(Yet) another Kleinkman inclusive...

"The board of BP is considering announcing as soon as next week that Tony Hayward, its embattled chief executive, is to step down, I have learned." Mark Kleinman, Sky News Blog, Friday July 23.

"As I revealed exclusively on this blog on Friday and discussed on air yesterday (both long before any other media organisation followed the story, despite some dubious claims to the contrary today), Hayward's exit three years after he became BP's boss leaves the company with an opportunity to rebuild its future." Mark Kleinman, Sky News Blog, Sunday July 25.

"Tony Hayward is to step down as BP’s chief executive within the next ten weeks as the company seeks to draw a line under its disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. " The Times, Wednesday July 21.

Another Kleinman Inclusive

"Exclusive: Betfair Gambles On Autumn Flotation ... Betfair, the online betting exchange, is targeting an autumn stock market listing valuing the company at about £1.5bn, I have learned." Mark Kleinman, Sky News, July 16, 2010.

"[Betfair] recently postponed a planned £1.5 billion stock market flotation of the business, a process that has now been put back probably until the autumn." Racing Post, July 3, 2010.

FT hires its biggest fan

Congratulations to my old friend Mark Kleinman, the City editor of Sky News, for landing a new column at the FT to replace the one he lost at the Times.

Kleinman's scoop-getting qualities are renowned across Fleet Street, but does he rate his new colleagues quite as highly as he and others rate himself?

Tweeting on the Pink 'Un last year, Kleinman mused: "FT just put out a news alert on RBS story I broke on Jeff Randall's show tonight - well done for watching the TV!"

Kleinman finds the Times are a changing

I can exclusively reveal, in this exclusive dispatch, which I am writing exclusively for SlackBelly, that the Times is to end the weekly column penned by Mark Kleinman, Sky News' City Editor. Did I mention that I'd revealed this exclusively?

Kleinman v Peston scoop-match to begin

Following my story on Friday that Sky News has poached Sunday Telegraph City editor, Mark Kleinman, there is more business news being broadcast by the telly station today.
First comes confirmation that my tale was spot on (I can confound my critics - occasionally), while the channel also announced that long-standing business editor Michael Wilson is to leave.
All great stuff for viewers of the internal Sky soap opera, of course, but a question occurs.
Sky hopes that signing Kleinman might prevent it being so comprehensively outgunned by the BBC's Robert Peston - who is credited with virtually every major scoop of the credit crisis, supposedly gleaned from his legendary Treasury contacts.
Conversely, Kleinman's great skill is breaking corporate scoops. But will an exclusive about a massive rights issue carry the main bulletins quite as well as Pesto's Whitehall bombshells?

Sky hits the Mark in battle with the Beeb

Media news. Mark Kleinman, the City editor of the Sunday Telegraph, is defecting to Sky News.
Kleinman is a bit of a newshound, so the move looks as though Sky is attempting to start competing with the BBC and Robert Peston, another former Sunday Tel City boss.

Update: the Press Gazette is now following my tale here: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43681&c=1.

How telly works...

Sky News is broadcasting from the trading floor of CMC Markets as part of its Budget coverage today.
Presumably this is to provide a busy backdrop of banks of City traders taking lots of spread bets - but the best plans and all that.
My man laying the punts tells me that CMC has asked junior employees to spend the day on the trading floor and to sit in camera shot to make the room look fuller.
Another Budget con trick, then.

Randall resignation pledge - already?

Jeff Randall, Essex man's favourite financial commentator, is back with a daily show on Sky News, starting this evening. In the trailers, he asks himself what he'd do if he was a member of the government during this financial crisis - telling viewers that he'd resign.
Really? Jeff, of course, has quit from the public sector before, vacating the high-profile BBC Business editorship nicely in time for his replacement, Robert Peston, to steal all the glory by brilliantly covering the credit crunch.
So surely Jeff would not voluntarily forgo the limelight once again?

Businessballs...

"[Businesses] have to play by the rules and there are different rules in place today than there were last year and the year after" - Dragons' Den star, Theo Paphitis, today, explaining to Sky News viewers how business has changed during the credit crisis.