[Media-watch] BBC news in crisis as 350 staff cut - Observer - 28/11/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1361284,00.html

 BBC news in crisis as axe hits 350 staff

Vanessa Thorpe and James Robinson
Sunday November 28, 2004
The Observer

The BBC is to axe around 350 people from its news operation, around 15 per 
cent of staff, as part of swingeing cuts to be announced by director general 
Mark Thompson early next month.
The service, frequently described as being 'at the core' of the 
publicly-funded organisation, will be cut back as part of a purge of up to 
6,000 jobs across all departments.

The BBC's new head of news, Helen Boaden, has been told to make the 
redundancies to slim down her 3,000-strong newsroom.

'This is going to affect the standard of the product, even if viewers and 
listeners don't notice the effects at first,' said one senior journalist. 
'Morale will take a bit of a knock again.'

Details of the proposed losses come as Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told a 
private meeting of MPs this weekend that the BBC's commitment to 
impartiality 'needed to be strengthened'.

Jowell, the politician who will ultimately decide whether the BBC's ten-year 
Royal Charter is renewed, said it was 'highly likely' that a green paper, to 
be published in the new year, would emphasise the importance of 'freedom 
from bias' in BBC journalism. It will also attempt to steer reporting 
further away from comment and analysis, underlining factual accuracy as the 
BBC's top priority.

Jowell, in turn, will have to defend the green paper's contents from the 
accusation that New Labour is seeking to restrain the BBC's political 
coverage in the run-up to the next election by wielding the time-honoured 
threat of tampering with the licence fee arrangement.



Although the number of jobs lost to news will be less than the rumoured 
figure of 1,000, radical plans to axe the One O'Clock News and replace it 
with a live feed supplied by News 24 are still being fiercely resisted by 
the programme's editor, Chris Rybczynski. Some BBC sources claim the 
director general is determined to push the plan through, although they 
stress no final decision has yet been taken.

News 24 has an annual budget of £50 million and has a small audience share. 
'It costs around £1,000 per viewer. It would be cheaper to send every one of 
them a cheque for £500 and ask them to watch us', according to one editor.

Another senior news executive spoke of the need to sort out 'duplication and 
occasional bits of over-manning' so that the broadcaster is fit enough to go 
into the digital age.

The BBC is also thought likely to make all its consumer affairs reporters 
redundant as part of the cuts. 'They have outlived their usefulness,' 
according to one senior executive. The specialism is seen as having had its 
day. 'Anybody can do stories about the price of jeans or rip-off Britain,' a 
source said.

Senior BBC management sources also predicted that cuts would be made on a 
grander scale in support staff departments, such as finance and human 
resources. As many as 50 per cent of employees may be shed. 'But we have to 
realise that all this is being done to create a war chest for the future,' 
said a manager. 'The BBC is going to have to cope with some huge changes in 
the next few years, changes to the way we all watch television, and we have 
to be ready to change quickly. News is the cornerstone of the BBC, but we 
also need to invest in other areas like music and drama.'

Human resources, which employs 1,000 people, is widely regarded as 
over-staffed by other BBC employees. 'There are company's twice the size 
with half as many people in HR,' according to one insider.

'Under Greg, numbers went up from 26,000 to 28,000, but the output grew as 
well. But in the real world, every company has to produce more for less; 
that's how you increase productivity. The BBC has never thought that.'