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Press Releases & Press Packs
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BBC
North East & Cumbria boss moves to bridge "the digital
divide"
Olwyn Hocking has announced she is leaving her post as Head of Regional
and Local Programmes for BBC North East & Cumbria to take a
job in the BBC's New Media operation.
Andy
Griffee, Controller BBC English Regions, says:
"Olwyn has led BBC North East & Cumbria with passionate
professionalism for the past seven years.
"Her
tenacious advocacy on behalf of the region's licence fee payers
and her staff was eventually recognised with the creation of the
BBC's Northern Taskforce. As a result, more new BBC investment flowed
up the Tyne, Tees, Wear and to Cumbria this year than ever before.
"She
has been a leading player in the region's broadcasting industry
and enjoyed a wealth of awards in recent years for work by her television
and radio teams."
Olwyn,
aged 46, moves to the BBC's New Media service later in the year,
but will continue to be based in the North East.
She
says: "I will be leaving my current job at a time when the
importance of local and network coverage of the region is on a high,
but I was simply unable any longer to resist the temptation to learn
even more about the web and its potential for involving our audiences.
"It's
been a growing fascination and I'm particularly concerned to make
sure we bridge the "digital divide" and help people not
online at present to share all it has to offer."
She
says one of the greatest highlights of her career as regional head
of the BBC is that people at the top have made such a determined
effort to improve coverage of the region in many different ways.
In
the last two years there has been the biggest-ever coverage of the
Great North Run on BBC ONE, successful dramas and comedy such as
Ted and Alice, filmed in the Lake District, Auf Wiedersehen Pet
and Breeze Block, filmed on Tyneside and Teesside, as well as pilot
programmes for the future like Cashing In, which visited Newcastle
last month.
These
were in addition to extra regional programmes such as the Queen's
Golden Jubilee tour which was marked by two special programmes,
and earlier this year an hour-long Regional Devolution Debate was
broadcast on BBC News 24.
This
increased investment of more than £1 million additional funding
for BBC North East & Cumrbia is reflected by the record audience
figures for BBC Radio Newcastle and the Sony Station of the Year
Award for BBC Radio Cumbria.
Olwyn
adds: "Of course there is still more we would like to have
done and we're working hard to introduce still more developments
later in the year.
"More
jobs are on the way to increase website services and strengthen
coverage of the devolution debate, and the regional TV news Look
North is getting the latest satellite truck technology to improve
live newsgathering across the region."
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