Patten is good for the BBC but there is still much to do

I confess to a second reason for applauding his arrival - the fact it would have made Rupert Murdoch apoplectic. In 1998, the media mogul ordered HarperCollins, part of his News Corp empire, not to publish Patten's book about his experiences as the last British governor of Hong Kong despite having agreed a contract to do so.

As Patten explained to the Leveson Inquiry this week, Murdoch's intervention was a commercial, rather than editorial, decision. The book contained material that might have upset the Chinese authorities at a time when Murdoch was hoping to expand in China.

Patten said: "Plainly, Mr Murdoch took the view that publishing a book critical of the Chinese leadership would not improve his chances, so he instructed HarperCollins to drop the book on the grounds that it was no good."

So Murdoch, both a long-time critic of the BBC and, as controller of BSkyB, a rival, would not have wished to see Patten assuming responsibility for the corporation. Whatever his misgivings about the book, he was aware that Patten was a good choice.

What an irony too that almost as soon as Patten got his feet under his BBC Trust desk, all media attention was diverted by the phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch's own newspaper company. The BBC - centre of so much controversy in the years before Patten's arrival - has been able to draw up its delicate cost-cutting plans and deal with odd dilemmas (think Jeremy Clarkson, for example), without attracting the endless critical headlines that made life so difficult for Patten's predecessor, Sir Michael Lyons, and its director-general, Mark Thompson.

Look at Patten's record thus far. He persuaded the Government to stump up more money for the World Service; he has dealt so firmly with executive pay that Thompson's successor will earn a good deal less, as will other future senior staff; he has found common cause with Thompson on cuts; and he has given no hostages to fortune in public pronouncements.

He made a good, solid speech at the Society of Editors conference last November in which he came out strongly in favour of press self-regulation, arguing that the statutory regulation applied to broadcasting would be inappropriate for newspapers. This would have had many of the BBC's traditional editorial foes nodding appreciably. Of course, I'm not suggesting that he adopted that principled position in order to win national newspaper friends, but it will not have done him any harm.

By contrast, his speech today at the Oxford Media Convention might not have pleased editors of beleaguered regional newspapers and will certainly give Thompson a minor headache as he promised to reverse cuts to the BBC's 40 local English radio stations.

The stations were facing cuts of £15 million that were certain to have a catastrophic effect on the network. Some 280 jobs, about 20% of the total, were expected to go and several stations were anticipating uncomfortable mergers. There was a danger "local" would become a meaningless term.

It is not altogether certain newspapers with falling sales would have benefited from the reduced broadcasting service but it would surely have done them no harm. They were definitely against a plan a couple of years back for the BBC to create hyper-local TV, which the Trust, under Lyons, refused to sanction.

What is more problematic for Thompson is the effect of Patten's demand on his overall cuts blueprint, known as "Delivering Quality First" which is supposed to save a total of £700 million.

It is something of a financial balancing act and various proposals along the way - axing the digital services, BBC Radio 6 Music and the Asian Network - had to be ditched because of public pressure.

The problem for the BBC is it fulfilled its remit to satisfy everyone, every minority and every niche interest, almost too well. Now it is extremely hard to withdraw anything without a chorus of complaints. Yet, beset by its need to live within its means because of the licence fee freeze until 2017, it cannot possibly maintain the status quo.

Patten, though acutely aware of the difficulties Thompson faces, is also asking him to reconsider proposed cuts to regional TV shows. And the Trust must perform a balancing act - between the needs of the Corporation and wishes of the public. So Patten cannot rest on his laurels. There's much yet to be done.

Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism at City University, London and writes a blog for the Guardian