Turmoil at Today as news budget is cut to give women presenters huge pay rises
So MUCH for the Today programme’s Diamond Jubilee. The Radio 4 flagship programme celebrates its 60th anniversary later this month, but has now been plunged into chaos over a budget crisis caused by impending pay rises for its female presenters.
I can reveal the BBC is ‘too scared’ to take money off its star presenters John Humphrys and Nick Robinson, so will close the show’s gender pay gap by handing huge increases to Mishal Husain and Sarah Montague instead.
The pay hikes are expected to take such an enormous bite out of the budget for the flagship Radio 4 show that there will be almost nothing left to play with.
The programme’s editor Sarah Sands, who only took up her job this summer, now has so little room left for manoeuvre that she cannot afford the investigations and foreign reports she had planned on.
Insiders claim that she was surprised by how much Today male presenters are paid when she started the job. She is also growing hugely frustrated that she does not have free rein to allocate the programme budget as she likes, or the financial freedom to make the show she wishes.
She is also exasperated that she cannot improve conditions for the rank-and-file staff — who do most of the work on the programme.
A source said: ‘The emphasis is all on big savings rather than more expenditure. And [Sands] is upset to find that the outrageous growth in presenter pay means she has nothing to spend on the decreasing team of bright reporters and producers behind the scenes.
‘By the time they have lifted the women — for they are too scared to reduce the men — there will be nothing in the pot to spend on anyone anywhere... [the] simple problem is she has been left too many presenters paid too much money.’
I understand the editor of Today is not allowed to set the pay for presenters him or herself.
Instead, their salaries are fixed by executives at the top of the BBC News department.
Humphrys was the highest paid BBC News presenter in 2016, on up to £650,000-a-year. His co-hosts Robinson and Justin Webb get up to £300,000 and £200,000 respectively.
By contrast, Montague did not make the BBC’s rich list because she earns less than £150,000.
Husain gets up to £250,000 for her work on Today, BBC1 and BBC World News.
Both women joined a revolt against the BBC by 40 high-profile female presenters, who wrote an open letter to BBC boss Lord Hall demanding urgent action.
But while their pay increases will ease tensions in Today’s presenting team, they will stoke growing anger among rank-and-file staff. A source said that stars were treated like they are in ‘first class’, while the rest of the programme’s team of about 40 people are firmly ‘in economy’.
‘Some of the producers feel it. If you look at the discrepancies from people who do work very hard and for very long hours, it does seem quite unfair.’
Humphrys tried to ease the problem earlier this year by taking an undisclosed wage cut just before the BBC’s shameful rich list was published.
But some fear that the BBC may be tempted to ‘solve’ its thorny budgeting problem by getting rid of him altogether.
The 74-year-old Humphrys has become a divisive figure within the BBC — disliked by many Remainers who think he is too Right-wing. A source said: ‘Metropolitan liberal Remainers want him out in the most vehement terms: Brexiteers insist he must at all costs stay.’ Former Evening Standard editor Sands is a firm fan, telling friends that she regards him as the ‘listeners’ champion’ and that he is safe on the programme under her. Sands, 56, has already faced a backlash from old BBC hands over the supposedly lightweight direction of the programme under her watch. Roger Mosey, ex-head of BBC television news, damned her with faint praise and said the programme had become more of a magazine than a news showcase. His criticism followed an extended programme on London Fashion Week. A BBC spokesman said: ‘This is nothing more than gossip rife with inaccuracy. ‘It’s well known that we are carrying out a review of how we pay presenters and any assumptions ahead of the review completing are simply speculation.’