The new Director General of the BBC is George Entwistle, previously the director of BBC Vision and a former editor of Newsnight. He will take up his new post in the autumn, replacing Mark Thompson, who has held the position since 2004. Reflecting straitened times and a frozen licence fee, Entwistle will be earning £450,000 per annum, 33 per cent less than Thompson's £671k. Entwistle does not bring any obvious political affiliations with him, unlike rival candidates Caroline Thomson and Ed Richards, who both have Labour connections. Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, described Entwistle as "a creative leader for a creative organisation." No jokes about  "Jubilee broadcast debacle man gets top job," if you don't mind.