Catching up on recent events

Apologies for the brief interruption in posts. Catching up on recent events:

Too much management at the BBC writes Jeff Randall in the Telegraph, in an article that expands on the views he expressed on Newsnight last week (see clip below).

He starts off once again by pointing out the insanity of cutting news and documentary budgets whilst preserving some of the lowest common denominator dross that passes for content on BBC3, before pointing out the BBC’s ample girth – girth of the variety endemic in poorly managed public organisations:

If this sounds like special pleading for former colleagues, let’s be clear: consolidation of many BBC News reporting jobs is long overdue.

There is daily duplication, which not only squanders resources but frequently borders on the harassment of outside sources. Director general Mark Thompson is right to call for a more integrated newsroom.

When I was the BBC’s business editor (2001-05), Standard Life’s communications chief telephoned me at the end of a very busy day to beg for help. “We’ve had about 80 press calls and 35 of those have been from the BBC. Is there no co-ordination?”

I was too embarrassed to tell him the truth. Once a big story hits the wires, desk-bound BBC news-gatherers simply hit the phones.

In the case of Standard Life, it had taken calls from the BBC’s business unit, several shows at Five Live and Radio Four, regional radio outlets, BBC Scotland (lots from there), BBC Online, Breakfast TV, the One O’clock News, the Six O’clock News and the Ten O’Clock News. Oh yes, and News 24.

On another occasion, I was in Calais to cover a Eurotunnel shareholders’ meeting for the Ten O’Clock News. I arrived to find swarms of BBC reporters, producers and film crews falling over each other; the corporation had sent more people than the rest of the British media put together. In the evening, we filled three tables in a local restaurant.

…duplication (to put it mildly) that most people, Mark Thompson included, are only too well aware of.

I very much agree with Randall’s view that:

If Thompson closed Today and Newsnight completely, he would save £13 million, less than 0.4 per cent of his total budget. Chipping away at them makes no sense. Quite the reverse: these are much-admired shows from which the BBC gets the biggest bang for its buck. By any measure, they deserve more support.

The money that Thompson is hoping to claw back through the elimination of newsroom clutter should be reinvested in blue-chip journalism, not squandered on crackpot programming for the lowest common denominator.

…if only we could get BBC News in general and Today in particular away from the “public good, private bad” statist mentality also endemic in public organisations. I’m not sure that is feasible though, but given that public service programmes like Today and Newsnight are so relatively cheap (in comparison to Jonathan Ross and other non public services), perhaps there’s a case for funding two or three equivalents of each show – without the false notion of ‘impartiality’ that we see and hear now – with production teams independent of each other and the BBC. Something to discuss perhaps…