BBC Radio Ulster’s Stephen Nolan was the highest-paid journalist at the BBC last year.
Nolan earned between £425,000 and £429,999 in the year to 31 March 2026, an increase of 5% compared to the previous year.
Nolan’s BBC work encompasses The Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster, Nolan Live on BBC One (NI) and the Stephen Nolan Show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Nolan was last the top-paid BBC journalist in 2021/22.
Fifty-one journalists at the BBC earned more than £178,000 in 2025/26 (the minimum threshold to be published in the BBC’s annual report) – one more than last year’s total of 50.
Nolan was followed by Laura Kuenssberg, who earned between £405,000 and £409,999, an increase of 3%.
Kuenssberg’s work included her Sunday TV programme, Weekend Newscast, a weekly newsletter and website column, and local election coverage.
They were the only two BBC journalists who earned more than £400,000 last year.
Several big names saw their total pay packet reduce as they had helped to lead UK general election coverage in the previous financial year (2024/25).
These include the 2024/25 top-paid journalists: the Today programme’s Nick Robinson whose pay was down 19% last year to £330,000-£334,999, and Question Time’s Fiona Bruce whose salary dropped by 16% to £345,000-£349,999.
Jeremy Vine saw the third-biggest decrease, also due to the lack of a general election last year. He was down 14% to a bracket of £265,000-£269,999 for his BBC Radio 2 work.
Scroll down for the full table of the highest-paid BBC journalists for 2025/26
The BBC publishes salary brackets for its on-air talent. Press Gazette has calculated year-on-year changes using the upper end of these bands.
The biggest pay increase in the past year was for business editor Simon Jack, whose bracket was £270,000-£274,999 with growth of 20%, followed by chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet (up 12% to bracket of £230,000-£234,999).
Of the 46 journalists in our list both this year and last year, 29 saw their salaries grow, four stayed steady and 13 decreased.
New entrants include Anna Foster, who became a Today programme presenter in April 2025 and now earns £315,000-£319,999.
She was previously a BBC News at One presenter but did not feature on the 2024/25 pay disclosure list meaning she earned under £178,000.
Another new arrival was Matt Chorley, the former Times Radio presenter who joined 5 Live to helm a daily politics show in September 2025. Last year he earned between £230,000 and £234,999.
Longtime BBC employees Russia editor Steve Rosenberg (£190,000-£194,999) and Broadcasting House presenter Paddy O’Connell (£210,000-£214,999) also joined the list.
Speaking at a media briefing on Tuesday, BBC deputy director-general Rhodri Talfan Davies addressed a question about talent pay.
BBC Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills, who was sacked in March over allegations about his personal conduct, was the corporation’s highest-paid on-air staff member in the financial year, on £745,000-£749,999.
Only one other on-air presenter made more than Nolan: BBC Radio 1’s Greg James (£440,000-£449,999).
Talfan Davies said: “I think if you look over the course of the last six or seven years, there’s been remarkable progress. I think if you look at top talent pay above the £500,000 mark, that has fallen by about 50% over the last seven years. If you look at all our on-air presenter costs over the last seven years, they’ve come down by about £20m. So we have been focused on it.
“There is always a balancing act. We want to be a broadcaster that can attract the best talent, but we’re also very mindful of the financial pressures that we’re facing. But I think we’re striking that balance very, very carefully, and I think you’ll see that downward trend continuing in the months to come.”
BBC News managers paid more than £178,000 a year in 2025/26
Deborah Turness resigned as chief executive of news and current affairs in November amid controversy over the editing of a speech by Donald Trump in a Panorama programme. Director-general Tim Davie announced his resignation at the same time.
In the financial year Turness earned £445,000-£449,999, a year-on-year increase of 3%.
Her successor, interim CEO of news and current affairs Jonathan Munro, earned between £335,000 and £339,999 in the year (up 11%). He was previously global director and deputy CEO.
BBC ‘held back’ by licence fee
The BBC also revealed why it is in an “unsustainable financial position”, as described by group chief financial officer Bérangère Michel.
The BBC Group reported a deficit of £121m in 2025/26, slightly higher than £112m the year before and making a third consecutive year of operating deficit. Revenue was largely flat at £6bn.
It said 94% of adults use BBC services per month but fewer than 80% of households pay the licence fee.
The current BBC Charter will expire at the end of 2027, meaning work on how it will be funded beyond that is now ongoing.
Director-general Matt Brittin said: “The BBC is being held back by the straitjacket of the licence fee mechanism. It’s a model that ties us to the past when audiences are already living in the future.
“So we urgently need a solution that will provide sustainable, sufficient and universal funding, so there can continue to be a BBC for each of us, funded by all of us.”
The BBC has met its target of £700m in public service savings and reinvestment to be made by March 2028, totalling £715m.
Michel said: “These savings have now been achieved already, although not all are recurring, through a combination of content and news production efficiencies, reduced pension and property costs, and savings in non-audience-facing teams.
“But these savings have not been sufficient to offset the continued pressures on our costs. For example, production inflation is still running at around 6-7% per annum.”
The BBC has already announced it is looking to make a further cost reduction of £500m by the end of 2027 with the anticipated closure of 1,800 to 2,000 roles.
Around 550 roles are expected to go across News, Nations and Content divisions including BBC Sounds producers being cut by 69% and radio shows such as The World Tonight being closed.
Former Google exec Brittin, who joined seven weeks ago, also said he was “impressed by the progress that we’ve made in news on reaching audiences” on different platforms.
The BBC is the most-followed news publisher on Youtube with about 20 million subscribers but Brittin said this was “just the beginning of where we should be”.
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