Gestation period

There's something a bit odd about a nine-month extension to a contract, but I can't put my finger on it.

John Humphrys joined the Today programme as a presenter in January 1987. Prior to that, his career had been as newspaper, then tv, reporter and correspondent, and presenter of the Nine O'Clock News on BBC1. I'm not sure at what stage he renounced his BBC staff status, but he's now described as "freelance"; newspaper reports this week say at one stage he may have been paid via a company, but that's passed.

In 2011 he agreed at two-year contract with the BBC for Today, at £2,500 a show - down from his previous £3,000. In a full year, he'd cover 150 days. For his pains, he's up around 4.00am and finished by 9.00am. On Saturdays, which John likes, it's a shorter show, and there's less to read up.

Nine months takes him to the end of November. Yet at the same time he's agreed a three-year deal with Mastermind - where he's been inquisitor since 2003. There, he's estimated to be on £5,000 a show - around 30 editions of Mastermind proper and 10 or so of Celebrity Mastermind each year. They are all now recorded in MediaCityUK, usually in groups of two or more - so the total daily earnings can more than compensate for the trip north.

John doesn't seem to have an agent for tv and radio, and presumably did the new radio deal with his recently-promoted Today editor, Ceri Thomas. He does have a literary agent - Luigi Bonomi, who also looks after Alan Titchmarsh, Esther Rantzen and Melanie Phillips. One suspects his writing for newspapers  - The Mail, Sunday Times and occasionally The Telegraph - usually on farming, the house in Greece, and being John Humphrys, is sorted direct.

He's also available for conferences and other speaking engagements. In the past year, he's been after-dinner speaker for licenced members of the National Approved Letting Scheme at a hotel near Tower Bridge; chaired a two day conference in Manchester set up by local-authority-outsourcing-specialist Civica; and hosted the energy conference below. His fee group is £10k-15k via the Gordon Poole Agency, but all other big agencies have him on their lists.