By Steven Downes
Adrian Warner, named last week at the SJA’s British Sports Journalism Awards as the Sports News Reporter of the Year for his front-page and back-page lead stories in London’s Evening Standard, is set to join BBC London as their Olympic Correspondent.
According to a report in the BBC house magazine Ariel, Warner’s appointment is seen as the important latest step as the Corporation ramps up its coverage of the 2012 Games, following the appointment last year of Mihir Bose as BBC sports editor, and the launch later this year of a new sports news magazine programme.
Mark Byford, the BBC deputy chairman who heads the Corporation’s 2012 co-ordination group, says that the Olympics are “the biggest event for a generation”.
“There is a huge journalistic job to be done,” Byford told Ariel.
Byford noted tha while newspapers have so far been breaking Olympic stories, the BBC has yet to do so, and Warner is clearly being hired with his story-getting ability and excellent contacts in mind.
His role will see him report for both television and radio bulletins on the BBC’s regional news, as well as contributing online.
A former Reuters correspondent based in Bonn and London, Warner has been at the Standard for four years. No departure date from the Standard has yet been set.
Warner was unavailable for comment this afternoon.