The next director general of the BBC

[handsomefortune]

by the way why is the DG not elected by us, long-suffering licence-payers? Whatever happened to the democracy we are preaching around the world, and in particular the Middle-East?


(several) good points cloughie, which imo qualifies you, for the role of beeb dg! congratulations!

norfolk born, Does that mean she would loom into view? can't quite identify why this makes me larf quite so much, but it does.

[Segilla]

Now, I've got just the right person....Jenny Abramsky (sorry my mealliefingered vitriol left off the Dame bit)

....She'd make a great DG....but I'd put it as a stipulation in her contract that she first gives back the extremely good pay off she got when last she left the BBC....

Whoever, the salary needs to be well less than half what Thompson is paid - and the recipient think themselves very lucky indeed.

[french frank]

Whoever, the salary needs to be well less than half what Thompson is paid - and the recipient think themselves very lucky indeed.

But then they would be getting less than Tim Davie ... and if he had a big pay cut he'd be getting less than Roger Wright. And so on down.

Abramsky has long passed the BBC retirement age (which is 60, unless you are A Botney). This doesn't apply to contracted freelance employees e.g. presenters, who can go on until 90+ ...

[Paul Sherratt]

>>>But then they would be getting less than Tim Davie

There's a very simple way out of that one.

[amateur51]

But then they would be getting less than Tim Davie ... and if he had a big pay cut he'd be getting less than Roger Wright. And so on down.

Well as they are public employees, why not submit them to the same strictures as Chancellor Osborne is planning to lay on 'regional' local authority staff pay - just freeze their wages until parity is achieved?

[french frank]

He'd get my vote - by the way why is the DG not elected by us, long-suffering licence-payers? Whatever happened to the democracy we are preaching around the world, and in particular the Middle-East?

That might make sense if you were speaking about the BBC Chairman who (notionally) is there to safeguard the interests of the licence fee payers.

The DG must be someone who has worked within the industry, normally as a broadcaster. Nowadays they would normally look for someone who has high level experience in television (cf. Dyke, Birt, Milne, Trethowan). Just as the Director of Audio and Music is expected, not merely to have had considerable experience in broadcasting but, specifically in radio...

Hmmmm...

[french frank]

Well as they are public employees, why not submit them to the same strictures as Chancellor Osborne is planning to lay on 'regional' local authority staff pay - just freeze their wages until parity is achieved?

Senior management pay has been frozen but, I think, only for two years. The new DG will be getting less than Thompson which may mean they won't be able to get who they want. Not that that will necessarily be bad for the BBC!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well if that small town lawyer and all round smart-alec Letts of the Mail has made a pitch then i am as well ... how do i apply?

[Globaltruth]

A couple of suggestions:

1 Janet Street-Porter - that blend of expertise, experience and testicular fortitude - just what is required to drag the BBC kicking & screaming into the 19th Century

2 Some urgent but possibly illegal cloning experiments on any old Reithian DNA kicking about somewhere might also give results that are beneficial to return the institution to a more august position...

[Norfolk Born]

Whoever, the salary needs to be well less than half what Thompson is paid - and the recipient think themselves very lucky indeed.

When Andrea Hill parted company with Suffolk County Council, her pay and benefits package having for some time been the only story in town as far as the authority was concerned, the Council managed to operate perfectly satisfactorily until a successor was appointed and has continued to do so now that that successor has been appointed - at a considerably reduced cost to local council tax payers.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep the world continues without us after we die and i have no doubt it does so while we still live .... every time i hear the indispensable/irreplaceable guff about people i invite the speaker to the nearest graveyard .... the aggrandisement of the corpocat class has led to the pernicious survival of falsehoods and mythologies in organisational affairs in both private and public sectors ...

[aeolium]

Yes, Calum. The process I would like to see employed for the selection of the new D-G is one whereby the applicant states in his/her application the salary s/he would be prepared to work for, rather than have a fixed enormously high salary as at present. Those who proposed a salary on the high side may find that they have jeopardised their prospects by overbidding. Actually that process could be used for all executive jobs in the BBC.

[cloughie]

Senior management pay has been frozen but, I think, only for two years. The new DG will be getting less than Thompson which may mean they won't be able to get who they want. Not that that will necessarily be bad for the BBC!

Quite, we may get someone who interested in the job but not necessarily spend too much time with their snout in the trough.

[Lateralthinking1]

It does seem there are a lot of contenders. It should then be possible to ask who would be keen to do the job for £50,000 pa and then steadily move upwards if there are no takers, removing all candidates at whatever point it's decided that money appears to be their only motivation and moving to a new batch.

[Russ]

I suspect it will not be one of the current insider contenders, but will be a new outsider, someone (a rare beast admittedly) who has got a public service broadcasting ethic in their DNA but who also has good experience of negotiating and selling media on an international basis.