&c1=usa&c2=(none)&c3=The+Guardian&c4=Media,BBC,UK+news&c5=&c6=David+Teather,+media+business+correspondent&c7=2000_11_07){kind=small}
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 7 2000 13.45 GMT
The BBC director general, Greg Dyke, yesterday delivered a withering attack on the corporation's track record in covering business issues, and named Sunday Business editor Jeff Randall as the man he hopes will put it right.
In a wide-ranging criticism of the BBC's present output, Mr Dyke said it had been wrong to entrust responsibility for business to economics editor, Peter Jay, and admitted that mainstream news and current affairs programmes had "ignored or failed to understand the real business agenda".
At the CBI annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Dyke said the corporation would soften its anti-business stance. "We need to understand what profits are for," he said. "That companies have a duty to make profits and that investment can't happen without them".
Mr Randall, 46, will take up the newly created post in February, when his contract with Sunday Business expires. His appointment signals a sharp change in attitude at the corporation. A comment made by Mr Randall in Sunday Business earlier this year said that "patronising, middle-class, guilt-ridden do-gooders dominate [the BBC's] corridors".
Under Mr Dyke, the BBC has shown an increasing willingness to look outside the corporation to fill senior posts. The most recent example was the appointment of former Independent editor, Andrew Marr, as political editor.
Mr Randall was yesterday equally damning in his judgment of the BBC's business coverage.
"There is a huge gap to fill," he said. "For many, many years at the BBC the only business story they would cover would have to be a combination of industrial relations, redundancies or fat cat salaries."
Mr Randall was first approached by BBC executives in May after what he described as a "rant" against the corporation's coverage in the Sunday Business.
The column lambasted the corporation's politically correct agenda. "Greg Dyke made a personal fortune from business. It's about time he looked at the corporation's institutionalised bias against free-enterprise wealth creators," it read.
Mr Randall, who is strongly against Britain joining the single currency, said his wish list would include a dedicated BBC business channel.
Among other measures to build the BBC's coverage, Mr Dyke announced the formation of a business features unit headed by Robert Thirkell. Other plans include a weekly programme featuring a panel of four prominent business figures, a nightly slot on News 24, and Newsnight's first dedicated business reporter.
Mr Dyke made improved business coverage a priority when he took over at the BBC earlier this year.
Mr Randall made his intention to quit Sunday Business well known and is believed to have been offered several other jobs, including one with News Corporation, and a different role within the Barclay brothers' Press Holdings. Sunday Business launched three years ago. It has built a circulation of more than 60,000.
Mr Jay sidestepped the suggestion that Mr Dyke's comments were aimed at him. He noted his own specialism was macro economics and welcomed Mr Randall's appointment. "Business is a very important area, and we are all very excited about the increase in resources and priority," he said. "I don't think it's for me to judge what the coverage has been like in the past."
Mr Randall made a name for himself on the Sunday Telegraph and went on to become City editor of the Sunday Times.
