Mark Byford Exits BBC

LONDON: After more than 30 years with the BBC, Mark Byford is leaving his post as the deputy director-general, a role that will now be closed.

Byford is stepping down from the executive board at the end of March 2011 and fully exiting the company in early summer. Byford joined the BBC in 1979 as a TV researcher at BBC Leads. He has held a wide range of editorial roles, including head of television news in Bristol and home editor for BBC News and Current Affairs in the BBC newsroom. He joined the BBC board of management in 1996 as director of regional broadcasting. Byford become deputy director-general in January 2004, prior to Greg Dyke’s resignation.  In June 2004, when Mark Thompson was appointed director-general, Byford’s expanded role as his deputy to be head of all the BBC’s journalism at U.K., international and local levels. From April 2011, Helen Boaden, the director of BBC News, will join the executive board to represent BBC Journalism in place of Byford. The role of deputy director-general will now close, with no further successors.

Writing to BBC staff, Thompson said: "Mark has played a critical role in recent years as the leader of all journalism across the BBC and has been an outstanding deputy to me and member of the executive board. But as part of our commitment to spend as much of the license fee as possible on content and services, we’ve been looking at management numbers and costs across the BBC, and that must include the most senior levels.

"We have concluded—and Mark fully accepts—that the work he has done to develop our journalism and editorial standards across the BBC has achieved the goals we set to such an extent that the role of deputy director-general can now end, that the post should close at the end of the current financial year, and that Mark himself should be made redundant."

Thompson commented of Byford’s tenure: "Michael Grade once described Mark Byford as the ‘conscience of the BBC’. Anyone who has worked with him—and there are thousands across the corporation—will attest to his unfailing integrity and loyalty.

"He has always stood for the highest standards in journalism but also in all his doings at the BBC. But he has also played a central role over the years in modernizing BBC journalism and grasping the promise of this new digital age. I have never had a closer or more supportive relationship with any colleague and cannot begin to express my personal sense of gratitude to Mark for his honesty, steadfastness and energy. I know many of you will feel the same."

In a separate note, Byford told BBC staff: "Obviously I will be very sad to leave this brilliant organisation that has been such a dominant part of my life for so long. But I know this decision is the right way forward. From a summer holiday job to head of all the BBC’s journalism—I have been fortunate and blessed to have had such a wonderful career at the BBC. Today, I’d like to thank all my close friends and valued colleagues across the BBC for their friendship and support, and their inspiration, creativity and wisdom. I have learned so much from so many. I feel privileged and proud to have been a part of the best broadcasting organization in the world."