THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL ON...
THE FUTURE: ‘The evidence is unequivocal: the future of a universal BBC can no longer be taken for granted. We have no inalienable right to exist.’ STAYING RELEVANT: ‘Across the UK, across all political views, across all of society, and across all age groups, people must feel their BBC is here for them, not for us. So I want a radical shift in our focus from the internal to the external, to focus on those we serve: the public. From Cornwall to Shetland, from Suffolk to County Fermanagh.’ IMPARTIALITY: ‘We urgently need to champion and recommit to impartiality… If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC.’ EXPANSION: ‘The truth is that we have tried to cope with increasing competition by making more and spreading ourselves too thinly… We have been too slow to stop things that don’t work… We will not hesitate to close channels if they do not offer value to our audiences.’ DISMANTLING BUREAUCRACY: ‘It is so easy to roll your eyes when we hear of bureaucracy and internal politics as if it cannot be changed… We must make changes because it will harm the BBC if we don’t… People say the BBC is slow to change: try telling that to the newsroom at ten to ten when a story is breaking. We are just slow to change when we feel it is not essential. Well, our organisation needs to evolve now – and fast… I want every area of the BBC not to moan about bureaucracy but dismantle it.’ DIVERSITY: ‘We must move away from any sense of a “BBC type”, and not hire in our own image… Our ambition is to create an organisation which reflects more accurately the society we serve. That’s 50 per cent women and 50 per cent men, at least 20 per cent Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, and at least 12 per cent disabled… We will look to make the BBC less rather than more London-based.’