Jonathan Baker

Jonathan Charles Baker (born 27 March 1953) is Head of Newsgathering at BBC News (since July 2013). He is a career BBC journalist having worked at the BBC since 1993. Baker is also a Trustee and Director of the Science Media Centre (appointed 11/04/2013).

BBC strike 2010

In November 2010 Jonathan Baker was amongst those senior management who crossed picket lines and filled in for striking colleagues in reading the news:

Listeners to Friday's Radio 4 news bulletins may not have known it, but they were hearing something pretty special: the arrival, for one day only, of perhaps the highest-paid reporter in the history of the BBC. The well-enunciated voice reading the lead story, on the disgrace of the former MP Phil Woolas, belonged to none other than Helen Boaden, director of BBC News. "It's like the Queen doing the vacuuming," said one awestruck BBC toiler. Ms Boaden (total remuneration: £327,800 per annum) led a small phalanx of the corporation's officer class on to the airwaves after virtually all their journalistic troops walked out on strike. For the first time in years, staff joked, BBC managers were doing something useful. Jonathan Baker, head of the BBC's college of journalism, found himself at the Six O'Clock News desk, eyes flickering nervously to one side, with a live report about a train accident.

Career

• July 2013 - present Head of Newsgathering
• Head of the College of Journalism March 2010 – Present
• Deputy Head of Newsgathering BBC News March 2006 – March 2010
• World News Editor BBC News July 2001 – March 2006 In charge of all BBC foreign news coverage, during a period that included 9/11, Afghanistan, the Iraq War of 2003 and the tsunami.
• Editor, Ten O'Clock News BBC News December 1997 – July 2001
• Editor, One o'Clock and Six o'Clock News BBC News December 1996 – December 1997
• Executive Editor, Radio Five Live News Programmes BBC News November 1995 – December 1996
• Executive Editor, BBC Radio Newsroom BBC News 1993 – 1995