With looming job cuts and an ongoing pay dispute, BBC journalists in “the pit” – the nickname for the newsroom deep inside New Broadcasting House – have little to smile about.
On Monday afternoon, however, they were greeted by a smiling figure leading a tour of the news floor. It was Rachel Jupp, the BBC’s newly appointed director of news and current affairs, who exchanged a few polite words with her new team.
It was a small but welcome gesture for a newsroom that had been craving direction from a new, permanent leader. The shocking resignation of Deborah Turness, Jupp’s predecessor, occurred nearly a year ago, and frustration has been building among journalists awaiting a clear strategy.
“We need a clear direction,” one journalist said. “A north star, as startups call it. Lay out a timeline and tell us what cuts are coming and what must be done.”
Beyond the small talk, senior figures across the corporation acknowledge that Jupp faces a formidable challenge. Steering the world’s most scrutinised newsroom is a tall order even in calm times, let alone amid pay and job‑cut turmoil.
Jupp steps into the role at BBC News amid an angst‑laden debate over the place of its journalism in an increasingly digital world—a challenge she has been tasked to resolve.
It is a world where the BBC’s hallmarks of impartiality and authority—and its traditional focus on television and radio news—are pitted against content creators and a multitude of established media brands all vying for audiences through a few smartphone apps.
Inside BBC News, a string of announcements about show closures and strategy shifts has sparked a “clicks versus public service” debate. Competing views exist on how the BBC should adapt its content for commercially driven digital platforms favoured by younger audiences while remaining true to its founding principle of informing the public.
“I’ve heard the director general, Matt Brittin, and the deputy director general, Rhodri Talfan Davies, telling staff that they want the new director of news to restore the authority of BBC News,” said Roger Mosey, former head of BBC TV News.
I think that’s what many of us have been advocating. BBC News does many good things and is generally impartial and fair, but it hasn’t managed to translate the authority of its major TV and radio brands into the online sphere.
Critics who worry the corporation is losing its bearings point to a BBC website article about penis fillers or recent social videos of reporters holding cheap microphones in a creator‑style fashion. Meanwhile, they fear that flagship programmes such as Today and the 10 O’Clock News—still drawing large audiences—have not been nurtured or promoted online.
Advocates for a quicker shift to new platforms argue that this is where audiences are headed, and the BBC’s duty to serve everyone lies at the heart of its public‑service mission. As one BBC figure put it: “Rachel’s task is to demonstrate how we can go digital like every other news organisation without turning into a valueless click‑factory.”
Above all, Jupp’s willingness to tackle this precarious challenge is why she received such a significant promotion.
While the BBC’s relatively new director general, Matt Brittin, inherited many of the cuts being announced across the corporation, Jupp’s appointment rested with him. At an all‑staff call this week, he said he wanted the organisation to be “a bit more Elvis – a little less talk, a little more action.” In Jupp, Brittin sees one of his finest Elvis impersonators, eager to drive change for the digital age.
Jupp emerged victorious from a shortlist of four candidates. It was noted that one of her rivals, Jonathan Munro, had avoided any major crises while serving as interim head of BBC News—an achievement not to be overlooked given the recent criticism.
However, the choice ultimately came down to Jupp and Esme Wren, the editor of Channel 4 News. While Wren was recognised as a formidable champion of journalists and journalism, the conclusion was that the BBC’s news machine already delivers plenty of high‑quality, award‑winning content.
Although Jupp had not run a large organisation before—a quality Brittin had been seeking—the director general believed she possessed two key strengths. The first was solid editorial judgment, a necessity after the bruising criticism of a Gaza documentary that had to be withdrawn and a spliced‑together Trump speech that sparked a multibillion‑dollar lawsuit.
Having been tasked with overseeing the BBC’s documentary and long‑form journalism after the Gaza controversy, Jupp was viewed as someone who could protect the BBC’s authority while it ventured further into digital content.
Her second strength was an appetite for transformation—the buzzword for the mammoth task of moving the BBC’s journalism onto new digital platforms without sacrificing its authority, a work still in progress. Jupp has also been at the forefront of the BBC’s use of generative AI, and Brittin, a former Google executive, believes this technology could play a larger role if applied correctly.
It also helped that Jupp could begin almost immediately, given the speed at which a cash crisis is pushing the BBC toward major strategic decisions.
Jupp also starts her tenure with an underrated advantage: she is genuinely liked by close colleagues and respected by journalists who have worked with her in earlier roles at Channel 4 News, Newsnight and Panorama.
As her tour of the pit illustrated, securing the support of her staff is seen as essential as she embarks on a transformation of BBC News that will entail some difficult and unpopular decisions.
