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February 26, 2007updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Did Telegraph boob over Beeb’s coverage of HQ?

By Press Gazette

IT WAS a triumph for Telegraph editor Will Lewis.

He’d managed to persuade the BBC to cover his digital revolution on its main news bulletins.

Execs must have been delighted when they heard the Corporation was going to publicise their product to millions of BBC1 viewers.

But insiders at The Telegraph’s Victoria HQ tell Axegrinder the piece by the Beeb’s Rory Cellan-Jones has gone down like the proverbial lead balloon.

He followed the paper’s assistant editor Andrew Pierce for a day to show how the paper’s £50 million digital newsroom operates.

But, referring to the exodus of unhappy hacks at the paper, business reporter Cellan-Jones tells viewers of the “many departures – both voluntary and forced”.

He goes on to mention Pierce making a “cheap and cheerful” video report for a “tiny audience” as opposed to the paper’s print readership which is “in decline”.

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Ouch. No wonder the BBC crew felt obliged to offer viewers a close-up of a discarded banana skin on Pierce’s desk.

Still, at least Lewis managed the small consolation of stealing the thunder of the Daily Mail’s new “e-paper” which was launched on the same day.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

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