News staff at the BBC are gearing up for a tough week, with wide-ranging job cuts expected to be announced on Wednesday.
That’s when BBC director general, Mark Thompson, meets the BBC Trust to gain final approval for his plan to save 3% a year and plug an estimated £2bn funding gap.
There has been acres of coverage in the media about the expected cuts. As the fateful day draws closer, it now looks like one of the new and more innovative parts of the news operation will fare badly, namely the award-winning BBC News website. Leaks suggest the cuts will lead to fewer stories, with fewer updates throughout the day.
As a former editor at the site, it is with a heavy heart that I read that the one of the jewels in the BBC’s news crown is going to be badly decimated, a decade after it was launched. The online news operation has already been through two rounds of budget cuts over the past four years. It is a lean and efficient news animal, with a dedicated following of millions worldwide.
It seems short-sighted to undermine one of the BBC’s biggest success stories of the last decade. The BBC line is that it is time to integrate the online operation with radio and television. The problem with this is that the internal politics at the BBC will likely lead to online remaining the poor relation, scrambling for crumbs off the top table. One of my former colleagues, Kevin Anderson, has this damning verdict on what is happening:
This is the systematic dismantling and destruction of a site and a staff that has helped lead the way in online, interactive journalism.
Knowing most of the people who work at the news website, I am confident they will strive to maintain the quality and diversity of news that audiences online have come to expect. BBC management would do well to realise the value of what they have in the BBC News website.
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Alf,
I know those who remain will soldier on, and I know that they will carry on the proud tradition of the site. But I share your concerns about the internal politics of the BBC, a pretty poisonous mix during the best of times, which these surely aren’t.
Being on the outside, I can only hope that they save a little money for truly original, interactive journalism. I hope that integration brings integrated thinking, but unfortunately, there is nothing in my eight years at the BBC to suggest that this will happen.
My biggest fear is that they will keep a skeleton online staff who will merely repurpose content from radio and TV reporters and that they will jettison the editors and managers who have built up almost unparalleled digital experience over the last decade.
But the BBC often succeeds despite its organisational failings due to the skill and dedication of its staff. I wish my former colleagues the best.
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