{"id":23155,"date":"2026-05-19T13:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/matt-brittin-has-taken-the-helm-of-the-supertanker-bbc-but-there-are-plenty-of-icebergs-in-his-way-jane-martinson\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:37:16","slug":"matt-brittin-has-taken-the-helm-of-the-supertanker-bbc-but-there-are-plenty-of-icebergs-in-his-way-jane-martinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/matt-brittin-has-taken-the-helm-of-the-supertanker-bbc-but-there-are-plenty-of-icebergs-in-his-way-jane-martinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Brittin has taken the helm of the supertanker BBC, but there are plenty of icebergs in his way | Jane Martinson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The new DG started by stressing the need for \u2018velocity\u2019. First, he\u2019ll have to navigate staff cuts, culture wars and a sea of fake news<\/p>\n<p>Matt Brittin\u2019s message was pretty clear on his first day as director general of the BBC. It was echoed in a schedule that included an introductory <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/its-day-one-for-the-new-dg-at-the-bbc-spend-ugcPost-7462044196804386817-VNL5\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAADFW_8BlA_G7LaV-IFvf2pUkxgF-pvcpx8\">LinkedIn video<\/a> as well as meetings with the newsroom, podcast, radio, current affairs and research and development teams. It was there in his first all-staff email, which used the word \u201cvelocity\u201d twice and invoked the second world war to call for a \u201csense of urgency\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside Brittin\u2019s affection for the BBC and public service broadcasting, his message can best be summed up as \u201cmove fast but break nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Jane Martinson is an academic and Guardian columnist. She is a board member of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group, and writes in a personal capacity<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2026\/may\/19\/matt-brittin-helm-supertanker-bbc-icebergs-in-his-way\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/9add0e933dc62100cb83a344b765300f81d4f44c\/118_0_6390_5112\/master\/6390.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=a3b5266e5ef2b85f32d5363c1d12a945\" title=\"Matt Brittin has taken the helm of the supertanker BBC, but there are plenty of icebergs in his way | Jane Martinson\" \/>The new DG started by stressing the need for \u2018velocity\u2019. First, he\u2019ll have to navigate staff cuts, culture wars and a sea of fake news<br \/>\nMatt Brittin\u2019s message was pretty clear on his first day as director general of the BBC. It was echoed in a schedule that included an introductory LinkedIn video as well as meetings with the newsroom, podcast, radio, current affairs and research and development teams. It was there in his first all-staff email, which used the word \u201cvelocity\u201d twice and invoked the second world war to call for a \u201csense of urgency\u201d.<br \/>\nAlongside Brittin\u2019s affection for the BBC and public service broadcasting, his message can best be summed up as \u201cmove fast but break nothing\u201d.<br \/>\nJane Martinson is an academic and Guardian columnist. She is a board member of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group, and writes in a personal capacity Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new DG started by stressing the need for \u2018velocity\u2019. First, he\u2019ll have to navigate staff cuts, culture wars and a sea of fake news Matt Brittin\u2019s message was pretty clear on his first day as director general of the BBC. It was echoed in a schedule that included an introductory LinkedIn video as well &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/19\/matt-brittin-has-taken-the-helm-of-the-supertanker-bbc-but-there-are-plenty-of-icebergs-in-his-way-jane-martinson\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Matt Brittin has taken the helm of the supertanker BBC, but there are plenty of icebergs in his way | Jane Martinson<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23155"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}