BBC chairman says director-general role too big for one person as job advertised

BBC chairman Samir Shah has said the BBC director-general role is too big a job for one person, hours after the corporation put up a job advertisement for the position.

The advert for the top BBC job went live on Monday after Tim Davie announced earlier this month that he would be stepping down.

Mr Shah told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that he was “inclined” to restructure the BBC’s executive after commenting that the role of director-general is “too big for one person”.

He said: “In my view (the role of director-general) is too big for one person.

“The BBC needs to be the beacon of impartial journalism, it absolutely does.

“We are living in a world over the next 10 years where people need to trust us and we need to have focused our journalism.

“I’m inclined to restructure the executive in the future, once we get a new director.

“The lens through which we examine potential candidates for the director-general includes the idea that there will be a deputy director-general, who would be focused on journalism.”

The corporation previously had a deputy director-general role, however, it was scrapped in 2011 following a period of cutbacks.

Five years later Anne Bulford was appointed deputy director-general, however, she did not oversee the organisation’s journalism and when she stepped down in 2019 her role was not replaced.

Mr Davie’s resignation comes after a leaked memo on impartiality, written by Michael Prescott, a former external adviser to the BBC’s editorial standards committee, outlined concerns that a Panorama episode selectively edited a speech made by US President Donald Trump before the attack on the US Capitol in 2021.

The search will be headed by the leadership advisory firm Egon Zehnder, with the deadline to apply listed as December 31.

The job specification describes the role as one of “the most important, high-profile public posts in the UK” and is “ultimately responsible and accountable to the board” for its decisions across the BBC’s editorial matters, output, public service delivery and overall commercial success”.

The advert does not specify a salary, however, according to the BBC’s 2024/2025 annual report, Mr Davie earned a base salary of £541,000.

The candidate will need to demonstrate experience leading an organisation through “significant change”, make complex editorial and creative decisions, cultivate a “positive work environment” and deal with a broad range of stakeholders.

In terms of personal qualities, the corporation is seeking someone with a “strong conviction for public service broadcasting” able to “cope” with the “significant personal and professional pressures” that come with leading the organisation.

The job vacancy comes after the broadcaster faced a string of criticisms this year for a number of failings including breaching its own accuracy editorial guidelines and livestreaming the controversial Bob Vylan Glastonbury set, as well as misconduct allegations surrounding former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace.

The fallout from the leaked impartiality memo was the final straw which led to the resignation of both Mr Davie and the chief executive of BBC News, Deborah Turness.

The controversy relates to concerns raised in the summer in Mr Prescott’s report about the way clips of the US president’s speech on January 6 2021 were spliced together in Trump: A Second Chance? to make it appear he had told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.

The documentary was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election, and critics have said it was misleading and removed a section where the US president said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

The BBC apologised for the edit of Mr Trump’s speech, which had given the “mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.

The US president has since said he would sue the corporation following its apology over the Panorama edit.