Mark Byford

Above: Mark Byford

Above: Mark Byford

If Mark Byford was disappointed not to be appointed Director General of the BBC, following the resignation of Greg Dyke, he has not shown it and displays a lot of loyalty to the Corporation, to which he has devoted most of his working life.

A less determined person would have gone out in a fit of pique, but he is neither impulsive, nor a quitter. When he was first appointed deputy head of the public broadcaster, he said he would “strive to promote high standards, quality and the upholding of the BBC’s values.”
Back then, he probably never dreamt those principles would be compromised by scandals, like fake winners being put on air in phone-in programmes, for which the BBC was fined £50,000 by OFCOM, the media regulator, or that incidents like the documentary trailer which misled viewers into believing the Queen had stormed out of a photo shoot, would ever happen at the “most trusted” news organisation in the world. He was stunned, and told the Culture, Media and Sports Committee that what had happened was “utterly unacceptable,” and the Society of Editors – at ‘A Matter of Trust’ conference – that this had damaged the BBC and threatened its relationship with audiences.

Trust the BBC
Governance of the BBC was altered in the wake of the Hutton report, and the Board of Governors was replaced by the BBC Trust, whose members are appointed following an open appointments procedure. Has this been significant and beneficial? I asked him: “It has had a big impact, and it allows them to prioritise matters on behalf of the licence payer. They can stand back a bit more, as was demonstrated with the fakery issues, when they demanded we put in place an action plan.” He implemented an immediate journalistic training programme on the topic of trust, which both he and Mark Thompson, the Director General, also attended. Would that have been more difficult to do before the change? “There is a better structure, now, and more distance between the day-to-day running of the BBC by us, the management, and the trustees, who have overall responsibility in relation to the licence fee and represent the licence payers’ interests.”

Family man
Media commentators in the press snipe at Mark Byford, labelling him unexciting, although they acknowledge his courage, honesty and decency. Perhaps his preference for living with his wife Hilary and children, aged between 11 and 21, in Winchester, rather than split-living during the week, riles the chattering classes in London. A stable family life could be precisely what has kept his feet on the ground and his sanity intact throughout the ups-and-downs in the Corporation’s recent fortunes.
Despite having a high-profile and responsible job, Mark manages to find time for his hobbies of football, cricket and travel, as well as family life. “I am quite disciplined in having a not-obsessed working life, and like to spend weekends at home. I give Monday to Friday to the BBC, and Friday evening through to Sunday are for my own life,” he explains. He adds: “I’m an unremarkable person in the flesh, and if you were trying to spot me at weekends you may find me rifling through old CDs in a local charity shop; at Evensong in the Cathedral; walking down the water meadows in Winchester or driving Byford Taxi Services Ltd., ferrying all my kids around the area.”

Hampshire connection
Family and friendship are clearly things he values, noting that he has lots of friends in Hampshire, having spent almost half his life in the county, and his wife’s mother lives on Hayling Island.
His favourite seaside haunts include the Solent, and he likes to walk in the New Forest. His house – on Orams Arbour in Winchester, “a beautiful area of the city, where I have lived since 1991” – sounds a bit like a railway station: “It is open house, and my children have friends to stay a lot. In fact, I am never sure who is staying.” Another passion is rock music: “I try to go to a music gig at least once a fortnight. The last gig I saw was a big favourite, Joe Jackson, who originally hails from Portsmouth.”

Promising start
Mark was only 22 when he produced the Royal Television Society’s Regional News programme of the Year – a Look North    special on unemployment in the north of England. The following year he did the same thing again, but this time with South Today in Southampton. He became assistant news editor at BBC TV Southampton, working on the daily television programme, South Today, in 1982, and worked as a documentary features producer for BBC South from 1985 until 1987.
When he was director of the BBC World Service, it achieved its highest audience ever of more than 150 million listeners and won prestigious Sony and Webby awards. Hardly surprising then that, as an award-winning journalist, he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester in 2006, in recognition of his exceptional contribution to news broadcasting.

The art of spin
As a news journalist, he must have gained a lot of insight into politicians, although the run-in between the BBC and Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair’s spin-doctor-in-chief, appeared to have been unprecedented. I asked whether he thought real politics was like the popular BBC series Yes Minister, which followed James Hacker MP, Minister for Administrative Affairs, attempts to push his own agenda against Whitehall’s Sir Humphrey Appleby, the unflappable symbol of a bureaucratic civil service machine. He agrees there are similarities, but observes that Armando Iannucci’s Thick of It, which shows the black art of spin, is a more contemporary version of the relationship between the media and politicians. It shows the relationships between a put-upon Minister, his political advisors and their relationship with the media. 

Range of responsibilities
As head of BBC Journalism, his responsibilities include BBC News, Global News, Nations & Regions and BBC Sport. I asked what had triggered Mark Thompson to create that role. “The BBC had never brought them together before, but whether it is global, national or regional, the same standards apply. It is one powerhouse of journalism.” Why is there so much sport on television, I asked, displaying a gender bias. “Sport can be divisive in the household,” he agreed, “but for many people, especially young men, sport is integral to the BBC offer.
“The Olympics will be massive,” he added, “and more inclusive.”

Brave new world
The next challenge is broadcasting in the digital age, and, as Mark told students at Leeds University, his career began in an analogue world. “We’d never heard of digital, or the internet. There were no computers in the newsroom, just white boards and markers to write up the running orders; typewriters going 20 to the dozen; news film needing at least 40 minutes processing in the chemicals bath before being ready for editing; and very few live links, if any, in the region.
“The pace of change has never been greater,” he added, “and in news it’s moving faster than in any other broadcasting genre,” on top of which there is a “revolution in audience behaviour; in the competitive landscape; and in technological change.”
But some things don’t change: “BBC journalism was rooted in the same values in 1979, when I joined, as it is today: truth and accuracy; serving the public interest; impartiality and diversity of opinion; independence; and accountability.”