Brand Republic: Bauer appoints Marco Nadotti to lead video drive

The magazine publisher has appointed Nadotti to the newly-created role of head of video acquisition and syndication.

Nadotti, who previously worked for video search engine Blinkx, will take up his new role on August 1.

BBC appoints Roly Keating as first archive director

The BBC has named BBC Two controller Roly Keating as its first director of archive content.

Keating, who will take up his new role in October, will be responsible for the corporation’s tv, radio and multimedia archive. He will be tasked with increasing public access to this content, a press release from the BBC said.

He will work with the newly appointed director of the BBC’s Future Media & Technology department Erik Huggers on the digitisation of the archive and take charge of BBC archived content on on-demand services such as the iPlayer.

“Unlocking the value of broadcast archives is one of the great opportunities opened up by digital media – and the BBC has the greatest archive of them all, with untold potential public value,” he said.

The BBC Two controller position will be advertised in the autumn.

Politico hires Newsday’s Glenn Thrush

US political news and blog site Politico has recruited Newsday reporter Glenn Thrush, according to the site’s Ben Smith, who made the announcement of Thrush’s appointment in a blog post.

Thrush joins the site after five years at Newsday, where he began covering New York city hall before joining the title’s Washington bureau in 2005 to cover the US senate.

MediaGuardian: Erik Huggers to be next BBC future media director

Former Microsoft executive Erik Huggers is expected to be confirmed as the replacement for outgoing BBC director of future media and technology Ashley Highfield.

FT.com: Reed headhunting to replace chief exec Crispin Davis

Internal and external candidate are being considered in preparation for Sir Crispin’s departure next year.

After 250 job cuts, LA Times leading reporters head to ProPublica

Last week LA Times, one of the biggest employers of journalists in the US, announced that it would be dispensing with the services of 150 of them as part of a total 250 job losses at the paper.

Yesterday afternoon it emerged that two more journalists would likely be leaving the LA Times, but not as a direct result of the editorial cuts.

According to LA Observed, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporters Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber will be leaving the paper later in the summer to join the not-for-profit investigative start up ProPublica.

“It’s another big morale blow in the newsroom, which used to be a place where journalists aspired to reach and stay to do their best work. With new deep cutbacks coming and [LA Times owner] Sam Zell’s outbursts making many of the best journalists feel the Times’ commitment to serious news is precarious, it’s no longer surprising to see stars like Ornstein and Weber flee,” wrote Kevin Roderick.

Last week’s editorial staff cuts, which amounts to roughly 17 per cent of the employees, will be spread between the print newsroom and The Times’ web operations.

Those cuts led to this fascinating quote from Times editor Russ Stanton:

“You all know the paradox we find ourselves in,” he wrote said in a memo to the staff. “Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money.”

One hundred and fifty losses job losses against two hires doesn’t really make a great case for the internet as a growth medium for the employment of journalists, but nonetheless the growth of ProPublica and its journalistic modus operandi online marks a neat stab at Stanton’s paradox.

The ProPublica site will be fully operational later this year and plans to have almost 30 investigative reporters working on in-depth stories (it helps that self-made billionaire Herb Sandler has set up the site with a donation of $10m a year from his foundation and that it’s under the watchful eye of former WSJ editor Paul Steiger).

ProPublica will conduct investigations, largely online, in areas of significant public interest. It will also use TV documentaries to reveal on that large canvas issues that will be followed up extensively online.

It’s first major project, an investigation into US-backed Arabic language TV network Alhurra, ran on 60 Minutes two weeks ago.

Zell say that newspapers have to slim down and become more economically viable. Newspaper’s are about money, not news, that’s fairly self-evident. Little wonder then that Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber decided to walk and pursue their investigations elsewhere.

What awaits them at ProPublica?

A philanthropic backer claiming no editorial interference. No desire for profits. No ads on the site. Where almost all resources will be poured into journalism (what no free CD give away?).

The journalistic equivalent to Willy Wonka’s ‘golden ticket’, it seems.

FT.com: Washington Post hires ex-Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli

Brauchli, who left the WSJ in April, will become the Washington Post’s new executive editor in September.

He will replace Leonard Downie.

MediaGuardian: Independent hires Jimmy Leach to lead online development

The Independent has appointed Jimmy Leach, former head of the Downing Street’s digital PR, as its new editorial director for online.

Washington Examiner appoints ex-Townhall.com managing editor Mary Katharine Ham

The Washington Examiner has named Mary Katharine Ham as online editor for the paper’s soon-to-be launched website - dcexaminer.com.

Ham, who will take up the new post on June 10, joins the Examiner from online political community Townhall.com, where she was managing editor.

“Her [Ham's] hiring demonstrates again our commitment to building a great news and information company that excels in three channels, including newspapers, online and video,” Vivienne Sosnowski, editorial director of Clarity Media, which publishes the Examiner, said on the site.

PA Group appoints James Murdoch as non-executive director

James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive, Europe and Asia News Corporation, has joined the PA Group board as a non-executive director.

Murdoch’s appointment, which was announced today as the group released its financial report for 2007, is one of a series of changes to the board with Sir Harry Roche stepping down after 20 years as a director and 13 years as chairman.

The group announced a 25 per cent growth in revenues from its digital business, but a drop of £1.2 million in its total operating profits.

The fall from £2.6 million in 2006 to £1.4 million in 2007 was a result of significant multimedia investment, the group said.