Tyler Brulé, the founder and former editor and publisher of style magazine Wallpaper, has beaten off high-profile competition from the likes of Kirsty Wark, Ray Snoddy, Loaded founder James Brown and author Paul Morley, to become presenter of BBC4’s forthcoming media show, The Desk.
The BBC said this week that Canadian-born Brulé will front the 30-minute, ten-part magazine series when it launches in January. A joint pitch by Brule’s own independent production company Winkontent and Moonbeam Films, owned by former BBC producer Anne Reevell, beat off other more established companies such as Talkback Thames, Oxford Films, IWC (formerly Wark Clements, before the merger with fellow Scot Ideal World in April) and the maker of the Channel 4 media show in the 1980s, Wall to Wall Television.
Reevell, whose company makes radio and television current affairs programmes including BBC One’s Heart of the Matter and Radio 4’s The Commission, will be The Desk’s executive producer.
A former deputy home news editor for BBC Television News between 1982 and 1986, she was also the founding editor of Radio 4’s Mediumwave.
“I’m delighted to be working with Tyler again. He has a unique understanding and insight into all aspects of the industry and will give The Desk a distinctive voice in the media debate,” she said.
George Entwistle, executive editor of the new BBC topical arts unit that commissioned the programme, said the department had “a fantastic selection of pitches from some of the brightest and best British indies. We were very impressed indeed by the range and quality of the ideas, but at the end of the process we had to make a decision.
“The Winkontent proposal had a powerful sense of how new technology and an international perspective are set to be dominant themes – plus an energy and style which we felt was spot on for BBC Four.”
Wale Azeez
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