1,500 BBC News jobs at risk in attempt to cut costs by £89m

Reporters among 8,000 staff under most threat from World Service merger with News after licence fee deal BBC News tabled proposals for widespread cuts to its 8,000 news staff in the UK and abroad, as part a plan to make annual savings of £89m. Senior members were informed of the plans tabled by Helen Boaden, the director of BBC News, to make the savings by 2016-7 – with the bulk from cutting reporting jobs. The cuts amount to a 20% saving from a total budget of close to £500m. The BBC will also merge the previously separately funded BBC World Service into the main News division, as it contends with the consequences of a licence fee freeze agreed with the coalition government last autumn. Exact numbers of staff to be cut were not disclosed, but more detail is expected to be revealed next week when the proposals are fleshed out. However, if job losses were to match the 20% saving sought, more than 1,500 journalists may be forced to go. It is expected job losses will affect reporters on regional and domestic news as well as international field correspondents, who are most likely to be impacted by the News-World Service merger. The plan is that some World Service journalists will take over BBC News jobs. BBC News employs about 3,000 staff in London and overseas and a further 3,000 around the UK providing coverage in the nations and regions. The World Service employs an additional 2,000. “It should be remembered these are just proposals, they have not yet been taken to the BBC Trust and anything could happen,” said one source. “There may not be a viable argument that just because a World Service person is somewhere they can automatically step into a BBC News role”. BBC News and the World Service – for which the corporation is officially taking over funding from the Foreign Office in 2013 – are set to be brought together in the redeveloped Broadcasting House in central London. A large number of regional editors from the World Service are also thought likely to go. The channel is also planning to air fewer features and outside broadcasts using a lot of resource, such as truck-based broadcasting, which are very expensive to operate. Martin Bell, the former BBC foreign correspondent, said in an article for the British Journalism Review that the BBC needed to cut back on the “expensive and wasteful practice” of sending news anchors such as Huw Edwards “somewhere near the scene of a news event and pretending that this adds value and authenticity”. Other savings being suggested include cutting specific business and sports segments in bulletins and programmes such as Today and instead using specialist reporters – such as Robert Peston, the business editor, or David Bond, the sports editor, to fill in as required The BBC Trust is thought to be informally aware of the proposals although it will not officially receive a full detailed plan until next month. “We are not going to get drawn into a running commentary, no decisions have been taken and therefore these claims remain speculation,” said a spokesman for BBC News. “Any decisions coming out of the process would be subject to approval by the BBC Trust.” In April MediaGuardian.co.uk revealed internal documents that outlined a range of ideas for cost-saving including a “slimmed-down” BBC News channel concentrating on “developing news and headlines” and increasing commercial income from its journalism. Other proposals being discussed include making the BBC Parliament channel, the most expensive the BBC operates in terms of the number of viewers that it obtains, “more cost effective and accessible” and making more money from selling BBC News output to overseas broadcasters “without damaging our brand and reputation”. BBC BBC World Service BBC licence fee Helen Boaden Radio industry Television industry BBC Trust Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 10, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.