Sarah Sands, the editor of the London Evening Standard, is to join the BBC as editor of Today, Radio 4’s flagship news and current affairs programme, and become the second woman to fill the role.
Sands, 55, who has edited the newspaper for nearly five years, will replace Jamie Angus, who was recently appointed deputy director of the BBC World Service.
Sands will be the second woman to edit the agenda-setting programme after Dame Jenny Abramsky, the chair of the Royal Academy of Music. She is understood to have beaten four women on an all-female shortlist.
During her time as Evening Standard editor, the free paper backed the Conservatives at the 2015 election and supported Zac Goldsmith as the Tory candidate for mayor. Sands was briefly editor of the Sunday Telegraph a decade ago.
Rod Liddle, who edited Today between 1998 and 2002, and is a columnist for the Sun and the Sunday Times, and an associate editor of the Spectator, said she was a “terrific choice” for the Today role, especially after the vote to leave the EU.
“The outside viewpoint is crucial, especially at a time when politics has moved in a direction that the BBC has neither anticipated nor welcomed,” he said.
“Sarah’s right-ish and comes with a strong journalistic background in print, which is where the best journalism is.”
He said he expected Sands to “freshen up” the Today lineup.
Another former senior manager on the programme said one of Sands’ challenges was likely to be finding a successor to John Humphrys, who has been a Today presenter since 1987 and celebrated his 73rd birthday last year.
However, the former senior manager said she would not come into the programme “with an agenda” and would “bend over backwards to be as impartial as she possibly can”.
The move was announced on Monday by Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the Evening Standard, before the BBC had made an official announcement.
“The Evening Standard has been a huge success under Sarah’s editorship, and she has been a vital part of the team since this company acquired the Evening Standard in 2009. Sarah will leave with our very best wishes for her new role,” he said.
She follows Amol Rajan to the BBC, who joined last November as media editor, leaving behind his job as editor of the Lebedev-owned Independent.
Sands, whose previous roles include positions at the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, said: “I am grateful to Evgeny for his support of this newspaper and guarding it against all the headwinds of the industry. It has been an absolute pleasure to work for him and to be part of a first-rate professional team.”
She will leave the Evening Standard this year, remaining in post as editor until then.
In a statement released by the BBC an hour after the Evening Standard revealed the appointment, Sands said: “I’ve felt very close to the Today programme for __more than 40 years: every listener does. It is an honour to join the team whose journalism makes such a contribution to British life.”
James Harding, the director of BBC news and current affairs, said in an email to staff: “Sarah is a hugely experienced and highly respected journalist. She will bring her familiar verve and her broad range of interests to the programme, and will build on Today’s absolute commitment to critical and analytical journalism.”
Gwyneth Williams, the controller of Radio 4, said: “I want to welcome Sarah to Radio 4. She brings long experience of leadership in journalism and will add a fresh, creative approach to the biggest-hitting news programme of them all. I look forward to working with her.”
Sands, who started her career in journalism at the Sevenoaks Chronicle as a trainee reporter, joins the broadcaster at a time when print and digital media are under financial pressure. Print and digital advertising revenues are in decline as businesses flock to social media giants and tech companies to place ads.
The BBC would not comment on how much Sands would be paid; however, her predecessor does not appear on the BBC’s list of managers earning __more than £150,000 a year.
Journalists, editors and media commentators tweeted messages of congratulations, including Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times.
Lionel Barber (@lionelbarber)Congratulations @sandsstandard on appointment as editor of Today programme #hotseat https://t.co/50eYiygEWF
January 30, 2017
Rachel Johnson (@RachelSJohnson)The brilliant mischievous pocket dynamo @sandsstandard strikes again! BRAVA SARAH!! https://t.co/oacXLeMxie
January 30, 2017
Tim Montgomerie ن (@montie)Congrats @SandsStandard. With @amolrajanBBC, @iankatz1000, James Harding... the Beeb is taking all of the editors! https://t.co/2esoadhJSA
January 30, 2017
Sands’ previously close relationship with some Conservatives, in particular her former Telegraph colleague Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, who was London mayor during her tenure at the Evening Standard, is understood to have raised eyebrows externally and within the BBC following news of her appointment.
On Twitter, the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire highlighted the Evening Standard’s political record under her editorship.
Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire)That'll be a top BBC job for an editor who backed the Cons at the election(in Labour London) and Goldsmith against Khan(Ditto). Hmmm... https://t.co/vRqFupLlSo
January 30, 2017
However, it is understood that Labour is unlikely to raise any concerns over her stewardship of Today.
Her departure leaves open the editorship of the Evening Standard, which has a circulation of about 850,000 and since going free has become profitable, making £1.4m in 2014. In its statement announcing the move, the paper said a new editor would be appointed “in due course”.
A brief history of Today
The Today programme was first broadcast on 28 October 1957 as a topical programme going out as two 20-minute editions. It came out of broadcaster Sir Robin Day’s idea for a daily morning programme, which was rejected by senior BBC managers who did not think there would be sufficient demand.
The programme becomes more news orientated in the late 1970s and took on its recognisable format in the 1980s. Its highest weekly audience of 7.35 million listeners was recorded as Britain voted to leave the European Union last year. John Humphrys is the programme’s longest-standing presenter, having joined in 1987.
- This article was corrected on 31 January 2017. An earlier version said Dame Jenny Abramsky was chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund; she left that role in 2014.