450 jobs to go as BBC cuts news services in savings bid
THE BBC has announced cuts to Newsnight, 5Live and other news output as part of costcutting plans and an effort to reach the young.
The plans to “modernise its newsroom” will lead to around 450 job cuts.
There will be a review of the number of BBC presenters “and how they work”.
Fran Unsworth, director of news and current affairs, said there are “many people in this country that we are not serving well enough”.
The broadcaster is reaching older people but has been falling out of favour with the young as their viewing habits change.
The BBC has to be “relevant for the people we are not currently reaching”, Ms Unsworth said.
The plans will mean a “reduction in the overall number of stories covered” and “further investment in digital news”.
There will also be a reduction in the number of films produced by Newsnight, the flagship political programme which recently made headlines with its interview with the Duke of York.
The BBC said Newsnight will “continue to deliver high-quality journalism on the day’s events and beyond”.
There will also “be post closures at 5Live”, but other programmes across news, including Today, will be affected.
The corporation said it wanted to “reduce duplication” while making savings of £80m, citing the last licence fee settlement.
It said the news agenda would be “tailored to subjects that matter most to the audience”.
The BBC will maintain the ringfenced spending on the BBC World Service.
World Update on World Service English will be closed, alongside other schedule changes.
Plans to axe Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC Two programme have already been leaked, with the host saying she was “absolutely devastated”.
The emphasis on digital comes as the BBC News website has raised eyebrows for some “clickbait” stories,
based around viral videos and social media posts.
The BBC said the changes “to how BBC News will work will lead to an estimated 450 job losses” and more of the corporation’s journalists will be based outside London.
Ms Unsworth said: “The BBC has to face up to the changing way audiences are using us. We need to reshape BBC News for the next decade in a way which saves substantial
amounts of money. We are spending too much of our resources on traditional linear broadcasting and not enough on digital.
“Our duty as a publicly funded broadcaster is to inform, educate and entertain every citizen. But there are many people in this country that we are not serving well enough.”
She apologised for the “unfortunate” leaking of the Derbyshire story, saying “I can assure you nobody from
BBC management leaked that story”.
The cuts come amid payouts to some female staff, with radio presenter Sarah Montague getting a £400,000 settlement and Samira Ahmed winning an employment tribunal in a dispute over equal pay.
Its director-general Lord Hall is leaving in the summer.
Bectu national secretary Noel McClean said “the unprecedented constraints faced by the BBC... risks its future viability...
“It would be easy to point the finger at BBC management, and we will absolutely hold them to account, but Bectu knows that the reality is much more complicated and that government policy, including decisions around free licences for over-75s, has led to the pressures that impact our members and audiences.”
National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “These damaging cuts are part of an existential threat to the BBC, and a direct consequence of the last disastrous, secret licence fee deal the BBC agreed with the government.”