Hundreds of BBC News employees are expected to be told they face redundancy as soon as Wednesday, when the corporation unveils the first wave of cuts in a brutal £500m cost-saving drive. Staff have been warned that the news division will bear the brunt of the reductions, with job losses likely to run into the hundreds.
The announcement will kick off a sweeping downsizing programme that the new director general, Matt Brittin, has said will not rely on “salami slicing”. The former Google executive has indicated he prefers to cut entire services or programmes rather than make marginal reductions across the board. While many inside the BBC welcome his decisiveness, the plans are already provoking opposition.
“BBC News to announce hundreds of job cuts as part of £500m cost-saving drive, with staff warned cuts will exceed 10% target.”
The cuts were drawn up before Brittin’s arrival and come as the broadcaster’s leaders negotiate with ministers over its future funding. In an email to staff in April, the deputy director general, Rhodri Talfan Davies, said the corporation had to save an additional £500m from annual operating costs of £5bn over the next two years, and that job numbers would fall by up to 2,000.
During a video meeting with BBC News personnel last month, staff were told to expect significantly deeper cuts than the 10% pan-BBC target. BBC News employs about a quarter of the corporation’s 21,500 employees. “Most of our savings are people, frankly,” Richard Burgess, the director of news and content, told staff. “[The cuts will be] 15% of our income. Our income is not entirely salary bill, although it is the majority.”
The drive to save money is already visible. During the World Cup, the BBC opted to cover the tournament from Salford rather than the host nations, and its new studio there will later be used for Match of the Day. But the biggest test lies ahead: how Brittin will balance the need for savings with the demands of news coverage and the looming funding talks.