This from The Guardian:

Lisa O'Carroll
Wednesday March 31, 2004
The Guardian

The battle to succeed Greg Dyke as BBC director general will have to restart once a chairman is appointed after it emerged that at least three front-runners have not bothered to apply because of the current leadership hiatus.

Senior sources at the BBC have confirmed Mark Thompson, the chief executive of Channel 4 and the odds-on favourite for the job, did not submit an application by the March 22 deadline.

And John Smith, the BBC's finance director and a strong internal candidate who had indicated an early interest, has decided not to throw his hat into the ring after all.

Another very strong candidate, Michael Jackson, a former BBC director of TV and BBC1 controller, has not applied although a friend said he was "tempted".

Mr Jackson has been working in the US for the past three years.

He is understood to be committed contractually to stay with Universal TV until its recently agreed merger with NBC is complete, a process that could take until May or June.

Sources say he has not ruled himself out of the running for the BBC job.

It is not known how many candidates have applied for the director general's job but it is thought the acting director general, Mark Byford, and the head of BBC radio, Jenny Abramsky, have done so.

Mr Thompson's absence from the application list is no surprise - he has already said he would not apply for the job.

His decision not to put his name forward was proof, said one senior BBC executive, that the selection process was "a charade" that would have to be abandoned once the new chairman or chairwoman is appointed.

The deadline for applications for director general fell on the day before the interviews were held for chair, which would also have put off serious candidates, according to the executive.

"It is a phoney war at this stage. The relationship between the chief executive and chairman is absolutely key. Who would apply for a job who didn't know who their chairperson was going to be?" said the insider.

"It's like saying I'll get married on Thursday but I don't know who to. If you look over the years, the relationships have been very significant - Marmaduke Hussey and John Birt or even Greg Dyke and Gavyn Davies. It has to be a double ace," said another executive, who might have been considered a candidate.

But one senior BBC executive with knowledge of the process defended the decision to advertise for applications in the absence of a new chair and to employ headhunters.

"We had to get the process under way. People who want to be director general want it because they want to run the BBC, not because they can work with one chairman or another. This is the single most important job in TV," said the insider.

A shortlist of candidates will be drawn up by a nominations committee comprising four BBC governors - Dame Pauline Neville Jones, Deborah Bull, Merfyn Jones and Dermot Gleeson.

The BBC said whether the shortlist would be acceptable or not was "up to the chairman" and it was possible the list could be ditched.

The chair who replaces Mr Davies, who was forced to resign following the publication of the Hutton report, will be appointed within the next three weeks, the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, said last weekend.

It is understood seven candidates were interviewed for the post and Michael Grade, Lord Watson, David Dimbleby and David Frost have been confirmed as names on the list.

The list has also been sent to an independent panel led by Dame Rennie Fritchie, the commissioner for public appointments, who will be on hand to ensure the selection process adheres to the Nolan rules on public appointments.

Dame Rennie will be joined in assessing the shortlist by former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Condon, ex-Labour cabinet minister Jack Cunningham, and Lord Steel, the former Liberal party leader.

If they agree the original interview process has been fair and open, Ms Jowell and Downing Street will then decide on the victor.

Some Whitehall sources say a "thingy-up" in the wording of advertisement for the chairman's role has meant some candidates such as the Pearson chairman, Dennis Stevenson, did not apply.

The advert said the £80,000-a-year job would take up four days a week but, in reality, it is only a two-day-a-week post, said a source.

The ad, which appeared in the Sunday Times, was modelled on that used following Mr Hussey's retirement and the copy was not checked in detail, said the insider.

"Hussey did the job for four days a week because he had nothing else to do. That may have put off a lot of serious candidates," said the source.