BBC head of news James Harding has brought in his old deputy at The Times Keith Blackmore to the newly-created job of managing editor BBC News.

Blackmore left The Times after 26 years at the paper last August some eight months after Harding was ousted as Times editor.

In his new job Blackmore will have responsibility for managing and negotiating contracts for senior journalists and presenters, editorial projects and career development for journalists.

He said: "I am excited and pleased to be joining the BBC.  I come with respect for its commitment to the highest standards in journalism, with admiration for the quality of its work and with enthusiasm at the prospect of working with people across News and Current Affairs.”

It has also been announced that former deputy editor of ITV News Jonathan Munro is to be the new BBC head of newsgathering - in charge of the day-to-day activity and deployments of all journalists.

Harding said: “I’m delighted that Jonathan and Keith are joining the BBC. We are lucky to have them. Jonathan has an exceptional range of experience and a huge reputation in broadcasting – and as a competitor he has given us a run for our money more often than we would have liked.  When I left The Times I said that all the good things that had happened while I was there were chiefly Keith’s doing. I know that he will bring to the BBC his sound judgment and gift for bringing out the best in people.”

A BBC spokesman said of the managing editor position: "The normal recruitment process was undertaken, and the position was externally advertised."

An independent auditor has identified serious weaknesses around a failed digital project which cost the BBC £100m.

Conceived in Nov 2005 to “fully prepare the BBC for the on-demand digital world” the DMI initiative was initially given the go-ahead in December 2007 with a budget set at £81.7m.

In February 2008 Siemens was awarded £79.8m to take the project on only for it to be taken in-house again in July 2009.

Today’s report found that in June 2012 a BBC review said that of 12 DMI “functions”, only one was in live use “but required a period of stabilisation”.

In October 2012 the project was “paused”. After a review it was decided that DMI would not meet the "future business needs for digital, tapeless production" - at which point the decision was made to stop the programme and "write down the asset value".

The report published today found serious weaknesses around the way the project was run which allowed it to slip further into trouble, but failed to identify any single cause or issue which led to the difficulties.

DMI was being developed to allow BBC staff to create, share and manage video content at their desks.

But following the publication of today's report, compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the project was blasted for the "unacceptable cost to licence fee payers" by Diana Coyle, the vice chairman of the BBC Trust.

Dominic Coles, the BBC's Director of Operations, said: "While the BBC has a strong history of delivering complex projects such as BBC iPlayer, the digital Olympics or major property moves, we got this one wrong which we regret.

"We know it is vital to spot problems early, which is why we have overhauled how these projects are run to ensure this doesn't happen again."

The report, compiled at a cost of more than a quarter of a million pounds, found numerous areas were "not fit for purpose" including governance of the project, arrangements for reporting progress to BBC bosses and risk management.

The report lays down a number of recommendations for management of future major projects at the corporation.

The corporation's chief technology officer John Linwood, who was paid £280,000 a year, was suspended on full pay pending the outcome of investigations.

The BBC would not give an update today. A spokesman said: "We cannot comment as there is an ongoing process."

The BBC executive welcomed the report and accepted its findings. In a statement it added: "Whilst the BBC clearly has a responsibility to keep ambitious technology projects under control, it is also our duty to bring innovation to the market.

"Of course, such technology projects always carry a risk of failure. Nevertheless, to deliver our strategy and bring value to the digital economy, the BBC will continue to innovate and develop new technologies."

The BBC Trust said: "We believe that by being clear about the mistakes which have been made, and by identifying the actions needed to rectify them, the PwC report will help to ensure that there will be no repeat of a failure on the scale of DMI."

The corporation's chief technology officer John Linwood, who was paid £280,000 a year, was earlier this year suspended on full pay pending the outcome of investigations.

Ofcom has released guidelines for broadcasters following the broadcast of news footage moments after the murder of fusilier Lee Rigby.

Almost 700 viewers complained about the footage broadcast across TV channels on 22 May 2013 as well as coverage on the Iain Dale show on radio station LBC.

Rigby was murdered moments after he left Woolwich baracks in London by Michael Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo. Footage of the killing was captured on smartphones by members of the public and was soon uploaded onto the internet. 

Much of this footage, including images of Adebolajo ranting on screen with bloodied hands and a hatchet, was broadcast on evening news bulletins. 

According to Ofcom, broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky News and Al Jazeera did not breach guidelines when covering the story.

Viewers complained about images shown in the aftermath of the killing including footage of one of the attackers attempting to justify his actions.

According to Ofcom: “While the coverage was detailed and at times distressing, we did not consider that the images were too offensive for broadcast given they were appropriately scheduled and justified by the context.

“We have however set out some guidance to broadcasters about, for example, the need to give appropriate warnings to viewers before broadcasting material which might cause offence or distress to viewers.”

Ofcom said mobile phone footage of the incident had been “widely disseminated via social media”.

ITV advised Ofcom  that an individual arrived at the broadcaster’s offices with mobile phone footage of the incident at 17.45 on 22 May. The broadcaster told the regulator that they satisfied themselves that the member of the public was not involved with the incident and broadcast the footage at 18.20 during their London Tonight programme.

Ofcom ruled: “However we were concerned about a few aspects of some news coverage of this incident, and wish to give some general guidance to broadcasters as a result. Ofcom recognises that when covering a breaking and important news story, especially where the subject matter and associated audio visual material is potentially distressing and offensive, important and timely editorial judgement is required.

“Television journalists must balance the need to inform the public fully and in a timely way in a competitive news environment against the requirements of the Code.”

In future Ofcom said broadcasters must warn the public in advance of the publication of graphic footage or audio.

For a full copy of the ruling click on this link.

The 2014 WT Stead lecture by BBC head of news James Harding entitled 'Journalism Today' - delivered at the British library on 13 January 2014.

Thank you.   And a heartfelt thank you to the British Library for inviting me here this evening to mark the memory of WT Stead, a man once described as a journalist with “a pen touched with fire”. 

To so many journalists, Stead has been the inspiration, the pioneer of the modern press.  His zeal and idealism, his restless fury at inequality and injustice; his belief that dogged, daring investigations could capture the public’s imagination and prompt society to change for the better; his muscular opinions, his accessible design and his campaigning newspapers – and, no doubt too, a dab of ego, showmanship, and human folly – has made him the journalist’s editor.

I remember standing in the newsroom of The Times in late 2010 when the then home editor told me of a story that Andrew Norfolk, our correspondent based in Leeds, was working on.  It was about child sex grooming: the cultivation of young, teenage girls by gangs of men who plied them with drink and drugs and passed them around middle-aged men to be used for sex.  And I remember thinking: ‘This can’t be true, this feels Dickensian, like a story from another age.’  It felt suspiciously like an attempt to recreate  W T Stead’s defining investigation into child prostitution.  The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon was published in 1884 and, as this audience well knows, exposed the sale of young girls for sex in Victorian London and the repulsive business that enabled men, as Stead chillingly put it, to enjoy “the exclusive luxury of revelling in the cries of an immature child.” 

Yet, child sex grooming was not, it turned out, a story of Victorian times.  As Andrew Norfolk’s fearless reporting over two, now nearly three years, has shown, it was a fact of life in 21st century Rotherham, Rochdale, Blackpool, Oxford and other towns across the country. 

In fact, a century after his death on the Titanic, a casual reading of some of W T Stead’s writing leaves you, initially, struck by how much remains the same.  The press – and I use that word as a shorthand for the established news media, i.e. both newspapers and broadcasters – the press can still be, as Stead conceived of journalism at the close of the 19th century, “an engine of social reform” and, as he put it, “a rival of organized governments.”  Columnists, talk radio hosts and the commentariat on the TV sofas still make their names ripping into what Stead called “the moral eunuchs” of Westminster. And, hand-wringing about the culture of newspapers is not new either: W T Stead deemed some of Fleet Street’s newspapers to be “drivelling productions…without weight, influence or representative character.”

But the fact that there is an echo of Stead’s words a century later cannot disguise the fact that the news is in the throes of a revolution.

The case I would like to make to you tonight is that the era that started with Stead – the era in which the press had a legitimate claim to be a unique check on the powerful and the sole interrogator of the establishment; the era in which editors had unrivalled power to command public opinion and shape the political agenda; the era in which the Fourth Estate was a clutch of established institutions run by identifiable individuals in control of the news – that era is over.  

Anyone with a Twitter account can set the news agenda

In the age of Twitter, Youtube and Facebook, Buzzfeed, Vice and Upworthy,  Stead’s claim that “the -press is the greatest agency for influencing public opinion in the world...and the true and only lever by which thrones and governments could be shaken and the masses of the people raised” suddenly looks like it is in play. The established news media no longer monopolises – and may not for long dominate - the means of production and distribution of the news.  Digital technologies – aka the internet – have handed those powers to any individual.  Anyone with a story, a point of view and a Twitter account can set the agenda.  If you choose, the ‘Powers that Be’ are you.

Digital technologies are wreaking catastrophic damage on the business models of many newspapers and broadcasters.   Advertisers are finding faster, more responsive ways of reaching their potential customers.  Would-be newsmakers see the barriers to entry tumble.  And while Bruce Springsteen may have bemoaned the 57 channels on cable back in 1992, today there are millions of alternative ways of getting the news. 

The revolution I am talking about involves more than just economics.   But the starting point is that, for more than a decade now, money and jobs have been draining out of newsrooms. In my five years editing The Times, we went through four rounds of cost-cutting. Now at the BBC, the five year freeze in the licence fee means that we are cutting £60 million out of the budget of News and Current Affairs, leading to hundreds of job losses. 

You don’t have to work in news to be alive to the issue: the pool of labour correspondents who reported working life in Britain, the training ground for journalists such as the late, great John Cole, has disappeared; the numbers of foreign correspondents have been hacked back, notably by the US TV networks; and, most alarming has been the collapse of the classified advertising market and the impact it has had on local newspapers: The Press Gazette has reported that 242 local papers shut between 2005 and 2012;  the latest company results from Johnston Press state that it cut 1,300 jobs in 2012, some 23 per cent of the workforce; almost half the employees of Northcliffe Media went between 2008 and 2012, falling from 4,200 to 2,200 according to its owners the Daily Mail & General Trust.  Claire Enders, the media analyst, has calculated that 40 per cent of jobs in the UK regional press have gone in the course of five years.

And, let’s be clear, fewer journalists does not mean less news, it means more PR – more corporate puffery, more canny product placements, more unchecked political spin.  Which is fine, I guess, if you take Groucho Marx’s view of the world: “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing,” he said, “…and if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

Digital technologies also pose really interesting challenges to the three essential elements of making the news: getting stories, telling stories and choosing stories. 

First, take story getting.   Last week, I heard the editor of a Chinese newspaper trying to play down the threat of the internet to the Press. Only a newspaper, he said, could break the Watergate story.   Not only is that untrue.  Tomorrow’s Watergate story might well break on a blog, a tweet or a Facebook page.  It is also unlikely.  For digital technologies have changed not only the delivery of news, but the sources for it, too. The one thing that links the MPs’ expenses scandal, Wikileaks and Snowden – three of the biggest stories of recent times - is that they have all come from digital files: a CD Rom, a database, a hard drive.  And the sources for these stories are not the frustrated mandarin or the leaky political contact over a liquid lunch.  They are the IT crowd – a younger generation of people with access to encrypted data, generally suspicious of established institutions and, often, with strong views about how they want that information disseminated.  (Indeed, they tend to want their media to be committed to the cause and ready not simply to report the information, but campaign on it.)

Then, consider story telling.  Yes, you can say that all new formats are digital reinventions of old ways of communicating: the e-mail revived letter-writing, Twitter is a modern telegram, Youtube is Candid Camera and Instagram’s a Polaroid picture.  But these new formats are creating exciting competitors to the well-known two minute 15 item on a news bulletin or the 450-word article in a newspaper. Look at Now this News, which delivers the news in 6,15 and 30 second videos, easily shareable and chiefly for mobile; or take a look at Geofeedia, which enables you to follow a story on Twitter by the location of the tweeter; or use Touchcast, which creates a Minority Report-style smorgasboard of interactive screens on the iPad, and imagine the possibilities of creating your own multi-media news story; and watch a vlogger such as Philip DeFranco or JacksGap and it is clear that, thanks chiefly to Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergei Brin and Larry Page, the modern computer has more or less put the combined power of the TV studio and the newspaper printworks in the hands of any imaginative individual - and to dizzying effect.

I'm extremely optimistic about the future of journalism

And, third, let’s talk about editing the news – choosing which stories matter and where they run.  That, traditionally, has been the role of the night editor on the newspaper backbench or the output editor in the gallery working on the news bulletin.  But that, too, is changing. Reddit has an algorithm that drives up stories based on popularity with readers.  Storify allows users to collect social media and curate their own stories.  And software such as Google Analytics and Chartbeat means editors do not need to decide what is most interesting to audiences: they can track, second by second, story by story, who is viewing what. 

All of this means that the future of not only the institutions of broadcasting and print, but of the building blocks of our journalism –the bulletin, the programme, the channel; the article, the front page, the edition –  they are all up for grabs.  Change is sweeping every part of the news business.  As a result, the next few years will be extremely demanding for anyone who works in news. 

But, if you are a working journalist and find all of this about as uplifting as the weather forecast, then I think you’re missing the point.  Because I am, in fact, extremely optimistic about the future of journalism.   I have real confidence in the prospects for the news media. And if you ask me that annoying question, whether I see the glass half empty or half full, I’d say two-thirds full.  In fact, I think this is the most exciting time to be a journalist since the advent of television.

Professional journalists cannot expect to have the influence we once did, but, if we’re clever, if we’re innovative and if we’re trustworthy, we can earn it.  This is because we live at a time when there is an unprecedented hunger for information and ideas, because the proliferation of new news providers means the number of working journalists is, actually, rising, because the tools available for story telling and story getting are more powerful than ever and because, as I hope to make clear, the new technologies have unexpectedly revealed the enduring value of some old principles in journalism.

Let’s not start with the media industry, but the world we face. This is an exceptionally consequential moment in history.  And, to my mind, there are two overarching stories.

As we look ahead to European and local elections in May, the vote on Scottish independence in September, the General Election in 2015 and, quite possibly, a referendum on membership of the European Union a couple of years after that, we are set to decide – economically, socially and constitutionally - what kind of country we want to be, and Britain’s place in the world.

At the same time, we are witnessing an age of realignment globally.  This goes beyond the fact of globalisation, the reality that international forces from climate change to terrorism to energy prices have a direct impact on our daily lives.  There is a reset under way.   Economic power is tilting from West to East, North to South.  The old institutional arrangements by which the West managed the world are being tested.

This is playing out everywhere.  For example in the Middle East, where it appears the US has stepped back, the Iranians may yet come in from the cold and the Saudis are left wondering about the future of their long-standing alliances – all with life-changing consequences for people from Syria to Egypt, Israel to Iraq.  Across the planet, the rules of engagement are changing. 

At such a time, there has never been a greater need for original reporting, insightful analysis and challenging opinion. People making choices need information and intelligence.  We need journalism. And, in Britain, we are extremely fortunate to have a boisterous, curious and courageous press. 

Both the BBC and Fleet Street have taken some knocks in the last few years and, in their own ways, for good reasons.  Much of the criticism was justified, change was needed.

But I believe in journalism.  I believe that journalism can enable democracy, improve society and empower the individual.  When it comes to stories in the public interest, I generally believe that society has more to fear from secrecy than to gain from privacy.  I hold that Fleet Street is one of the best things about this country and the BBC is the best in the world at what it does. If either are inhibited or diminished, I think that both the British people lose out and Britain’s standing in the world falls.  And so I worry when politicians and judges weigh in, either frequently or eagerly, on the behaviour of journalists and news organisations. At a time when our society needs curious, inquisitive journalism more than ever, I think we need to be extremely vigilant against encroachment on press freedom and freedom of expression.

This is as true for the newcomers to news as it is for the established news media.  And one of the other reasons I take a positive view of the future is that journalism, serving different products and different platforms, is thriving.  

Rise in number of journalists

The Office for National Statistics shows an overall rise in the number of journalists. It states that 62,000 people said they worked as journalists, in newspapers or as periodical editors in April/June 2011, and that this had risen to 70,000 in June 2013.   And if you look carefully, it is easy to see why.   If you looked just at the Buzzfeed website last night, you would see they are looking for investigative reporters, a science editor and a business of education reporter, among a long list of others; in New York, they’re hiring a news editor, entertainment editor and deputy foreign editor in London and a national security reporter in Washington DC.  (And, oh yes, a Deputy Geeky Editor.)   If it sounds like the website that was founded by Jonah Peretti and made its name with lists and hilarious pictures of cats is muscling up to become a serious news machine, it is. 

One of the easier predictions to make about the future of journalism is that established newsrooms and news start-ups are going to do a lot of borrowing each other’s clothes. While Buzzfeed and the Daily Beast have been hiring outstanding journalists from The Times and The Guardian, those papers have been learning the arts of list-making and viral video.   The BBC now has more people following its @BBCbreaking Twitter feed than watch the 10 o’clock news on any given day.  (Question Time, hosted by David Dimbleby, has a life of its own on Twitter – not to mention Dimblebot, an imagined robot version of Dimbleby with its own Twitter account and a devoted fanbase that meets monthly in a Hackney cinema to watch the programme screened live, alongside a Twitterfall of Question Time-related Tweets and rounded off, I am told, by people doing  the Dimbledance to the music at the close of the show.)

Nor is the technological innovation all one way, new media to old:  The Daily Mail has, in the past five years, transformed on-screen formats and our understanding of the web – and Mail Online has the audience to show for it.   BBC Trending, which identifies and examines online trends, offers an old-school analysis of the viral web while experimenting with In-tweet broadcasting. And, looking further ahead, when I think of Tesco’s move into media content and the National Trust’s communications to its 4 million-plus membership, it’s easy to foresee unlikely players in publishing and broadcasting. 

The tools of technology also make it an exceptionally exciting time to be going after a story.  Of course, a journalist is a fool to rely solely on Google or Wikipedia for information.  But they are just as stupid to ignore them: the modern search engine has given us all a running start at any story.  Citizen journalism is not just a competitor to established news media, but a streaming source of information and ideas for it.  And the internet has turned our audience into a giant fact-checking machine: journalists are more directly and immediately accountable; our viewers, listeners and readers do not need simply to throw a shoe at the TV or put their foot through the paper, they can promptly e-mail or tweet us to point out our mistakes.  This can be embarrassing, no doubt, but surely makes it more likely we will get it right.

The BBC has a team dedicated solely to harvesting User Generated Content and, in the short time I have been there, I have seen it transform the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, the street-fighting in Cairo, the political row over Tesco’s and Next’s employment practices, not to mention the recent weather.   We have, for the first time, used a drone to deliver aerial pictures. We have looked on, intrigued, at journalists using Google Glass to give, literally, an eyewitness account.  And, most significantly of all, it appears that we are in the foothills of datajournalism: if you get a chance see what ProPublica, the US investigative journalism venture, have done.  They collected data on how 1.7 million American doctors issue 1.1 billion prescriptions a year.  They then empowered the American public to examine it and find out what it told them about their local doctor.  The results are fascinating – and show that we are only just beginning to imagine what and how we can learn from public data.    

In one other counter-intuitive way, the wave of new technologies has made me confident about the future of journalism.  And it is that what used to matter now matters more than ever.

To be sure, the internet has made everyone acknowledge that we live in an age defined by real-time news, global news and news on social media. 

But it has also flushed out the value of the opposite of those things – the need for the slow, for the local, for the authoritative voice. 

Yes, breaking news channels, websites and tweets need to be fast, but slow, disciplined and meticulous investigations as well as considered and patient analysis mark out the very best newsrooms.  Whether it has been The Sunday Times’ long pursuit of Lance Armstrong, Channel 4’s dogged investigation into Plebgate, the Mail’s tireless campaign on Stephen Lawrence, they have excelled thanks not to speed but time.  And, in my experience, whether it has been coverage of child sex grooming, the family courts, adoption or tax avoidance at The Times or, more recently, showing first-hand the assault on civilians in northern Syria or exposing the bloody work of the Military Reaction Force in Northern Ireland, these projects have always taken longer than expected and been better for it. 

Likewise, it is true to say that we live in a globalized world and to be at the BBC, where we deliver news to 250 million people across the planet, not only in English but 27 other languages is, again, a reason to be confident about the future.  But the very accessibility of international news has also revealed what plainly matters to people: namely, local news. 

It is not widely known, but it should not come as a surprise, that the BBC’s largest audiences for the news are for the regional bulletins at 6.30.  If the 6 o’clock gets 4.5 million viewers, the combined regional bulletins generally get a million more.  

Problems faced by local newspaper industry are not the fault of BBC

It underscores why the BBC must, if it is to be a public service broadcaster, deliver on its obligation in local news.  I say this because there is what I consider to be a mistaken view that the BBC should rein in its local news coverage for fear of aggravating the economic woes facing local newspapers.  We have a direct interest in the health of local newspapers and regional newsrooms. We thrive thanks to vibrant public debate and courtesy of the stories and ideas unearthed by our colleagues in rival news organisations. But, let me be clear, the problems facing the local newspaper industry are not the BBC’s fault.     The classified advertising market has moved online, but the local newspaper industry’s problems lie with the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Gumtree, Ebay and a long, long tail of others. I am acutely concerned by the pressures facing the local newspaper industry and we at the BBC will do anything to help.  But the BBC’s primary responsibility must be to serve licence fee payers – and they want and are entitled to the best possible local news services we can deliver. 

And, while social media can make anyone into a journalist, citizen journalism has, to my mind, reinforced the value of the professional journalist.  When there are so many voices out there, so many with hidden patrons and private axes to grind, so many confusing opinions for news, then there is something simply priceless about a voice you can trust. 

Which brings me, by some happy coincidence, to the BBC.  I hope I have made clear this evening that I am alive to the challenges that face all media incumbents, perhaps none more so than the most important news organisation in the world.   BBC News and Current Affairs operates 39 local radio stations; 12 regional television teams; both national and global 24 hour TV channels; a 24/7 website, news programmes and documentaries on TV and radio seen each week by 80 per cent of the population in the UK; World Service and World News TV, as well as news in 27 different languages on a mixture of TV, radio, web and mobile apps, all reaching around 250 million people around the world.

And I say this not simply because I think that £2.80 a week for all that – plus Sherlock, Mary Berry and Strictly thrown in for free – represents extraordinary value for money.  But because such strength means that we are singularly vulnerable if we kid ourselves that the rules of this technological revolution in news do not apply to us.   If we are complacent, defensive and flat-footed, then we will be sunk. We will have let down our audiences and they will go elsewhere. 

If, though, we learn on the move, then the BBC has singular advantages in this changing world.  The advent of 4G means that bandwidth on mobile is, simply, getting wider: the last decade was the time for real-time text on your PC; the coming one will be for video on the mobile in your hand.  That’s good news for a broadcaster.  And we are, by history, by culture and by dint of our funding model, open to sharing.  In an age when story getting and story telling will depend so much on shareable information, we are open to it.  Indeed, the power of the BBC lies not just in the 8,000 journalists who work for News and Current Affairs but in harnessing the 300 million people who use BBC news. 

But put all those things aside: the real strength of the BBC comes down to one thing.  We are trusted.  Trust is our most prized asset – and the key to our future.  It is rooted in the BBC’s uncompromising commitment to accuracy, impartiality, diversity of opinion and the decent treatment of people in the news.  It requires us to guard jealously our independence.  And it depends upon us striving, ceaselessly, to be fair, reliable and open to ideas.   In what will be an ever noisier world, there is, I believe, a great future for the voice you can trust. 

In this, W T Stead’s rallying cry, defining the ‘New Journalism’, holds true for the BBC as for all other journalists.  “It is something to have an inspiring ideal, and it is well, to be reminded of the responsibilities that attend upon the power which has come to the journalist as an unexpected heritage from the decay and disappearance of the bishop and the noble.”  More than a century later, the journalist remains.  And, if we do the right thing, we’re just getting going.   

The Daily Mail has announced a partnership deal with Talksport radio which will see several of the newspaper’s journalists and columnists appearing on the radio station.

Chief sports writer Martin Samuel will be among the names giving their opinions on the popular radio station.

In return, Talksport  will provide bespoke on-air adverts featuring stories from the Daily Mail and Mail Online.

Mail head of sport Lee Clayton said: “Readers of the Daily Mail and Mail Online expect to read outstanding sports coverage. Our stable includes columnists such as Jamie Redknapp, Jamie Carragher, Martin Keown, Graham Poll, Sir Clive Woodward, Nasser Hussain and Martin Samuel - and lots more.

 “We hope this partnership with Talksport  can spread the word: Come have a look, you might be surprised what you find.

“Mail Online sport enjoyed more than a billion page views in the past 12 months and we expect record numbers to our sport home page on transfer deadline day as we lead the way with breaking news.”

The BBC has launched a Supreme Court fight after journalists were barred from publishing the name of a Jamaican immigrant deported as a result of being jailed for gross indecency with a child.

Bosses want Supreme Court justices in London to decide whether a Scottish court took the "correct approach" when barring reporters from naming the man or publishing his photograph.

They say the ban was imposed, under provisions of the 1981 Contempt of Court Act, after the man said he could be at risk of "life-threatening" violence when he returned home.

A hearing at the Supreme Court, the highest in the UK, began today and is due to end tomorrow. Five justices are expected to reserve their ruling until a later date.

Lawyers for the BBC outlined their case in written submissions given to justices.

They said the man was 47, had arrived in the UK in 1991 and been given permission stay in in 1993 after marrying a British woman.

In 1996 he had been convicted of indecent assault on a woman and gross indecency with a child, given jail terms totalling four years and deported after making unsuccessful attempts to be allowed to stay.

Lawyers said the man's name and picture had been published in coverage which following his conviction in 1996.

The reporting ban had been imposed in 2012, when the man was continuing to challenge a Home Office deportation decision.

A Supreme Court spokesman said the issue for justices was whether a judge had taken the "correct approach" when prohibiting publication of the man's name.

A journalist has told a court that veteran DJ Dave Lee Travisallegedly groped her breasts after asking her to pose for suggestive photographs for him.

The woman, who said she was 24 at the time, said she knewTravis, now 68, was suggesting she pose in a bikini or her underwear after noticing a similar photo of a pop star on his wall.

The witness, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said the incident took place when she went to the former BBC presenter's home to interview him about a photograph of him and Jimmy Savile alongside a number of other DJs.

She told London's Southwark Crown Court that while there she noticed a "provocative" photograph on the wall of a pop star posing on her knees in a bikini and he later grabbed hold of her breasts "as if he was judging himself - whether they were big enough."

"He wanted to me to strip down," she said.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, she recalled events and told jurors that, as they both looked at the picture, "Dave Lee Travis said to me 'I'm also a photographer'.

"He slightly looked down at me and said 'Well, you've got a good figure, I could take a photograph of you'."

The woman said she felt "embarrassed" and "taken aback" but did not say much.

Describing the former Top Of The Pops presenter, known as DLT, as a "larger- than-life character", she said they then proceeded with the interview in the recording studio at his home before chatting more generally as they had a bit of time to kill before her train.

The woman said she felt as though she was in an "enclosed space" as they spoke face to face in his kitchen.

She went on: "He raised photography and said again 'I could take some photos of you'.

"The first time when I dismissed it, I thought the conversation wouldn't happen again.

"The fact that he raised it again, I almost felt like I had to justify myself.

"I burst out 'No - and anyway, my boobs aren't big enough' because I thought that would put him off.

"He didn't say anything, there was a split second where neither of us said anything and then suddenly he put his arms out and put his hands on my breasts and then quizzically put his head to the side as if he was judging himself - whether they were big enough."

The woman said she thought Travis left his hands there for a "couple of seconds".

She went on: "It felt to me like he knew that this was an opportunity. In hindsight I see that he was looking for an opportunity and he took it. I did not invite him to touch me.

"The picture was very obviously about a young girl in a bikini showing her cleavage.

"I knew what he meant when he said I had a good figure. He wanted me to strip down."

During cross-examination from Stephen Vullo, defending Travis, the woman said she would never pose for such photographs for anyone.

"It's highly inappropriate and tacky and I'd be highly embarrassed if I'd be coerced into doing something like that," she told jurors.

Vullo put it to the woman that Travis had said the incident did not happen.

"That's a lie," she said.

Travis, of Buckinghamshire, denies 13 indecent assaults and one sexual assault, dating back to 1976 and the height of his fame.

The alleged offending includes when he was working as a BBC DJ, as a broadcaster with Classic Gold radio, while appearing on Top Of The Pops, and when starring in panto.

Wearing a light grey blazer and patterned tie, Travis sat in the dock listening to the evidence through headphones and smiled as the photograph of him and Savile was mentioned.

Describing the moments after Travis allegedly groped her, the woman said she did not acknowledge what he had done as she "didn't process it at all at the time" and wanted to remain professional.

They carried on talking but "his behaviour changed a bit" and he became less chatty.

She said no one else was in the house apart from a cleaner she saw briefly when she arrived, but he said his wife was resting upstairs.

The witness said she did not go to police or say anything to her bosses at the time as she "didn't want to make a big fuss" or jeopardise her fledgling career.

She said she simply thought Travis was a "pervy old man taking the opportunity to do that to me".

She added: "I knew what he'd done was wrong, but I hadn't felt threatened. I hadn't felt like he'd really attacked me."

She told jurors she decided to go to police after other allegations about Travis came out in the press and she "felt a real responsibility to come forward".

The woman said she felt she ought to as, while the other alleged offences dated back decades, her experience "had happened relatively recently and showed consistent behaviour for a long period of time".

Travis denies a charge of sexual assault against the woman in 2008.

He is also charged with 13 counts of indecent assault dating back to 1973 and as recently as 2003.

He denies all the charges.

A friend of the journalist also gave evidence, telling jurors they discussed what Travis had allegedly done to her that evening.

The woman, who shared a house with the alleged victim, said she appeared "stressed" and "upset" when she came home from work.

The witness said her friend told her: "He'd made a lascivious comment about, I don't know, drawing her or something, and then after that he'd placed both his hands on her breasts."

Another friend who also lived in the house share told the court what the alleged victim said to her.

She told jurors: "She was quite shaken and upset and talked to me about what had happened.

"She said that the whole time she was conducting the interview Dave Lee Travis was being very touchy feely with her - very tactile, giving her hugs, putting his arm around her, that sort of thing.

"Towards the end of their meeting she had been in his kitchen and Dave Lee Travis had sort of lunged at her and touched her breasts."

The trial was adjourned to tomorrow.

Talksport has banned mentions of Twitter from its radio station and from Sport magazine until the social network takes action over ‘troll’ attacks on former footballer Stan Collymore, who is one of its presenters.

Collymore has been the sbject of a series of abusive tweets since saying last weekend that  Liverpool forward Luis Suárez had dived when winning a penalty against Aston Villa in the Premier League.

Collymore wrote: "In the last 24 hours I've been threatened with murder several times, demeaned on my race, and many of these accounts are still active. Why?

"I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic/sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK.

"Several police forces have been fantastic. Twitter haven't. Dismayed."

This evening Talksport said it had written to Twitter to express its concern about its “apparent lack of support” for Collymore.

The company said that it will “stop promoting Twitter and its Twitter accounts” until it feels Twitter is “responding appropriately”. 

It said: “No Twitter mentions will appear on air on Talksport, in print in Sport Magazine or on Talksport’s digital platforms.    

Talksport called for Twitter to “pledge to cooperate fully and expediently with police whenever the company is asked for information on racist/homophobic/sexist/anti-disability/anti-semitic hate messages”.

It also asked that “Twitter acts immediately to address complaints about offensive hate messages and that these illegal tweets are deleted as soon as possible after Twitter receives a complaint."

Talksport chief executive Scott Taunton said: “We are dismayed at the lack of response and perceived inaction by Twitter. Racist or abusive messages of this nature are illegal and unacceptable. 

“We have more than three million Twitter followers across our accounts but we will not promote these until we are satisfied that Twitter is doing its utmost to prevent abuse of this nature. We have a duty of care to all our staff and presenters and until I am satisfied that Twitter is treating this seriously we will no longer promote Twitter accounts or use tweets on-air.”

The BBC has moved  long-standing editor of Radio 1's Newsbeat, Rod McKenzie, in the wake of an investigation into allegations of bullying - The Independent reports.

The Independent reports that the BBC’s head of programmes, Ceri Thomas has told Newsbeat staff that McKenzie is being moved to another area of the corporation.

A source close to McKenzie told The Independent:“He strongly rejects these claims and maintains that his behaviour is entirely in keeping with a pressurised news environment.”

The BBC said: “We do not discuss internal staff or disciplinary issues.”

Fans of the Today show on BBC Radio 4 have a chance to join John Humphrys for breakfast and take part in a production meeting as part of Children in Need.

The unique opportunity is being auctioned for the popular charity, with the successful bidder expected to set their alarm clock for the crack of dawn.

Today Editor Jamie Angus said: "This is a prize that involves getting up at 5am to join our team of journalists and presenters as we broadcast the day's news and current affairs to around seven million people, live on BBC Radio 4. You'll also have the pleasure of seeing some of the more disturbing early morning sights in Today's world including John Humphrys' cereal bowl. Despite that, we anticipate a lot of interest and we look forward to welcoming the winner into the team for the day."

For those who can’t stomach such an early start, it is possible to bid for a behind-the-scenes peek at The Archers or join Clare Balding as she goes for a walk with a celebrity before a pub lunch.
Those of a nautical bent can record their own version of the shipping forecast.

The auction will be accessible through the Radio 4 website and is run through eBay until it finishes at 9pm on Sunday November 17.

New bullying claims have been made against a senior BBC journalist following the news last week that Radio 1 Newsbeat boss Rod MacKenzie had been moved from his job after an investigation.

The Mail on Sunday reports today that World Service World Have Your Say editor Mark Sandell has also been accused of bullying staff.

Last week it was reported that staff who work on BBC arts programmes including Front Row and Saturday Review had signed a petition complaining about "a culture of bullying".

Last year the Rose review investigated bullying and sexual harassment at the BBC in the wake of the Jimmy Savile Scandal.

It found there have been 37 formal complaints of sexual harassment over the past six years out of a total of 22,000 staff and 60,000 freelances. This was seen as being a comparatively low amount.

But the report did raise alarm bells about bullying and a culture of fear about speaking out.

The report said: “Concerns raised about bullying and other forms of inappropriate behaviour were much more prominent in contributions to the review than concerns raised about sexual harassment."

Radio 4 claimed a record weekly reach in the last quarter of 2013 – its highest ever figure under the current Rajar measurement system which dates back to 1999.

It had a weekly reach of 11.2m listeners, up from 10.9m in the same period a year ago. The station’s flagship current affairs show the Today programme also had a strong showing, with 7.14m listeners a week, up from 7.05m in the same period a year earlier.

Radio 2 was the UK’s most popular station with an audience of 15.5m a week.

BBC director of radio Helen Boaden said: “These figures are wonderful news for the radio industry and Britain’s love affair with radio shows no signs of cooling.

“We are a nation of audiophiles and so, despite the ever-increasing competition for people’s time and the growing range of online audio providers, radio is thriving in the digital age. I’m delighted that the BBC’s distinctive portfolio of stations is proving so enduringly popular and helping the UK radio industry go from strength to strength.”

According to Rajar the number of UK adults (aged 15 and over) tuning into their radio at least once a week rose to a record high (under the current system) of 48.4m. This represents 91 per cent of the UK population.

Other major UK speech radio stations also grew their audience in the last quarter of 2013.

Five Live grew its weekly listener numbers form 6.124m a week to 6.285m. London station LBC grew its audience from 902,000 to 958,000 and BBC London rose its audience numbers from 405,000 to 424,000.

Talksport grew its audience total from 3,034 to 3,212.

Rajar UK radio station listening figures - to December 2013

The former Radio 1 Newsbeat editor who was subject to an investigation over allegations of bullying is to become local radio development editor on a 12-month contract from April.

Rod McKenzie will replace Matthew Barraclough who returns to his former post as BBC Tees editor.

David Holdsworth, controller of English Regions, told local radio editors in an email (Ariel reports): "Rod is looking for a new career direction after recent events at Newsbeat. He will bring loads of experience and wisdom to the job at a time when we are keen to further sharpen our production and journalism.

"In recent years this opportunity has been offered to current [local radio] editors and I expect this will be the case again in the future, but I feel there is also a real advantage in having a different perspective for a year."

The job is a training role which does not involve any line manegement of staff.

How many journalism trainee schemes let you travel to one of the most remote communities on earth to make a documentary?

This was what BBC journalism trainee Thomas Martienssen did when he arrived uninvited at Palmerston in the Cook islands, nine days sailing from the nearest airport at Tahiti.

Martienssen, 23, told Ariel that he found out about the island community of 62 people over a drink in the pub with a man who had sailed around the world. He persuaded Radio 4’s Crossing Continents to commission the trip – which also had interest from the BBC website’s magazine section and TV news.

Island at the End of the World is available on the Radio 4 website here.

Applications for the BBC journalism trainee scheme close at midnight tonight.

The 68-year-old broadcaster was acquitted of 12 abuse charges at Southwark Crown Court. But the jury failed to come to a decision on the two remaining assault cases – including one involving a journalist in 2008.

The broadcaster said he had been forced to sell his house to pay for his legal costs.

A further hearing will be required to determine whether he will be retried on the remaining counts.

Speaking to the media from the steps of the court he said: “Basically, first of all, I'm not over the moon about any of this today.

"I don't feel like all there's a victory in any way, shape or form. On the contrary, I think you already know that I have been through a year and a half of hell on this which included costing me so much money to pay out for my part of this trial."

He added that he felt he had been through two trials.

He said: "I have had one trial by media and one trial by Crown Court.

"And I have to say, in all honesty, that I prefer trial by the by Crown Court.

"All I want to do now is go home and relax with my wife who's also been suffering through all this with me and been by my side all the time."

Travis showed no reaction as the verdicts were read out, looking straight ahead and listening with the aid of headphones, as he had done during the four weeks of evidence.

The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for around 20 hours after a trial in which the former Top Of The Pops presenter was accused of indecently assaulting 10 women and sexually assaulting another in alleged incidents dating back to 1976 when he was at the height of his fame.

There will be a further hearing at the same court on 24 February to decide if there should be a retrial of the two outstanding charges.

Today's verdicts come a week after Coronation Street star William Roache was cleared of a string of sex offences, prompting claims that he had been the victim of a "celebrity witchhunt" in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Prosecutors alleged that Travis was an "opportunist" who assaulted "vulnerable" young women while working at the BBC and commercial radio.

Travis was found not guilty of indecently assaulting nine women, but jurors failed to reach verdicts on the alleged indecent assault of a woman working on a pantomime in the early 1990s along with an alleged sexual assault on a journalist who interviewed him at his home in 2008.

Jurors cleared him of groping a teenager in his Radio 1 studio in the 1970s, a 15-year-old girl at a Showaddywaddy concert in 1978, and a teenage music fan during an episode of Top Of The Pops in 1978.

He was also found not guilty of grabbing the breasts of a Radio 4 announcer in the early 1980s, a teenager in his motorhome at a gig in 1983, and a young hotel worker in Bude, Cornwall, in 1984.

The other charges he was cleared of were two counts of assaulting a British Airways worker in the 1990s and four that related to two women he worked with when he had a slot on Classic Gold radio in the early 2000s.

Giving his own evidence, Travis - on trial under his birth name David Griffin - told jurors that he was not a "sexual predator" and the claims against him were "nonsensical".

"I do not have a predatory nature with women, I have a cuddly nature. Maybe that's what this is all about, but I am not predatory," he said.

Travis also said he would have reported Savile to police if he had known the television star was a paedophile, but denied the two had ever been close.

The defendant was supported by a host of defence witnesses during the case, including Chuckle Brothers Barry and Paul Elliott, Patricia "Dee Dee" Wilde of Top Of The Pops dance troupe Pan's People, and former colleagues at the BBC and elsewhere.

His wife has been in court to support him since the jury retired to consider its verdicts on Monday.

She did not attend the rest of the trial, with Travis telling jurors he did not want her to give evidence as she has "suffered enough nonsense".

National talk radio station TalkSport is set to report a 12 per cent revenue rise in the first quarter - and a 25 per cent rise in April as the football World Cup nears.

Parent company UTV Media said the tournament in Brazil "will provide a welcome boost to radio revenues in the first half of this year".

TalkSport, which has three million listeners a week according to Rajar, has non-exclusive radio rights to the Fifa World Cup in the early summer.

The station has also renewed exclusive national audio broadcasting rights for Premier League packages to 2016 and continues to expand internationally with coverage of other sporting leagues.

In a market update this morning, UTV Media said group revenue fell four per cent last year to £107.8m and profits were down 14 per cent to £20.1m.
 
"Weak demand in the UK radio advertising market was compounded by the absence of a major sporting event in TalkSport's calendar," the company said.

UTV owns the Channel 3 television broadcasting licence for Northern Ireland, which Ofcom has now extended for a 10-year period to expire in December 2024.

The group is also launching a television channel in the Republic of Ireland, using content from ITV.

UTV chairman Richard Huntingford said: "I am happy to report a year of significant progress. We now have a clear strategic focus to the group with exciting growth platforms for the future."