Sambrook set to leave BBC in 2010

Sambrook joined the BBC in 1980

The BBC's director of global news, Richard Sambrook, is leaving the BBC in early 2010 after nearly 30 years.

Peter Horrocks will succeed Sambrook in February but his current job, as director of the World Service, will be combined with his new role.

Sambrook will join the Reuters Institute for the study of journalism at Oxford as a visiting Fellow for the first part of next year.

He will then take up a full-time post elsewhere, yet to be announced.

"It has been a privilege to lead three different divisions of the BBC and to have played a part in the huge changes in news broadcasting over recent years. But 30 years is enough," said Sambrook.

He joined the BBC as a radio sub-editor in 1980.