Media Brief

I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The Guardian reports that the former BBC chairman Sir Christopher Bland has joined criticism of the BBC's governance system, saying the BBC Trust structure "never made sense." He thinks Sir Michael Lyons has done as well as he could in the job.

Gwyneth Williams takes over as Controller of Radio 4 today. She tells Paul Donovan in the Sunday Times[subscription required] she is "keen to get foreign coverage out of the ghetto of current affairs, to make Radio 4 rather more culturally international."

Mark Damazar looked back at his time as Radio 4 Controller in an interview with Radio 4's Broadcasting House.

The Guardian reports him as saying he faced "blasts of political pressure" but not as intense as those faced by the editors of the BBC's flagship news programmes, such as Today.

The Mail on Sunday says government plans to give 80 cities their own TV stations will move a stage closer this week. A report commissioned by Media Secretary Jeremy Hunt will look at the future of local television services. It's been compiled by a panel headed by Nicholas Shott of investment bank Lazard.

Three hundred and thirty one BBC managers are among 38,000 public sector employees who are paid more than £100,000 a year, according to a study for BBC Panorama obtained through Freedom of Information requests. Nine thousand people in the public sector earn more than the Prime Minister's £142,500.

In an article in The Times ITV chief executive Adam Crozier says [subscription required] the Government should encourage investment in the media sector by reforming the regulation of TV, which leaves it at a disadvantage to rivals such as Google and Yahoo. He writes: "Outdated restrictions such as Contract Rights Renewal (CRR) ...serve only to tilt the playing field away from the biggest investors in UK content."

The end of the Pope's four-day visit to Britain is extensively covered by many of the day's papers as shown in the BBC newpaper review.

Links in full

• Guardian | BBC Trust has 'never made sense', says former BBC chairman
• Paul Donovan | Sunday Times | Change at the top
• BBC | Broadcasting House
• John Plunkett | Guardian | Mark Damazer admits he faced political pressure
• John Rees | Daily Mail | 80 cities may get their own TV stations
• BBC | Public Sector pay: The numbers
• Adam Crozier | Times | We are desperate to join the TV revolution
• BBC | Newspaper review

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• Read Friday's Media Brief