Mark Thompson remade ‘Auntie Beeb’ for digital era

LONDON —In BBC boss Mark Thompson, the New York Times has chosen a chief executive who has never worked at a newspaper but has plenty of experience reshaping a venerable media institution for the digital age.

During eight years in charge of the BBC, Thompson became unpopular with some staff for cutting jobs, eliminating services and slashing pensions.

But he also oversaw expansion of the British broadcaster’s multimedia offerings through websites, download services and digital channels, all showcased to impressive effect during the London Olympics.

Announcing Thompson’s appointment Tuesday, the Times cited his record in helping the BBC grow online and generate revenue from new types of products.

Doubters point out that Thompson has spent almost his entire career in the publicly funded BBC, insulated from the commercial pressures pummeling the private media.

Columnist and former newspaper editor Roy Greenslade said that in Thompson the Times was getting “a man of considerable intellectual stature ... who has shown himself capable of running a large organization, larger by far than the New York Times.”

“What they are not getting is a man of great experience in the harsh commercial environment afflicting the media at the moment,” he said.

The BBC remains untainted by the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s British media businesses.

Funded by a fee paid by every television-owning British household, the Beeb has to uphold strict editorial standards of impartiality while fending off occasional government pressure.

By all accounts Thompson coped well with the pressures of running a company with 20,000 employees and a $5.5 billion budget. He is generally regarded as levelheaded, although the most famous anecdote about him involves an incident during the 1980s in which he bit a newsroom colleague’s arm.

The BBC called the episode “horseplay.”

Educated at Oxford University, Thompson joined the BBC as a production trainee in 1979 and has worked there ever since, save for a two-year gap between 2002 and 2004 as chief executive of commercial broadcaster Channel 4.

When was named director general in 2004, the BBC was at a low ebb. Thompson’s predecessor, Greg Dyke, had been forced to resign following criticism of its reporting on Britain’s prewar intelligence about Iraq.

Thompson presided over a difficult period that saw the BBC reduce costs through thousands of job cuts, reductions in operations and unpopular changes to employee pension programs.

During his tenure, the BBC has expanded beyond its traditional strengths of current affairs and documentaries to embrace populist entertainments such as TV talent shows. It has also produced globally successful dramas, including detective drama “Sherlock.”

He also oversaw development of iPlayer, a catch-up service that lets viewers watch all the BBC’s output online. It was part of a digital strategy that culminated in the BBC’s much-praised coverage of the Olympics, which included live streaming on the web and 24 digital television channels, with almost every event broadcast live.

Greenslade said the Times’ choice of Thompson as its next leader is “either an inspired decision or a risky one.”

“I like to think it’s the former rather than the latter.”