RTÉ’s search for new boss should centre on editorial judgment

The ongoing search for the 11th director-general of RTÉ is being held behind closed doors rather than, say, via a televised competition with jaunty theme music and acerbic judges. It's a lost opportunity.

Candidates could be obliged to sit in a Mastermind-style chair for a quick-fire round on the value of public-service media, while those who survive to the second round would have the honour of being interrogated by Ray D’Arcy about whether or not they’re a sex symbol.

The test would be how long they could endure the experience.

In the unlikely event of a tie, the final two candidates should be forced to outline their thoughts on how to divvy up the parking spaces at Montrose after the planned partial land sale, how to build enthusiasm for the minority sports to which RTÉ will still have rights in future, and how to stay awake during a session of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications.

It's a big job, director-general of RTÉ, and no sinecure. The broadcasting industry, if it can still be called that, has grown a great deal more complicated since 1960 when Edward Roth – "an obscure American", as Terry Wogan once dubbed him – became the first to hold the role.

Roth, a 38-year-old Bostonian and NBC executive, came from a country that actually had television, which alone inspired awe. He sailed from New York in order to take up the position for a salary of £5,000 a year.

After his debut press conference, The Irish Times described him as “a sensible man, confident of his ability, willing to learn”, but noted he would be “certain to meet at every turn with the conflict of interests – political, vocational and sectarian – which in Ireland lies in wait for the unwary or the unduly courageous”.

The newspaper wished him well, but didn't fancy his chances of impressing Mary Berry in the Showstopper round.

“We do not yet see clearly how, out of the variety of ingredients at his disposal, he can easily use his undoubted skill to bake a cake of uniform quality.”

Today, good sense, confidence and being “willing to learn” are still sought- after qualities, although it is words such as “leadership” that are more often deployed. It is not enough to be a leader, however.

Right experience

The next director-general must be a leader with the right experience – the kind that both RTÉ’s own staff and the wider media sector respects, and the kind that audiences instinctively understand to be real.

It is one thing to sit on the board of a media group and quite another to run one that employs 1,900 people. RTÉ has responsibilities governed by statute and commercial pressures from too many sources to list.

Management of one of the big RTÉ divisions, similar experience gained at another broadcaster or both – without having burned these cakes – must be the number-one qualification. Luckily, there are such candidates in the running.

The next director-general, when he or she takes over from Noel Curran, will have to be impassively strong on three things.

The first is maintaining the energy to lobby like crazy in government circles on behalf of RTÉ and its future funding security. These are not easy negotiations, especially as the appointment of the director-general is approved by the government in the first place.

The second is the ability to manage a large organisation and manage it into a different shape and size, as needs must. Managing creativity, including that of “stars” who earn more than the person running the show, is its own special skill (they say).

It will help if the director-general is someone who has personally demonstrated creativity, rather than always standing on its sidelines.

To be less fuzzy about it, the director-general’s CV will ideally include programme-making experience. This was cited as a critical qualification when the BBC was twice looking for a director-general in 2012 and it should be important for RTÉ, too.

The third requirement is so central to the role that it’s part of the job description as defined by the legislation: RTÉ’s director-general is its “editor-in-chief”.

Occasionally there is talk of splitting the two roles, but there is no compelling reason to do so. Content, not least the journalistic variety, is at the heart of what RTÉ does.

When it comes to big, sensitive news coverage – the type that brings down governments, for example – it will be the director-general who makes the call. He or she must be able to do so in the spirit of independence and with no agenda other than public service.

The good news for the successful candidate is the salary is no longer £5,000.