One of the world's highest profile
broadcasting executives, outgoing BBC director-general Mark
Thompson has been hired by the New York Times Company as its next president and
CEO.
Thompson,
who steered the BBC through a trying
period of cost cutting and staff layoffs as well as an expansion of its digital
efforts over the last eight years, is expected to join the New York Times in November.
The
fifty-five year-old executive had previously announced that he would be leaving
the BBC at the end of the Olympics.
He
will also become a member of the company's board of directors.
"Mark
is a gifted executive with strong credentials whose leadership at the BBC helped it to extend
its trusted brand identity into new digital products and services," said Arthur
Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of the Times Company in a statement. "Our board
concluded that Mark's experience and his accomplishments at the BBC made him the ideal
candidate to lead the Times Company at this moment in time when we are highly
focused on growing our business through digital and global expansion."
"The New York Times is one of the world's
greatest news providers and a media brand of immense future potential both in
the U.S. and around the
world," Thompson added in a statement. "It is a real privilege to be asked to
join the Times Company as it embarks on the next chapter in its history. I'm
particularly excited to be coming to The New York Times Company as it extends
its influence digitally and globally. I look forward to working with the board,
Arthur and his highly talented management team to build on the success that has
already been achieved and to explore new ways of bringing journalism of
exceptional quality, integrity and depth to readers and users everywhere."
At
the BBC, Thompson was widely credited with
strengthening the broadcaster with innovative new products and by developing
new revenues from multiple platforms and by expanding its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. During the
London Olympics, the BBC delivered a record
amount of digital coverage.
But
stagnant revenue from the fees used to finance the BBC also forced him to
push the organization through a painful period of cutbacks that saw the public
broadcaster announce a five year plan to cut more than 2,000 jobs, skills that
may also be important in his new post as the New York Times struggles to adapt to declining newspaper ad revenue.
