Just in: BBC dumps another controller

Former BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow had a tailored job as Controller of special projects and seasons.

She’s gone. And she won’t be replaced.

Our swing-door correspondent comments:

Hadlow is the latest in a string of high-profile, senior executives to leave in quick succession including Kim Shillinglaw, the Controller of BBC2 and BBC4, Director of Television, Danny Cohen, and Alan Yentob as “Creative Director”.

A back-of-an-envelope calculation suggests the BBC has saved almost £1m in salaries. And that is exactly the point. In recent years, the BBC has been derided over management costs; bloated bureaucracy and inefficiency.

With the government’s White Paper on the BBC Charter due for publication in the Spring. Auntie desperately needs some positive headlines about “efficiency savings” to convince the government (and Parliament) – and associated bodies including The National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee that she is ‘Value for Money”…