£ 877 Million And No Wastepaper Baskets -- BBC Moves HQ To Manchester (From The Telegraph)

New BBC HQ -- Salford

NOTE:  This may be of small concern to non-UK readers (I'd love to know how any UK readers feel), but I post it because I worked closely with the BBC for about 15 years, both in the US and the UK, and I feel affection for friends (present and past) at the organization.  The move north is obviously big, expensive news.  There is a "back-story" here, of course, that's been told to me regarding the real reasons behind the move, i.e., the ones that aren't for public consumption, but I can't repeat it here.

I would like to say a couple of things, however, and then Neil Midgley's 10-29-11 Telegraph story, such as it is, can "tell itself."

 
Thought Pod -- What were they thinking?

First, I imagine that the new Manchester/Salford BBC HQ (called "Media City"), viewed in person, is indescribably, world-alteringly, weird, ugly and anti-human. The photos here make this apparent, I think, but I should mention that when I actually saw this same decor deployed at the new BBC Worldwide Americas HQ in Manhattan last spring, it was crazy-awful beyond belief and loathed by all staff I spoke to.  The old London HQ was certainly not a place of aesthetic beauty, but Television Centre in White City had a kind of institutional grandeur (studio production facilities are always cool) and BBC Enterprises' (later Worldwide's) building in Wood Lane, which I knew quite well, seemed like an time-capsule artifact from George Orwell's 1984 with its spiderweb-like structure leading mysteriously to multitudes of discrete, obscure, minatory nowheres.  Visits to the building gave me insights into the post-WWII British mind and imagination I never experienced elsewhere.

The Good Old Days -- Eurovision Song Contest, Television Centre, 1963  

Second, for those too impatient to read all of Peter Salmon's odd musings below, I have bolded and italicized his most trivial, idiotic ideas (it was difficult to make a final selection but I think I've chosen correctly; n.b., I did this so you wouldn't have to) in the four magenta sections located near the end of the piece. If you focus on these items and mentally pull on them, like you would a dangling thread extending from a sock or a wool strand hanging from a sweater, you will easily be able to imagine the whole inglorious Mancunian edifice -- business and buildings -- unraveling (or crumbling) before your eyes.

SCARY -- SCARY -- that these are "leadership thoughts" attached to billion-plus dollar costs, jobs and lives. 

THAT'S RIGHT:  £877 million and No Waste Paper Baskets - the world's problems yielding to an unexpected solution, blinding in its clarity and obviousness. 

Twit, twit, twit.  Twit.  

With management and "improvements" like this, it does seem as though the Beeb may have served out its useful life.

Peter Salmon

"Few BBC projects can have generatedsuch consistently bad headlines as its multimillion pound migration from Londonto Salford. Almost as soon as the Labour government insisted on the move, inthe last licence fee settlement in 2007, the negative stories began. 

There was the money, with eyespopping at the £877million cost. There were the decisions that seemed plainbonkers, such as taking the headquarters of BBC Sport 200 miles north onlymonths before the London Olympics. And then there were the big–name critics,with the BBC's own John Simpson accusing bosses of pushing ahead with the move"not in the interests of broadcasting, but to tick some box". 

Odd, expensive and ghastly.  Will "date" shortly and badly. Will confound future historians (assuming same exist) seeking to reconstruct rhyme, reason and chronology.  Armageddon (of which this may be an omen) may intervene and make all this irrelevant.

But Peter Salmon, the BBC executivewho has been in charge of the project since late 2008, has no regrets. "Iwouldn't change a thing," he says. "We can't win with theconstituents on Fleet Street, we never will. We've given that one up – we justhave to please licence–fee payers."

During our conversation, in fact, itproves impossible to get Salmon to acknowledge even the smallest of clouds onthe BBC's sunny Mancunian horizon.

He defends his own decision, forexample, to delay buying a house in the North. Jimmy Mulville, the producer ofsome of the BBC's biggest shows, including Have I Got News for You, accusedSalmon of "leading from the back". Salmon's wife, the actress SarahLancashire, remains with their family in "leafy Twickenham".

He says he will buy a "familyhome" in the North in 2012 but will not commit to actually moving hisfamily into it. "We've got six kids, my wife has got a separate career.  I will be based here full–time. I'llbuy property which will be my family's property. But who cares to live there isnot something I need to share with your readers, I feel."

"Presenters" (not yet present)

He also defends the right of BBCcolleagues to take their time in deciding whether to move north. (Staff withhomes down south can claim up to £1,900 a month for as long as two years torent near Salford and shuttle to and fro each week.) Of the most high–profilerefusenik, BBC One's Breakfast presenter Sian Williams, 

Salmon says:"Every individual has to make their own choice, has got their own life,and I respect that." 

The decision to move BBC Breakfastto Salford came only last year, long after the BBC announced that its sport andfuture media departments, as well as children's programmes and Radio 5 Live,would head north. 

It was derided by critics, who wondered how BBC Breakfastwould convince Londonbased guests to make a 400–mile, overnight round trip forjust a few minutes on the studio sofa. But Salmon remains relentlessly upbeat.

"It's wonderful to havecelebrities and actors and writers and performers and comedians and singers inthe mix," he says, "but the primary function of BBC Breakfast is athree–hour news magazine. We feel we can do that really well from the north ofEngland." 

Peter Salmon redux.  Obviously One Believer.

Salmon's colleagues testify to hiscommitment not just to doing things in Salford, but to doing them better. 

"For Peter, it's not enough just to do what you did the year before,"says one. "There always has to be a bigger and bolder idea."

Another says that Salford's delivery(so far, on time and under budget) is so wellregarded internally at the BBCthat Salmon – whose CV also boasts stints running BBC One and BBC Sport – isincreasingly mooted as a future director–general.

Certainly, as he sits on anergonomic office chair in one of the new BBC Salford buildings, Salmon can bequietly pleased with the move to date. Last December, the building was stillpretty much a shell; now, more than 1,300 people are working from the site.Almost all of Radio 5 Live comes from Salford, with Richard Bacon and VictoriaDerbyshire's shows having arrived this week. Blue Peter is there, too, withMatch of the Day following next month. 

Segway.  Present future prescient.  Sad about the shirt.

The BBC's director–general, MarkThompson, announced earlier this month that another 1,000 jobs would migratethere by 2016, bringing the eventual total to 3,300 – or one in five of thecorporation's total staff. 

Salmon's real test will come nextsummer, when Salford is to be the nerve centre for the BBC's Olympic coverage."We've put the kind of technology into this site which will allow BBCSport to have a lot more interactivity, to work across every platform known toman and woman," says Salmon. 

If you have a purple Thought Pod, why not have a green one also?

"To support our ambition tofollow every thwack of a shuttlecock, every oar that passes through the waterand all the rest of it, it'll allow them to do that in a way that they couldn'thave done from London. We simply haven't got the technological means to do thatfrom TV Centre."

Despite the miles that will separateBBC Sport HQ from the Olympic Park, Salmon says his ambition is to make it"the best Olympics ever on TV, radio and online".

Salmon's HQ – part of a developmentthat has been modestly named MediaCityUK – is certainly futuristic. 

Bristlingwith shiny buildings but isolated and windswept, MediaCityUK has an almostMartian feel. BBC staffers huddle away from the mid–October rain in anewlyopened Costa coffee shop, and one of Manchester's Metrolink trams reaches itsterminus on the largely deserted piazza.

Inside the BBC building, dullcarpets are dotted with areas of garish purple and green, and the centralatrium is lined with "thought pods" that will seat two staffers forimpromptu meetings. Staff have been given lockers for their personalbelongings, and then "hot desk" at different seats as required.

But one luxury they are not allowedat their hot–desks is a waste–paper bin. The only bins are near thephotocopiers and in the kitchen areas (which, of course, also have recyclinghoppers and a receptacle for "lined single–use paper cups").

According to Salmon, the lack of apersonal bin "makes people move round a bit more, collaborate a little bitmore and get to know their colleagues, learn new things about different ways ofworking. If people become territorial and defensive about their own space, theytend to work in less efficient ways." 

Imagine seeing this every day of your life.

Even when making sucheyebrow–raising claims, Salmon speaks with evident enthusiasm for his brief. Herefuses to name presenters who have decided not to move house to the North butsays he will be monitoring their performance.

"The most important issue is,are you committed to the programme? Are you brilliant at what you do? Are youfully engaged?" he says. "If the answer as a consequence of anyarrangement is 'no', then it's simply not going to work with thatpresenter."

Salmon predicts that the site willbe so cost–effective that the £189million spent by the BBC on out–of–pocketcosts for the move will be recouped by productivity gains. And he hopes thatthe north of England's 17million licence–fee payers, who have traditionally hadlower–thanaverage affection for the BBC, will be won over by a gradual changein some of its output. 

Desolation Row (Am I a goldfish dreaming I'm a man or . . . .)

Salmon makes a bold prediction aboutthe shows that will soon be broadcast from the North West. "I think thatevery programme from Salford will be better over the next period because of thefact that we've moved – because of the spirit and the creativity and thetechnology that we've assembled here. Including the Olympics," he says."If that wasn't our ambition, why do it?"

"Every programme from Salfordwill be better over the next period.""

Television Centre For Sale (Sad)

"Peter Salmon's CV:  Born May 15, 1956 Education StTheodore's High School, Burnley; University of Warwick (literature) CareerJoined BBC as a trainee in 1981. Went on to produce Crimewatch UK and co–createSport Relief. Had spells at Channel 4 and Granada before rejoining BBC in 1997as controller of BBC One and then director of sport. Left again to set upproduction company, rejoined in 2006 before being appointed director of BBCNorth 2008 Family Married to the actress Sarah Lancashire with whom he has ason; three sons from previous relationship Interests Music, football, cycling,museums."

Ming Tea: BBC  (LINK)