BBC to cut 450 jobs to help save £80million as Newsnight and Radio 5 Live affected – with top presenters at risk
THE BBC will cut 450 jobs as part of an £80million savings drive it was announced today - with big name presenters at risk.
Newsnight and Radio 5 Live could both be affected by the cuts, which the public broadcaster revealed would help them achieve their 2022 savings target.
The BBC offices pictured today as cuts were announcedIt comes after it was revealed last week that the Victoria Derbyshire programme would be axed as part of the cost-saving measures.
And she may not be the only big name to go with a source telling the : "No one is immune from the cuts, not even the presenters. Big names are not protected."
Other measures announced today include:
- Review of presenters leading to an estimated 450 job losses
- Reduction in Newsnight films
- Post closures at 5Live
- World Update on World Service English to be closed
Announcing the changes, the BBC said its newsroom would be reorganised to become a "story-led" model that would focus on stories than programmes or platforms.
It added that there will be a review of "the number of presenters we have and how they work".
There will also be a reduction in the number of films produced by Newsnight - the flagship political programme that recently made headlines with its interview with the Duke Of York.
Fran Unsworth, Director of News and Current Affairs, said: "The BBC has to face up to the changing way audiences are using us.
"We have to adapt and ensure we continue to be the world's most trusted news organisation, but crucially, one which is also relevant for the people we are not currently reaching.
"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.
"I believe that we have a vital role to play locally, nationally and internationally. In fact, we are fundamental to contributing to a healthy democracy in the UK and around the world. If we adapt we can continue to be the most important news organisation in the world."
The Sun Says
IT has always been profligate of the publicly funded BBC to cover events with multiple news crews from different shows.
But The Sun hates to see the loss of so many journalists’ jobs. And the redundancies at its news operation show only that the Corporation hasn’t remotely grasped the scale of change it needs.
It’s not about trimming the newsroom or cutting the odd programme, hand-picked to generate the loudest pro-Beeb protest. It’s about the basic structure of the place, about paring the output back to the essentials it can do better than a commercial broadcaster.
Be bold. Scrap the entire website. Who will miss it? Bin the podcasts few listen to. To win back viewers, change your ingrained cultural and political bias. Make comedy and drama genuinely funny or gripping, not unwatchable tripe that ticks “woke” boxes.
The BBC needs reinvention. Losing a few salaries barely even tinkers at the edges.
MOST READ IN NEWS
The broadcaster revealed in 2016 that it needed to save £800m, with about £80m of that coming from news. Around £40m of that has already been found over the past four years.
The need for savings comes amid financial pressures on the corporation, including paying for free TV licences for over-75s on pension credit and 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.
BBC News currently employs about 6,000 people, including 1,700 outside of the UK, and said the restructuring would avoid duplication from different programmes working on the same stories.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary Michelle Stanistreet described the BBC cuts as "damaging".
Conservative MP Damian Collins, who is standing for re-election as chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said on Twitter: "There will be concerns about proposed BBC news cuts. They should explain how it'll impact the BBCs ability to reach people. @VictoriaLIVE & @bbc5live serve different audiences to other parts of BBC news. I bet the consultants had fun with these charts...."
