BBC News is braced for a major round of job cuts to be announced within days, as the corporation embarks on a brutal cost-saving drive aimed at saving £500 million over the next three years. All departments will be affected, but the biggest cuts are expected in news, with job losses likely to run into the hundreds.
The cuts could be revealed as early as Wednesday, with staff already warned to expect a high number of redundancies. The new BBC director general, Matt Brittin, has indicated he prefers decisive cuts rather than a 'salami slicing' approach, suggesting entire services or programmes may be axed.
BBC News employs about a quarter of the corporation’s 21,500 employees. During a video meeting last month, staff were told to expect significantly deeper cuts than the 10% pan-BBC target. Richard Burgess, the director of news and content, told staff that 'most of our savings are people' and that the cuts would amount to 15% of the news department's income.
In an email to staff in April, the BBC’s deputy director general, Rhodri Talfan Davies, said the corporation needed to save an additional £500 million from annual operating costs of £5 billion over the next two years, with job numbers expected to fall by up to 2,000.
Philippa Childs, head of the Bectu union, emphasised the need for a sustainable funding model, stating that 'in the era of fake news, high-quality independent news programming is even more important'. The cuts come as BBC leaders negotiate with ministers over the corporation’s future funding and the renewal of its royal charter.
