EXCLUSIVE: BBC News Boss Deborah Turness is getting ready to deal with hundreds of her employees tomorrow to “share her new strategy for taking BBC News and Current Affairs into the future” amidst across-the-board cuts and difficult questions.
According to an inner e-mail, seen by Deadline, the circa-3,500 BBC News employees are being urged to attend the technique meet tomorrow at 10.30 a.m. GMT (2.30 a.m. PST) as it’ll “very much shape the way we all work going forward.”
“You will have received your invitation to an All News call next Thursday 15 December at 1030 GMT, where our CEO Deborah Turness will share her new strategy for taking BBC News and Current Affairs into the future,” mentioned the e-mail.
The handle would be the second main technique speak delivered by former NBC International President Turness since becoming a member of in September – having used her first to name for transparency in “turbulent and divisive times” – and it comes at a time of strife for a division compelled into financial savings of £80M ($99M) by the UK authorities.
This week, the BBC formally confirmed plans put ahead in October to make round 380 World Service roles redundant – roughly 16% – because it strikes to a digital-first mannequin. They will likely be enacted over the approaching months and certain be accomplished by the beginning of the following monetary 12 months.
Negotiations over these plans have been happening over the previous weeks, partly over the choice to ask London groups overlaying areas akin to Thailand, Korea, Vietnam and India to relocate to their respective areas.
A string of job adverts have been uploaded earlier this week for roles in these nations however reporters have raised considerations that the transfer particularly to Vietnam and Thailand poses risks to press freedom. Most of the BBC’s Vietnamese-language employees, for instance, have beforehand operated out of London because of the oppression of press freedom in Vietnam, and these journalists will likely be required to be primarily based in Bangkok.
Sources indicated to Deadline the plans have been a trigger for continued concern all through the previous weeks.
In a set piece speech delivered externally final week, Director General Tim Davie mentioned the BBC “needs more money to support the World Service to further aid cuts and will be discussing this with the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.”
Turness, who joined the BBC from ITN in September, will doubtless face difficult questions on this together with extra swingeing government-imposed cuts to native information which are incoming.
Local radio was the newest to be hit, with 48 redundancies introduced because the staff can also be introduced throughout the digital-led technique. For each the World Service and native radio, applications are set to shut and merge.
Despite the UK authorities successfully forcing these cuts upon the BBC, new UK tradition secretary Michelle Donelan criticized the BBC final week for failing to transient the federal government upfront. She referred to as on the BBC to “work constructively” with the Conservatives when planning mass redundancies.
Meanwhile, the much-criticized merger of the Domestic and International information channel is presently being pushed by way of and is one other fixed speaking level throughout the division, sources mentioned.
All of those points breed a tricky atmosphere for Turness, who has solely been in put up for 3 months however will likely be seeking to reassure hundreds of employees that she has the scenario underneath management, lots of whom could also be about to lose their jobs.
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