On 29/11/06, Martin Belam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Ian, why don't you apply for the job of Chairman of the BBC? I think the Chairman is more of a strategic hands-off job, and I'm sure Ian would miss getting his hands dirty with widget code :-)
He, Michael, wants to commission great content, like is Uncle Lew, Jesus of Nazareth - rather than Roland Rat. When I joined the BBC in 1985 I was told there were 30,000 employees, two weeks ago Jem informed us in Newcastle that there were 27,000. Considering that a lot more content is outsourced this does not seem a great decline in numbers to the outsider, of course there is a lot more content. In a recent Gilmor Gang they were talking about the relative proportions of content, a third was editorial, a third from subscribers - the audience, a third from sponsors, sponsors rather than advertisers. These kind of metrics need not just apply to web sites. For the BBC to be sucessfull at comissioning their audience, they have to start by engaging them in conversations. How for instance to build on John Humphries success in his exploration of faith rather than alienate the audience once you have started to engage them.
