BBC Current Affairs to cut 31 jobs
The BBC is to cut 31 current affairs posts including some staff in Manchester.
The corporation today announced cuts to reporting, production and support based roles in London and Manchester. A BBC statement insisted the department would “continue to offer high quality documentaries and high-impact investigative journalism”.
The restructure will aim to increase flexibility in staff levels during production cycles, meaning a higher mix of full-time and contracted employees. It is expected that new short-term contracts would increase the overall range of skills available to producers and cut costs.
The department cuts follow the loss of 360 posts at BBC Online and 650 at BBC World Service.
Clive Edwards, commissioning editor of BBC TV current affairs, said: “We are committed to keeping on producing the very best programmes but to do that it’s crucial we implement this restructure. Because rates of production fluctuate it has become uneconomic to keep the current number of staff on full-time payroll and so the restructure will change our staffing mix.”
BBC TV has 139 hours of current affairs content planned for 2011/12 and around 300 hours scheduled for radio, remaining the biggest UK broadcaster of current affairs programming.