[interestednovice]

I know there has to be cuts, but I do think they are in danger of damaging the BBC News brand. 

Newsnight is going to be a shorter version of “the context” with (one hopes) more focus on UK content but basically another half hour of “experts” and “commentators” giving their opinions and arguing with other which in my mind is not news. I really really do not care what X, Y & Z think because 9/10 they don’t agree, if it’s anything political they blame the other side and it very rarely adds anything to my understanding of a news story. Id have argued a show which is focused on investigative journalism is exactly what the bbc needs at the moment and diverting money to that would be a good idea. They might as well just tag it onto the end of the news at 10 to discuss the stories. 

Extension to the news at one sounds ok in principle but I’d like to see how it’s going to be structured to make it distinct from any other hour on the news channel which I fear it could become. The bulletins at the moment are very structured and focused, I fear the news at one could become a rambling hour, slow paced and no focus. 

I cannot understand why they feel the need to move the news at one to Salford. It is nothing but a box ticking exercise. No one can ever tell you what it adds to the program. It will still be there presented by presenters who were based in London who will either relocate or travel up there, its not as if you’re going to suddenly have someone with northern accent presenting it! It’s presented in a studio, which will be branded to look the same as London so that will be no difference. 

What really annoys me most is they whole purpose of spending £1billion on new broadcasting house was to create a hub so that for the first time all the different teams, uk and world and language services were under one roof. We were told it was about sharing resources and expertise. It would drive costs down etc etc. Now a decade later after spending all that money they’re moving teams and bulletins out. Only last year, it’s been implied millions was spent on upgrading and redesigning studio b that’s now only seems to be used in future for news at six and news at ten and Laura K. Once in a blue moon it’s going to host election coverage but when you compare it to studio e which was in nearly constant use I don’t think it’s good value for money, especially at a time of cuts

My biggest bug bear of all is this talk of a digital BBC. It’s now becoming increasingly clear to me that the current BBC big wigs want to move the BBC to become online only. With trailers often only pointing people to iplayer, even down to the less than impressive ident packages for the uk channels when compared to their foreign counterparts eg BBC Nordic.

 Yes viewing figures are going down for traditional methods however they still make up a large part of how the BBCs audience access their content. As so often seems the case, the BBC have become obsessed about accessing the bbc digitally even if it isolates huge numbers of its current audience. We’ve seen it recently with Radio 2 with changing the line up to attract a younger audience. What ends up happening is the changes annoy large numbers of the BBCs loyal audience who begin to swap their loyaities who are never replaced by enough of the audience the bbc is chasing.

I will say that the live pages are good especially for things like the Covid inquiry however i think there is a place for a news channel which can provide that overview look of how a day is shaping up. 

There’s only one other thing which struck me. I will say this is coming from the “conspiracy theory part of my brain”. The creation of these groups of expertise would make it much easier to sell off departments if the bbc was to ever be privatised. More and more it seems multi-skilled teams are being replaced. 

Like I said I get cuts have to be made, doesn’t mean I have to like seeing the bbc news being weakened in the way it is.

I absolutely agree with all of this whole-heartedly. Especially with Salford totally being a box-ticking exercise, investment in NBH being under-utilised and management obsession with “digital BBC”.