This from today's FT:

NATIONAL NEWS: Top job at BBC attracts nearly 80 applicants
By Cathy Newman and Gautam Malkani
Financial Times; Mar 05, 2004

The task of turning round the BBC has attracted a surge of interest, with four times as many people applying to become chairman as when the job last fell vacant three years ago.

The number of applications - 79 compared with 19 in 2001 - has surprised the government, particularly as the BBC has just been plunged into the biggest crisis in its 80-year history.

Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke quit as chairman and director-general respectively in the wake of the Hutton inquiry's indictment of the BBC.

The departure of Mr Dyke has been keenly felt at the corporation where his resignation has crystallised fears among some staff of a return to the more austere, bottomline-driven regime of his predecessor as director-general, John Birt.

The anxieties of the "Dykeists" have been heightened by the appointment of Mark Byford as acting director-general. Despite his closeness to Mr Dyke, Mr Byford was an ally of Lord Birt, who was hated by many staff for his bureaucratic, aloof style.

Although staff have since begun to warm to Mr Byford, who remains favourite to become director-general, a charismatic chairman is needed to avert the lingering risk of a split between the remaining Birtists and the majority loyal to Mr Dyke.

However, despite the long list of applicants for chairman, a number of big hitters may have been put off by the relatively modest salary - especially given the scale of the challenges faced by the broadcaster.

The £81,320 on offer for the four-day-a-week post will fail to attract senior business executives, headhunters have warned. The successful candidate also faces the less than enticing possibility of having to abolish part of his or her job if the review of the BBC charter forces the governors to hand to Ofcom, the communications watchdog, their role of regulating the corporation.

The governors were roundly attacked by Lord Hutton over their handling of Andrew Gilligan's story on the government's Iraq dossier.

Industry insiders believe Michael Portillo, the Tory MP, and Richard Lambert, former editor of the Financial Times, are among those who applied for the chairmanship by last Friday's deadline. The applications will now be sifted by civil servants and the shortlist scrutinised by Dame Rennie Fritchie, the commissioner for public appointments.

Dame Rennie yesterday appointed Lord Condon, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, to join her, Jack Cunningham, the Labour former cabinet minister, and Lord Steel, the former Liberal leader, in assessing the shortlist.

Staff at the BBC fear an appointee regarded as too close to the government or someone likely to relinquish regulatory control. As a result, there is appetite for a Tory grandee, such as Mr Portillo, who might be expected to withstand such pressure. Virginia Bottomley, the Tory former national heritage secretary, is another favoured by some staff.

However, appointing a Conservative could prove complicated as Lord Ryder, the BBC's deputy chairman, is also a Tory and there is a long-standing precedent for political balance between the BBC's chairman and deputy chairman. Lord Puttnam, the Labour peer, has long been in the frame.

Potential non-political candidates include Mr Lambert, who carried out a government review of BBC News 24, Sir Michael Bishop, the previous chairman of Channel 4 and British Midland and Patricia Hodgson, the former chief executive of the Independent Television Commission.

Ms Hodgson used to head the BBC's policy division and is credited with securing two consecutive favourable licence fee settlements.

Nevertheless, BBC insiders concur that there is an absence of an obvious credible candidate for the position. It may be some time before the corporation can put its recent travails behind it.
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