Brace Page 26 for Big Cutbacks
Radio 4’s Today among flagship shows where staff face axe
Flagship BBC programmes including Radio 4’s Today are to cut reporters in a major shake-up of the corporation’s news division, it was claimed last night.
The broadcaster will announce the cost-saving blitz next week, with The World at One also in the firing line.
Victoria Derbyshire’s TV show has already been revealed to be on the way out. But, according to insiders, radio programmes will also be hit hard – with less money to make shows and fewer staff to do it.
it was suggested last night that Newsnight’s interview with prince andrew had shielded the BBC2 programme from the worst of the cuts. The subsequent fallout from presenter Emily Maitlis’s interview with the Duke of York in November led to andrew stepping back from royal duties.
The BBC plans £80million of savings over four years with some redundancies expected. The habit of sending journalists from different programmes to the same events – which has sparked claims of wastefulness – is set to end. instead, under a new plan known as ‘centralised commissioning’, reporters will increasingly be asked to repackage their content for different BBC news outlets. There will also be increased focus on digital content. One insider said last night: ‘it is crazy you sometimes get a big story and suddenly have four reporters from four different BBC outlets producing the same piece and chasing the same interview. That is just totally wasteful.’
however they added: ‘The risk is that ... there will be no distinctiveness and you just get a homogenised product.
‘The danger is if you have centralised commissioning then everything feels a bit the same. You don’t turn on Newsnight because it is going to be the same as the ten o’clock news.’
according to insiders, there has been a behind-the- scenes row about the effect of cuts on both Today and Newsnight.
another source said the original plan had been to ‘strip reporters’ away from Today, The World at One and Newsnight.
But they added that the triumph of Miss Maitlis’s interview with prince andrew on Newsnight looked to have saved jobs. One insider said: ‘it’s sobering that Today, as the most important radio programme, really will have much less resources. it is now thinly stretched and will become more so.’ Meanwhile, an online petition has been launched to save Victoria Derbyshire’s morning show on BBC2. it hit 12,000 signatures last night.
it pointed out the programme had given a voice to marginalised people including survivors of sex abuse. The BBC declined to comment last night.
‘It risks shows all feeling the same’