21-02-2024, 02:33 AM
(21-02-2024, 01:04 AM)Stuart Wrote: I'm confused about 'money saving policies' at BBC News.
Tonight we had a report on the Ten live from Plymouth about a UXB being found which required the evacuation of 100s of people. Good reporting by Jenny Kumah labelled as 'South West of England Correspondent'.
20 minutes later I get an updated report on Spotlight live from Plymouth, from exactly the same location in the same street, but from the local reporter Janine Jansen who explained clearly that she had been there all day.
Why the duplication? What money was saved by having two reporters? Janine Jansen is a regular reporter and also stand in presenter for the main bulletins. Why could she not do the report for the Ten?
I didn't see the BBC reports, so I'd assume the respective reporters did packages and lives for both evening and late bulletins for National and Regional respectively. That's quite a lot of work.
Both reporters are based in Plymouth and are staff, so the incremental cost of using them both is small. The only potential waste is with the live facilities and crew, depending of the shift and staff status
I'd be the first to be criticising BBC waste, but I don't think this is the case here. I'd be more concerned a third journalist worked on the online story, the online coverage being poor.
BBC Waste is more what you can’t see, while the output of one if the UKs top performing regional news shows and a major network bulletin may have cost a few £ hundred more, the BBC would blow £100 thousand on low audience BBC Sounds shows and 75+ marketing and strategy workers and managers dedicated to such low reach Sounds things.