Nick Robinson and Fiona Bruce are now the highest-paid journalists at the BBC following the high-profile departure of Huw Edwards last year, according to the broadcaster’s annual report for 2024/25 which was published today.
Robinson and Bruce were both placed in the £410,000 to £414,999 salary band – an increase of 19% year on year for Robinson for work that included presenting the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, the Today and Political Thinking podcasts, and UK general election leadership interviews for Panorama, and 1% for Bruce, whose work includes hosting Question Time, news presenting on BBC One, and general election coverage. Previous top-earning journo Edwards took home £475,000-£479,999 last year, despite being on gardening leave for most of the year. Edwards was eventually sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, in September last year after admitting accessing indecent images of children.
One other journalist was paid more than £400,000: BBC Radio Ulster’s long-standing BBC top-earners chart-placed Stephen Nolan, who was paid between £405,000 and £409,999 for work that also included Nolan Live on BBC One in Northern Ireland and the Stephen Nolan Show on BBC Radio 5 Live.
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A total of 50 on-air BBC journalists earned above £178,000 – the minimum salary required to be included in the BBC’s annual pay disclosures – in the year to 31 March 2025 for their work, although this excludes any work for the broadcaster’s commercial arm, BBC Studios.
For context, under-fire director-general Tim Davie, who is also technically the BBC’s editor-in-chief, earned between £540,000 and £544,999 last year, placign him 45th on Press Gazette’s ranking of the highest-paid media executives in the UK.
48% of the 50 top-earning on-air BBC journalists this year were women – up from 43% last year, compared to an overall figure of 43% of the Beeb’s highest on-screen earners, including entertainment and sport roles.
Of those who made the list both last year and this year, 77% saw their salaries increase while 12% stayed the same and the remaining 11% went down, most notably BBC News Channel presenter Ben Thompson (£205,000-£209,999) and economics editor Faisal Islam (£235,000-£239,999) who both saw their upper salary bands drop by 9%. The salaries can vary depend on the total amount of work done, so last year’s general election could have been a factor in bumping up pay for several high-profile names.
There were seven new entrants to the table, including returning former Woman’s Hour presenter Emma Barnett who has previously been on the list but was not in 2023/24. Last year she earned between £285,000 and £289,999 after joining the Today programme in May 2024. The highest new entrant was media and culture editor Katie Razzall, who earned between £220,000 and £224,999.
