melbourne ?

What does the future hold for LIV golf after Koepka exit ?

'Battered in Bodo' - is this more than just a blip for Man City ?

Which countries are set to win extra Champions League places ?

Trump says tiny cars are amazing, but will Americans actually buy them ?

Zachary

Three of the late declarations in Nigel Farage's register of financial interests come from Imperial Independent Media, a consultancy run by political lobbyist Zachary Freeman, 33, former spokesman for the minority Republicans in Alaska. He's a recent mature graduate of Trump-aligned Liberty University. 

Off ?

"Owenna Griffiths, the editor of Today for more than five years, is said to be planning to step down and leave the BBC".  Thus The Observer in a piece co-written by Ceri Thomas, a former editor of Today.

This is an unusual piece of signalling. The Editorship of Today is the most exposed editorial role in BBC Radio; people who take it on either have, or develop, a thick carapace, and later prove valuable to BBC News in senior managerial roles, perhaps further from the microphone, less immediately rewarding, but important for adding experience, tact and diplomacy to the organisation as a whole. 

Owenna, now 52, started listening to Today at Cambridge University; this is her third stint with the show. Last year, she lost Mishal Husain, closely followed by her long-term deputy, Louisa Lewis. If the Observer is right, she doesn't want to work in a new role with current BBC News supremos Jonathan Munro and John McAndrew, or they have failed to persuade her to stay. 

Winter sports

I can't find any current BBC names in the Davos line-up, apart from one session hosted by Anita Anand. Other usual suspects are all there: James Harding, Zanny Minton-Beddoes, Stephanie Flanders, The Milliband Brothers, will i.am and Donald J Trump.  Will Faisal Islam get there ? How many subs will man the Davos 'Live' page on BBC News ?

Money on Matt

Let's take a small bet that Matt Chorley, of 5Live afternoons and Friday Newsnights, increases his BBC salary by around £100k in September, by replacing Amol Rajan at Today.  There will, of course, be some try-outs for others over the summer, but, if I were Matt, I'd say no to 'live auditions'. As should editor Owenna. 

Del Boy

It looks like Amol Varada Rajan has reactivated RajCloth Productions, with his wife Charlotte as company secretary. It's been a dormant 'TV production' company since December 2018, with £2 in the bank - a £1 share each. He's also seems to be winding down his charitable enterprise K.E.Y Sessions, which used to run summer workshops for deprived London 16-18 year-olds in various industries. 

 

Clarence and Nigel

The latest former Beeboid to join Reform UK is Clarence Mitchell, 64 (Friern Barnet County School and NCTJ Hendon and Finchley Times)

Less bouffant these days

Councillor Mitchell currently represents the Emmer Green ward in Caversham; he has become Reform's  first councillor in Reading following today's defection from the Conservatives. 

He's lived in Reading for the past five years, first becoming a councillor for the now abolished Peppard ward (lead resident Tim Davie, BBC DG) in 2021, before being re-elected for the new Emmer Green ward. He was the Conservative leader on the council until 2024.  

Clarence was with the BBC for nearly 20 years from 1986. He represented the McCanns for a number of years from 2007, first via the FCDO and then Freud Communications. 

Attention span

Whilst the trend might be inexorable, the BBC is not yet being beaten by YouTube on all metrics, contrary to headlines in the Mail and Telegraph. 

In traditional tv watching, the BBC reached 50,034,000 viewers  over December, recording the required 15 mins per session, giving average daily viewing of 46 minutes 40 seconds. YouTube reached 37,527,000, watching on average each day for 21 minutes 7 seconds. 

If you count viewing on all screens - mobiles, computers, tablets and tvs, the BBC's reach for December nudges up to 50,850,000, and YouTube is ahead, on 51,932,000.  But people stayed with the BBC longer, giving average daily viewing of 48 minutes 6 seconds, compared with 41 minutes 27 seconds for YouTube.  

And, of course, within those figures, there's more BBC 'product' on YouTube than YouTube product on the BBC....

Chuck

The BBC has engaged Charles "Chuck" Tobin of Top 100 US law firm Ballard Spahr in the hope of fending off Donald J Trump's money hunt. At 55, he leads the firm's Media and Entertainment practice.

Prior to entering private practice, Chuck spent eight years as in-house counsel at Gannett, which owns print and digital media outlets across the country—including USA TODAY. He has taught media law and ethics at George Washington University and the University of North Florida. 

Tobin was accepted at the University of Florida to study medicine, but switched to a Bachelor of Science course in journalism.  He enrolled in reporting and writing classes and became a stringer for the Associated Press and the Independent Alligator, the student-run newspaper. “I spent the next three years doing everything I could to immerse myself in journalism,” Tobin said.

He then landed a job as courts and police reporter for the News-Press in Fort Myers, Florida. In his second year on the job, he found himself in court.  “A prosecutor had read my stories and was eager to learn how I knew what the grand jury was looking into. So, of course, he subpoenaed me.” His newspaper brought in a media lawyer to fight the subpoena. Sitting there that day, watching the lawyer defend Tobin’s work, something clicked. “I thought this is really cool. That’s what I want to do,” and eventually earned his Juris Doctor, again from the University of Florida. He's now based in Washington, but still a member of the Florida Bar.