Quality journalism?

The London Evening Standard, "London's Quality Newspaper", ran this on the front page of its website and in its diary column today:

It’s jobs for the boys time at the World Service

After the sacking of Ed Stourton and the retention of Jonathan Ross, BBC decision-making seems opaque to outsiders. So is Auntie really now planning to parachute Richard Sambrook into the position of Director of the World Service without doing a proper external trawl for candidates or advertising outside the BBC?

Ex-BBC types are getting very exercised about the matter. The post has been advertised in Ariel, the BBC’s in-house magazine, but the World Service press office has confirmed that it will not be advertised outside. A spokesman for the BBC informs me: “The position of Director, BBC World Service, will be advertised internally. This is standard BBC practice and, if no suitable candidate is found through this process, then the search will be widened.” As yet there is no news as to when the new appointment will be announced.

The belief is the position is being kept open for Sambrook...

Hmmmm...except:

1. Im not a candidate for the job, because

2. it reports to me and I will be deciding who gets it. 

3. A simple phone call by the Standard could have established that, although I recognise how inconvenient the facts can be when they knock down a story on a quiet Friday. 

As for the Daily Telegraph reporter who excitedly followed this item up telling our press office it had the makings of a "Front Page Piece"... let's trust that even on a pre-Christmas Saturday they can find something better, or at least true, to report...

After the sacking of Ed Stourton and the retention of Jonathan Ross, BBC decision-making seems opaque to outsiders. So is Auntie really now planning to parachute Richard Sambrook into the position of Director of the World Service without doing a proper external trawl for candidates or advertising outside the BBC?

Ex-BBC types are getting very exercised about the matter. The post has been advertised in Ariel, the BBC’s in-house magazine, but the World Service press office has confirmed that it will not be advertised outside. A spokesman for the BBC informs me: “The position of Director, BBC World Service, will be advertised internally. This is standard BBC practice and, if no suitable candidate is found through this process, then the search will be widened.” As yet there is no news as to when the new appointment will be announced.

The belief is the position is being kept open for Sambrook...

Hmmmm...except:

1. Im not a candidate for the job, because

2. it reports to me and I will be deciding who gets it. 

3. A simple phone call by the Standard could have established that, although I recognise how inconvenient the facts can be when they knock down a story on a quiet Friday. 

As for the Daily Telegraph reporter who excitedly followed this item up telling our press office it had the makings of a "Front Page Piece"... let's trust that even on a pre-Christmas Saturday they can find something better, or at least true, to report...

Comments

[Girl with a one track mind]

*sigh* So pathetic.

[Steve Martin]

Downshifting is in vogue and the word parachute does suggest a downward trajectory. ;-)

[MarkB]

In another post you highlighted the risk that major cities could have no local newspaper given the current parlous state of the sector. If the Standard is the best London can manage - the UK's capital and one of the great world cities - is that such a surprise? How good a job does the local press really do in reporting our cities' affairs?