Making a Killing?
Furious staff say new STV boss would rather lavish money on Scandi-style drama than news bulletins
STV chiefs want to plough millions of pounds into producing ‘outdated’ crime dramas while cutting jobs in the news department, staff warn.
Chief executive Simon Pitts told workers he wanted the broadcaster to be known for ‘something other than news’, employees say.
They claim he ‘talked about creating a Scandinavian-style drama like The Killing’ – sparking fears that the project will be funded through severe cuts to the news department and its staff.
STV announced this week that it will close its struggling second channel STV2 as part of a shift towards online content and a reorganisation that will result in 59 job losses.
Staff at the broadcaster are expected to vote on taking industrial action in the coming weeks. They fear the cuts will damage quality – and they have already been told they will have to do their own camerawork, in a bid to reduce the number of skilled operators.
It is understood the cuts will be keenly felt in Aberdeenshire, where the number of camera operators could go from four to one.
An STV source said: ‘Pitts has told staff he wants STV to be known for something other than just news.
‘He specifically talked about creating a Scandinavian-style drama like The Killing.
‘Everyone raised their eyebrows when he came out with that because everyone knows Scandi-noir has not been in fashion for more than a decade. It just shows how out of touch he is.
‘Even more worrying is that the only way to fund that is by cutting staff in the news department.
‘The fear is that his plan is to erode the quality up here to make STV ripe for a takeover by ITV.
‘It’s pretty clear to everyone in Scotland that Simon Pitts’s real audience is not the people who are watching the channel, but his masters in the city.
‘The future looks bleak. We’re on a path that could see the destruction of the currently diverse news landscape for a generation of Scots.’
STV said the ‘reorganisation of services’ would save about £2million a year. The announcement was
‘The future looks bleak’
made as part of a three-year strategic review by Mr Pitts.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was ‘disappointed and concerned’ about the planned cuts, while Nationalist MSP Joan McAlpine raised concerns that the cuts could be part of a plan to prepare the channel for sale to ITV.
The STV source said: ‘Pitts is absent most of the time. He’s barely here, seemingly spending most of his time in London.
‘Staff have spotted a signed Spurs shirt in a frame by his desk. He’s been here four months and it’s still not been hung anywhere.
‘Maybe he thinks there’s no point; it’s not as if he’ll be here long enough before he swans off back to ITV.’
Yesterday, an STV spokesman said that the savings would allow it ‘to self-fund £15million in investment over the next three years in new, original content for STV and the STV Player, with a focus on formats and returnable series’. The broadcaster also confirmed that the consultation period on job cuts began on Wednesday, but it declined to confirm details of roles and locations affected.
Mr Pitts said: ‘We are very proud of STV News and our news team. However, news habits are changing rapidly and it is vital that we change, too, by investing in new technology, skills and digital, but also by operating more cost-effectively.
‘We will work closely with our team through this change process and listen fully to their concerns and ideas.
‘We are confident we will able to maintain our hard-fought reputation as Scotland’s best, most comprehensive and most trusted source of news.’
The National Union of Journalists said a date for a ballot on industrial action among STV staff would be decided upon in the coming weeks.