Who Decides?

Slightly off topic, but when a news story beaks, who decides what reporter or correspondent will fly out to cover it?

For example, an incident in Poland requires a BBC Reporter to be flown out from London. Let's say he is a World Affairs Correspondent. Is it down to John Simpson as World Affairs Editor who decides who will be mobilised to a story, or is it a producer's decision?

What then does John Simpson do as editor - does he literally edit all reports filed by the "field" correspondents, or is it just a title of grandeur conferred to denote seniority??? (Using Simpson purely as an example - substitute with anyone else who fits the bill).

When reporters are being mobilised to a breaking news story, I guess they are permitted to get there by any means available. But, when its an overseas trip to cover a well planned and known event (such as a royal wedding, or elections, etc), does the reporter fly out in Business Class, First Class, or what? What is the BBC / ITN / Sky / CNN policies on stuff like this? Who decides the hotel policies?

Does an "Editor" get business class, but a correspondent gets economy class???

I am intrigued.

James

Hi James, I've also been intrigued for a while about the ways in which a large news organisation will cover an event and I'll try and answer some of your questions.

John Simpson (according to his autobiographies) now flies business class. Which he says causes problems when he is travelling with a producer (especially his wife) who must travel in economy. He does not edit all the reports - he is simply the nominal head of the World Affairs Unit - basically the most senior reporter.

It is not Simpson's decision as to which reporters cover a story. The BBC has staff who work out rotas and planning editors who work out who should be sent to a breaking news stories - the current head World Planning Editor is (I think) someone called Malcolm Downing. The World News Editor Jonathan Baker will decide what stories he wants to be covered and by how many people - as far as I know, he doesn't decide exactly who and when.

With largely inevitable stories such as the Pope's death or an election, it is planned well ahead of time which reporters would go to Krakow and which to Rome for example. This is a less haphazard process as everyone knows where they will be going. I believe that most reporters/producers/cameramen fly in economy (or simply wherever there are seats available) but business class comes with seniority. I also know that Stuart Hughes (the BBC producer who lost a foot in a landmine blast in Iraq) does get business class because of the extra leg room required for an artificial limb.

I'm sure that there are some errors in my understanding of the way that the BBC operates, but I'm sure they'll be corrected at some point!!

Due to the Licence Fee being public money it is BBC policy for all staff members to travel the cheapest possible way.

Only a handful of people ("talent"!) are allowed to travel first class (last I head it was 4/5) - they have it written into their contracts.

I know Rolf Harris is one of them!

I presume John Simpson's role would be more of a strategic one rather than a day to day running of the department, but I think to say he was just 'nominally' head of WAU is slightly unfair.

I'd have thought that the Director of News would have occasional meetings with each of the big editors, the World Affairs Editor, Political Editor, Home Editor, Diplomatic Editor, Economics & Business Editors etc to discuss how things had gone, and to decide on policies for the future, they may even look at known events that were on their radar screens and maybe talk about themes such as the BBC China week etc.

What I'd like to know is who is who's boss. Is Simpson Brian Hanrahan's boss? Diplomacy is World Affairs and so you could say he is an underling of the WA Editor. Do the Economic & Business Editors come under the managment of the Political Editor or the Home Editor or are the independant? How do the editors of the 1/6/10, BN, Newsnight, N24 etc fit into the scheme?

Anyone post an organisation chart? It's OUR BBC - we should be told!!!

Sorry, I didn't make it clear that the use of the word "nominal" was me quoting John Simpson from one of his books. I did not mean to demean his seniority - he and Brian Hanrahan are clearly the most experienced reporters on international affairs at the BBC.

An organisation chart????? like such a thing exists!

The various on-screen "editors" don't actually have any role in deciding coverage - it's purely a title one notch above "correspondent/chief correspondent". They do tend to pick and choose which stories they do themselves, but that's a perk of the job.

The real "editorial" power is spread around. Programme editors of the programmes (1/6/10/NN) tend to have the final say in what goes into their programmes, although they're occasionally overriden from above.

The full explanation of who decides what in the BBC would require a dissertation - and even then, you wouldn't get to the bottom of it. Basically, "core" coverage of a story is run by Newsgathering. Programmes will pay extra to send their "own" people out there. So on - for example - the tsunami, Andrew Harding and Rachel Harvey in Aceh would have been paid for by Newsgathering - there to serve the whole BBC - whilst Ben Brown was there for the Ten, Other outlets got to run his pieces, but the Ten commissioned them and had first bite at them on air.

Travel - very rarely anything other than economy (unless economy's full and it's desperate). A lavish foreign trip for a reporter/producer/cameraman-editor will be budgeted at about £10,000, with 3x economy flights accounting for £1500 - 2000. The business equivalent would be about £9000.... so nothing left for anything else. That said, these days, they're a bit more flexible on flights. If you're flying long haul, maybe overnight, to a big breaking story, and when you get there you'll be working 16 hour days for a week in **** conditions, then flying cattle isn't going to start you off on the right foot. So business can sometimes be had. It's rare though.

Thanks for that W12 - glad you cleared things up. So 'World Affairs Editor' is just there so he'll sell more books!