New York Times hires BBC’s Mark Thompson as CEO

One of the world's highest profile broadcasting executives, outgoing BBC director-general Mark Thompson has been hired by the New York Times Company as its next president and CEO. Thompson, who steered the BBC through a trying period of cost cutting and staff layoffs as well as an expansion of its digital efforts over the last eight years, is expected to join the New York Times in November. The fifty-five year-old executive had previously announced that he would be leaving the BBC at the end of the Olympics. He will also become a member of the company's board of directors. At the BBC, Thompson was widely credited with strengthening the broadcaster with innovative new products and by developing new revenues from multiple platforms and by expanding its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. During the London Olympics, the BBC delivered a record amount of digital coverage. But stagnant revenue from the fees used to finance the BBC also forced him to push the organization through a painful period of cutbacks that saw the public broadcaster announce a five year plan to cut more than 2,000 jobs, skills that may also be important in his new post as the New York Times struggles to adapt to declining newspaper ad revenue.