Fran Unsworth appointed BBC head of news

Fran Unsworth, a senior journalist who has spent all her career at the BBC, has been appointed as the corporation’s director of news and current affairs.

Unsworth, who started work with the BBC on local radio in 1980, is to replace James Harding, who announced his departure in October.

In her most recent role, as director of the BBC World Service Group, Unsworth oversaw the biggest expansion of the broadcaster’s international arm since the 1940s.

“We are living through a period of significant change at home and abroad. In a complex world, the BBC’s journalism matters more than ever,” Unsworth said on Friday.

Harding is to set up a media company that he said will offer “a clear point of view”, a perspective the impartial corporation is not allowed to provide.

The former editor of the Times newspaper was on a £340,000 salary. The BBC said Unsworth’s salary would be revealed later “as part of the usual disclosure arrangements”.

She will oversee news and current affairs programming and sit on the BBC’s executive committee.

Tony Hall, the BBC director general, said: “The director of news and current affairs is one of the most demanding of any in broadcasting. News is at the very heart of the BBC. I am delighted Fran Unsworth is taking up the role. She brings a combination of excellent news judgment, authority, management knowhow, and the trust of her colleagues both in news and across the BBC.”

Unsworth had been considered the internal favourite for the post. Other names mentioned included the director of radio and former Labour minister James Purnell, and the editor of News at Six and News at Ten, Paul Royall.

Unsworth’s previous roles at the BBC include network radio producer in Washington DC, positions with Radio 4’s The World At One and PM, home news editor, head of political programmes and head of newsgathering.

She already has experience in her new role as she was acting director of news and current affairs between November 2012 and June 2013. She was appointed director of the BBC World Service Group on 8 December 2014.

In an interview with BBC NewsWatch about his successor, Harding said: “I chose Fran when I joined as my deputy and she has been an extraordinary person to work with.

“For people who don’t know her, Fran’s worked at the BBC for pretty much her entire career and knows and understands it, most recently she was running the BBC World Service.

“What you see with Fran is an incredibly thoughtful manager of people, a really intelligent judge of news and a fantastic ambassador for the BBC.

“But most of all what she has is the capacity to enable great people to do exceptional work and when you are the director of news and current affairs - that’s the thing you really want to do. It’s not what you do, the leadership of the organisation is enabling other people to do great things and no one does that better in my experience than Fran.”