The BBC has announced it plans to make 520 job cuts its news department, 70 more than it had originally planned at the beginning of the year.
The redundancies are separate to the 450 job cuts in the BBC’s regional news units announced last week.
The cuts are expected to hit the London newsroom as well as senior management posts.
Building on the lessons of operating during Covid-19, the BBC plans to use fewer studios and make significant reductions to operations staff.
Cuts will take place across the board including in commissioning, newsgathering, and business output.
Politics Live will increase its output from its usual Wednesday programme to four days a week from Monday to Thursday. The BBC will stop commissioning bespoke political programmes for its BBC Parliament show, and will instead “draw on our archive to broadcast our popular historical election coverage.”
Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, Fran Unsworth, said: “Covid-19 has changed all of our lives. We are still covering the most challenging story of our lifetimes. During this crisis audiences have turned to BBC News in their millions and I’m incredibly proud of what we, as a team, have been able to achieve.
“But if we don’t make changes, we won’t be sustainable. This crisis has led us to re-evaluate exactly how we operate as an organisation. And our operation has been underpinned by the principles we set out earlier this year – fewer stories, more targeted and with more impact. We’re aiming to reach everyone, every day. For BBC News to thrive, and for us to continue to serve all our audiences, we have to change.”
