EXCLUSIVE: BBC News is close to crowning its first royal editor after narrowing the field of candidates down to a final two.
Deadline understands that the prestige on-air role is expected to be offered to either Mark Easton, BBC News’ home editor, or royal correspondent Daniela Relph.
The successful candidate will step into a newly-created role, but effectively replaces Nicholas Witchell, who retired as a BBC royal correspondent after 25 years.
Easton has little experience of covering the royal family, but has been home editor since 2004, overseeing major stories including the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Sources said Easton could bring a “more ballsy” approach to the BBC’s royal output, with the corporation sometimes seen as being cautious in its coverage of the royal family.
Relph has reported on the royals for more than a decade and appeared on the BBC’s News at Six bulletin on the day Kate Middleton announced her cancer diagnosis.
Relph’s colleagues said her experience should put her in a strong position, with one person adding that it would be good for BBC News to appoint a woman.
Mark Easton and Daniela Relph
BBC News did not advertise the position externally to give internal journalists at risk of redundancy an opportunity to apply. Easton’s home editor role was among those closed as part of a £7.5M ($9.5M) cost-cutting initiative announced last year.
It meant that an array of qualified candidates were shut out of the recruitment process. Those linked to the role included Roya Nikkhah, The Sunday Times royal editor and a contributor to CBS News, and ITV News’ royal editor Chris Ship.
BBC News’ new royal editor will take up the post at a critical time for the British monarchy, which has been rocked by King Charles III and Middleton’s ill health.
They will be catapulted into the heart of BBC coverage of key national moments including royal events and deaths, with the corporation’s output often coming under intense scrutiny.
Only last week, the BBC had to defend its coverage of Middleton’s cancer diagnosis after it received complaints from viewers who said its reporting was “excessive and insensitive.”
The BBC declined to comment. Easton and Relph did not respond to requests for comment.