Carrie Gracie resignation

In the nicest possible way, it seems that Carrie Gracie maybe had a slightly exaggerated idea of the importance of her role and her standing within the corporation. To compare herself with Jon Sopel and Jeremy Bowen is, frankly, ridiculous - her role and screen time were in no way comparable to either of them, and that is what her remuneration is based on, not her gender.

In the nicest possible way, you are talking through a cocked hat.

An Editor has certain responsibilities for the coverage of their 'beat' as it were, and those are exactly the same whether you are on screen or not. The North America Editor, The Political Editor, The China Editor, The Sports Editor, every one of those editor roles have exactly the same responsibilities. How many times you appear on air have nothing to do with it at all.

If one editor is paid a lot more than another, for doing the same job and having the same responsibilities, then that is just plain old wrong, except in maybe very exceptional circumstances, but I don't see anything in this that even comes close to qualifying to be exceptional.

With respect, maybe it's you talking through a cocked hat.

Where I work, I have the same job title as other people but get paid less than some of them as they have larger teams than me and are responsible for staff who deal with more complex and technical things than my team do. They often have to work longer hours and deal with people at a higher level than me.

I took the job on knowing I would be paid less than some of the others but I understand the rationale behind it. Saying the same job title should command the same salary is such a simplistic view in an issue (and world) that is not simplistic.

Certainly a name and face of familiarity to any viewer of BBC World News, and having featured in a multitude of countdowns in the past 10 plus years.

No, same job, same responsibilities, equal pay.

If there is a difference in responsibilities between the jobs, even though they have the same or similar titles, then it's expected for the renumeration to be different, but that's not what we're talking about here.

The on-air editor roles all have the same responsibilities, the only difference between any of them, is the beat they cover. The jobs are otherwise the same. How many times someone is on-air is irrelevant in that conversation.

Yet Sopel had little prior experience of covering the US before taking on the beat - where Carrie has a degree in Chinese from Oxford, with years of reporting and documentary making experience from China. Sopel is in a role that is essentially a glorified correspondent position, in a way that Katya Adler's role is more comparable to that of Laura Kuenssberg, relying more on EU sources and contacts than news wire, and being expected to break news rather than merely report it.

So given the BBC is a public broadcaster, using public funds, I think the idea that Sopel is objectively worth a higher salary because of his perceived existing profile (remember he was almost exclusively on BBC World News for the year previously, and hadn't presented any BBC political programming for some time) than Carrie Gracie or Katya Adler is incorrect. Just as it's highly questionable that Ben Brown should have been paid more than either Adler or Gracie for considerably less screentime, profile and responsibilities. Just as Sarah Montague and Emily Maitlis - in two of the highest profile, dream broadcasting jobs going - are paid less than Sopel or Brown. This isn't ever exclusively about one factor, but it's undeniable that overall female talent is being paid considerably less than male counterparts.

Maybe the male counterpoints are better at their jobs? I’m not saying that I believe that to be the case, however nobody tunes into Today to listen to Sarah Montague tearing into politicians. Is that because of her gender? Or because she’s just not as good an interviewer?

Calling it a male-female issue is oversimplifying it massively. There are many reasons for variation in pay, and I’d hazard a guess that there’s never been a China Editor who was paid more than the North America Editor at the time, male or female.

I have the same job and same responsibilities as three of my colleagues. Two of them have 10-15 more years experience in the role. They get paid more. That's completely fine by me, and completely in line with employment law.

As it happens, the other colleague has near as damn it exactly the same experience as me. We're paid exactly the same.

Life isn't as simple as "same job, same pay" - and nor should it be. Pay should be fair, not necessarily equal.



How sure are you? As a very simple example, are they leading correspondent teams of the same size? Are their budgets the same size? There might be justifiable reasons for at least part of the difference in pay - but I agree that it's inexcusable that the BBC isn't able to articulate them and make its case.



True - but there's a short history - Carrie was the first China Editor!

Honestly, you really don't need any special skills, experience or knowledge in order to cover America and Trump. They would do better with some tabloid reporter than Jon Sopel who is wasted there.

On the other hand, both Adler and Carrie are covering serious countries/regions with real politics and social issues. Carrie's knowledge of Mandarin is a special skill that very few have and should be valued highly.

Ah yes, the USA, well known as the land of no social issues whatsoever. I'm also not sure what about American politics is "unreal," except in the plausibility sense.

Here's something I wonder.
Does any of the correspondent, editor, newsroom staff pay come from the money raised by BBC World News sponsorship, ad revenue and carrier fees? Or is it all UK licence fee?

Celia Hatton is Asia and Pacific Editor based in London and an occasional newscaster on World News. A possible logical replacement?

The nature of Carries departure has now made the China Editor role a rather well known one now. So whoever fills it will have big shoes to fill in certain aspects.

This leads me to believe that it could be a high profile journalist.

As for Carrie herself: a role on BBC Network News?