SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: After Yentob, another BBC boss with two jobs
Alan Yentob isn’t the only highly paid BBC executive whose habit of hogging plum broadcasting roles is causing irritation at Broadcasting House.
James Harding, the corporation’s £340,000-a-year director of news, has ruffled feathers over his decision to front a current affairs programme on the World Service.
The programme, called On Background, will be a six-part series, starting next month, discussing the major news stories of the week. He will be joined each week by Economist editor Zanny Minton-Beddoes and a revolving panel of guests.
Alan Yentob isn’t the only highly paid BBC executive whose habit of hogging plum broadcasting roles is causing irritation at Broadcasting House
However, I hear that the announcement of the show has provoked anger among BBC journalists, who are incredulous as to why the gig has gone to an executive, rather than one of their own.
One disgruntled hack compares the situation to the Beeb’s under-fire lifer Alan Yentob, dubbed ‘two jobs’ over his maintaining his role as the corporation’s £180,000-a-year creative director as well as presenting his arts show Imagine, for which he receives an additional stipend reputed to be £150,000.
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‘It’s a bit weird after all the fuss over Alan Yentob and his two jobs,’ says a BBC insider.
‘Even if the presenting job was someone else’s idea, is it appropriate for him to put himself in the limelight, given the number of other BBC journalists who are trained and qualified to do it?’
James Harding, the corporation’s £340,000-a-year director of news, has ruffled feathers over his decision to front a current affairs programme on the World Service
It will certainly enhance Harding’s profile on a global platform, and he will be a useful ally to the World Service given his potential as a future director-general.
Despite no significant experience in broadcasting, Harding was appointed to his head of news role in 2013 by director-general Lord Hall, having previously been editor of The Times for five years.
Harding, 46, replaced Helen Boaden, who was shuffled off to be director of radio after she was criticised in the Pollard Review over the Jimmy Savile crisis.
The BBC says: ‘James will be bringing his own insight and expertise on editing and journalism to the programme, just as Zanny will bring hers, and we think the BBC World Service’s large global audience will appreciate this.’
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