Newsnight editor Ian Katz quits BBC for top Channel 4 role. High-level departures from BBC News continue as Katz moves to replace Jay Hunt as director of programmes

The editor of Newsnight, Ian Katz, is leaving the BBC to become director of programmes at Channel 4, one of the most influential roles in British broadcasting.

Katz will replace Jay Hunt, who has moved to Apple, and will have responsibility for commissioning programmes and managing Channel 4’s schedule.

Alex Mahon, who started as Channel 4’s chief executive on Monday, said Katz was an “inspirational leader” with “fantastic instincts and intelligence”.

Katz has limited experience of commissioning programmes but a Channel 4 source praised his “history of risk-taking” and “promoting new talent”.

Katz will start at Channel 4 in January and can expect a significant pay rise. He was paid £151,600 a year at the BBC while Hunt received £683,000 in 2016, including a £433,000 salary and £180,000 bonus. However, it is understood that Katz’s starting salary will be lower than Hunt’s.

His move to Channel 4 is the latest in a series of high-profile departures from BBC News. James Harding, the director of news and current affairs, is leaving to set up a new venture, while Robbie Gibb quit as head of the BBC’s political team at Westminster to become Theresa May’s director of communications.

Katz, a former deputy editor of the Guardian, joined Newsnight in 2013 with the programme in crisis after it scrapped an investigation into Jimmy Savile’s sex crimes and then ran a separate piece that led to Lord McAlpine wrongly being accused of child abuse.

He has managed to stabilise Newsnight’s viewing figures – which were in long-term decline – at between 550,000 and 600,000. His most significant moves include hiring Evan Davis to replace Jeremy Paxman as presenter.

In an email to BBC staff confirming his departure, Katz said he was “incredibly sad” to be leaving Newsnight, and that it had been transformed from a programme “on its knees” into a “confident, vibrant, original force”.

Davis said on social media that Katz would be a “hard act to follow” and had led Newsnight into “high-impact reporting”, including its coverage of the Grenfell Tower fire.

In a Channel 4 statement confirming his appointment, Katz said: “I’m impossibly excited to be joining a broadcaster whose unique combination of innovation, risk-taking and elan I have admired for decades as a viewer – and more recently as a frequently envious rival.”

About Ian Katz:

Ian Katz is a British journalist who is the editor of the Newsnight current affairs programme on BBC Two. Earlier Katz followed a career in print journalism, and was previously a deputy editor of The Guardian until 2013.