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BBC cuts 450 newsroom jobs in cost-cutting move

FreddyE1977 said:
The BBC is reducing it's news staff by 450 in a cost-cutting move
anticipated to save around 80 million pounds.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...jobs-in-cost-cutting-drive-idUSKBN1ZS1Y3?il=0
Click to expand...

The World Service may be unrecognizable by the end of the year. I use the BBC website frequently, text and audio, but I don't have in-car streaming (or even a smartphone) so I depend on my SiriusXM receiver for its programming when I'm not at home. I can accept that this kind of listener is on the decline, but to diminish the on-air product this way on such short notice is still a shock.
 
TheBigA said:
Wonder if we'll see the same criticism about these cuts that we're seeing here about iHeart.
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The deepest cuts apparently will be at the World Service, which is tailored to an audience outside the U.K., and Radio 5, which is a talk and sports service. I'm not sure how Radio 5 will be affected, however, as news isn't a huge part of its format. Maybe its sports staff will be decimated. One would think that the eclectic Radio 4, with its broad assortment of documentary, discussion and entertainment programs, all produced and voiced in-house, would be a more inviting target.

I have a feeling the World Service was chosen because a large portion of its audience is not paying a dime to the BBC, being in the English-speaking world outside the U.K. Being a treasured source of information and entertainment is all well and good, but that won't pay the bills should the license fee go away.
 
CTListener said:
The deepest cuts apparently will be at the World Service, which is tailored to an audience outside the U.K., and Radio 5, which is a talk and sports service. I'm not sure how Radio 5 will be affected, however, as news isn't a huge part of its format. Maybe its sports staff will be decimated. One would think that the eclectic Radio 4, with its broad assortment of documentary, discussion and entertainment programs, all produced and voiced in-house, would be a more inviting target.

I have a feeling the World Service was chosen because a large portion of its audience is not paying a dime to the BBC, being in the English-speaking world outside the U.K. Being a treasured source of information and entertainment is all well and good, but that won't pay the bills should the license fee go away.
Click to expand...


But wait isn't donations to local NPR and PBS affiliates a factor given that they have a contract to air segments from BBC World Service?
 
TheBigA said:
Not from NPR, but from American Public Media in St. Paul, that distributes BBC World Service in the US.
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How much does APM pay for the World Service? What part do individual stations have in that? If I give to a public radio station that runs APM programming but not the BBC, is any of my donation going to the BBC?
 
CTListener said:
How much does APM pay for the World Service? What part do individual stations have in that? If I give to a public radio station that runs APM programming but not the BBC, is any of my donation going to the BBC?
Click to expand...

That's a very complicated question. You're looking for a direct connection from an individual contribution to a national service.

The point is they get a fee from APM. APM gets its money from stations. Some of that station money, BTW, could come from CPB.
 
I still miss the shortwave radio version of BBC World Service. They cut service to the Americas years ago.
Bush House (R.I.P.) was right up top of my bucket list.
 
kenglish said:
I still miss the shortwave radio version of BBC World Service. They cut service to the Americas years ago.
Bush House (R.I.P.) was right up top of my bucket list.
Click to expand...

As a teenager, I used to listen to its comedy word game, Just a Minute, on shortwave. Its host then was Nicholas Parsons, who continued hosting the program, now on Radio 4, through last year. He died yesterday at the age of 96.
 
CTListener said:
The World Service may be unrecognizable by the end of the year. I use the BBC website frequently, text and audio, but I don't have in-car streaming (or even a smartphone) so I depend on my SiriusXM receiver for its programming when I'm not at home. I can accept that this kind of listener is on the decline, but to diminish the on-air product this way on such short notice is still a shock.
Click to expand...

I've been listening to BBCWS since the mid-1960's, for many decades on shortwave, and in recent years via streaming or on the local NPR station late nights. It is the crown jewel of international radio broadcasting, and it would be a tragedy were it to disappear, especially with all the garbage news organizations that exist today. Financing it through the license fee is a recent development; it used to have funding separate from the rest of the BBC. The cuts have been going on for a number of years now, and we will probably see the results of the latest round as (IIRC) the BBC fiscal year begins in April.

kenglish said:
I still miss the shortwave radio version of BBC World Service. They cut service to the Americas years ago.
Bush House (R.I.P.) was right up top of my bucket list.
Click to expand...

BBCWS still has a fair amount of shortwave transmissions beamed to Africa and Asia. But even transmissions to those areas have been trimmed in the past few years. I suspect that when the new shortwave transmission season begins on March 29 we will see further reductions in SW output.

Bush House is still there, and has been repurposed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_House

CTListener said:
As a teenager, I used to listen to its comedy word game, Just a Minute, on shortwave. Its host then was Nicholas Parsons, who continued hosting the program, now on Radio 4, through last year. He died yesterday at the age of 96.
Click to expand...

I remember listening to Just A Minute as far back as the 1960's and 70's. Wonderful show with intelligent and witty panelists. R.I.P Nicholas Parsons, you will be missed. And I say that without hesitation, deviation, or repetition.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
Bush House is still there, and has been repurposed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_House
Click to expand...

I recall being inside Bush House some time ago while working for a client. That day, we were all joined by David Gilmore, guitarist of Pink Floyd. The thing I recall from that day (besides the obvious) was how old and massive the building was. It reminded me of the NY Municipal Building, which housed WNYC for many years. A very massive marble structure. I think at the time they talked about transitioning out of the building, into more modern facilities, with better wiring and internal communications. That happened about ten years ago.
 
CTListener said:
The deepest cuts apparently will be at the World Service, which is tailored to an audience outside the U.K., and Radio 5, which is a talk and sports service. I'm not sure how Radio 5 will be affected, however, as news isn't a huge part of its format. Maybe its sports staff will be decimated. One would think that the eclectic Radio 4, with its broad assortment of documentary, discussion and entertainment programs, all produced and voiced in-house, would be a more inviting target.
Click to expand...

OK, I would have to disagree that 'news isn't a huge part' of Five Live's format. It does rather more sport and showbiz than I would like, but news is still a big piece of the pie.

Will BBC Radio 4 experience cuts? I don't know, it seems to lead a charmed life, it was barely touched by the licence fee freeze of the early 2010s. And it *still* triplecates output on 198 LW, FM and DAB, despite the ancient longwave transmitter costing a fair bit to keep on air.

I have a feeling the World Service was chosen because a large portion of its audience is not paying a dime to the BBC, being in the English-speaking world outside the U.K. Being a treasured source of information and entertainment is all well and good, but that won't pay the bills should the license fee go away.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. The World service *is* available on DAB in the UK, but its ratings aren't particularly high.
 
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CTListener said:
The deepest cuts apparently will be at the World Service, which is tailored to an audience outside the U.K., and Radio 5, which is a talk and sports service. I'm not sure how Radio 5 will be affected, however, as news isn't a huge part of its format. Maybe its sports staff will be decimated. One would think that the eclectic Radio 4, with its broad assortment of documentary, discussion and entertainment programs, all produced and voiced in-house, would be a more inviting target.

I have a feeling the World Service was chosen because a large portion of its audience is not paying a dime to the BBC, being in the English-speaking world outside the U.K. Being a treasured source of information and entertainment is all well and good, but that won't pay the bills should the license fee go away.
Click to expand...

Your observations make a lot of sense. On the one hand the BBC World Service has been invaluable over the years as a source of news in countries where it was really the only free and fair option.

On the other hand nothing obligates British taxpayers to subsidize the distribution of news to the entire world.
 
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FreddyE1977 said:
On the other hand nothing obligates British taxpayers to subsidize the distribution of news to the entire world.
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Of course at one time, the sun never set on the British Empire. Those days are gone.

Meanwhile the US taxpayers do the exact same thing with something called the Voice of America.
 
TheBigA said:
Of course at one time, the sun never set on the British Empire. Those days are gone.
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Long gone. And even the cold war is 30 years gone now.

How much longer will the World Service last?

Personally I'd like to see the BBC launch a dedicated UK radio news channel, rather like an audio version of the BBC TV news channel (as mentioned above Radio 5 does too much showbiz and sport). This could be broadcast in the UK via DAB and also worldwide in a similar fashion to the World Service at the moment.

However replacing one radio station with another wouldn't in itself save much money.
 
TheBigA said:
Of course at one time, the sun never set on the British Empire. Those days are gone.

Meanwhile the US taxpayers do the exact same thing with something called the Voice of America.
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Not exactly. BBC was intended as a journalistic source and not more than that.
Voice of America was created to spread the American viewpoint into other parts of the world
(propaganda, if you will).

That served a strategic purpose during the Cold War. But the primary goals of the two
institutions are rather different.
 
BMR said:
How much longer will the World Service last?
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My expectation is it will last a long time. Most countries have similar international services, including Russia and China. But if the BBC can cut 450 employees, it's probably a bit overstaffed.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Voice of America was created to spread the American viewpoint into other parts of the world
(propaganda, if you will)
Click to expand...

That may be why it was created, but they see themselves very much in the style of the BBC.

Here's what they say: The charter contains its mission "to broadcast accurate, balanced, and comprehensive news and information to an international audience", and it defines the legally mandated standards in the VOA journalistic code.
 
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