I know full well that I’ll annoy some people with that phrase; if you’re starting out in your career, freelancing may be the only way to try and get a toe on the ladder towards the Holy Grail of a staff job. But for folk like me, who have enjoyed the security of a salary for decades, going solo was my choice. I’m exceptionally fortunate to have taken a voluntary redundancy package that allowed me to break free.

But blimey, getting a gig is an uphill process. And it doesn’t help that the BBC has decided to close one of its freelance doors this week. The Talent Cloud, set up a few years ago, was a place where you could register your personal details, along with your skills and the types of jobs you were qualified to do. Using myself as an example, I would list radio newsreading and reporting, presentation and online writing.

The theory was that the Talent Cloud would allow any manager in the BBC to hire the right person for the job, acknowledging that many freelances have a portfolio of skills that could overlap different parts of the organisation. Had my mind fancied it, I could have also registered as a runner for Garden Rescue (or at least a broad range of location based productions).

But last week, all freelancers registered with the Talent Cloud have been told it is being “retired”, and so far there is no like for like replacement. None of this surprises me, because for years the BBC has been trying to solve the complex issue of what it calls “the extended workforce”.

The main issue is scale and scope. The BBC has over eight hundred job titles, covering the huge range of tasks required to produce thousands of hours of broadcasting output, digital and online content and, of course, the array of technical gubbins that goes with a massive communications infrastructure.

As the Nations and Regions rep for the National Union of Journalists, I sat through hours of presentations from senior managers who were trying to document this army of workers and map it out into some form of logical process, whereby everyone would be paid a fair rate for the job. After almost two years of undocumented behind the scenes activity, the most senior of those managers came back to the Unions to say that no actual plans had been drawn up. The Union reps were flabbergasted, but ultimately not surprised.

That’s the biggest sticking point. There is no such thing as a fair rate for the job, or at least one that everyone can agree on. The NUJ’s London Freelance Branch ambitiously has an online tool where various day rates and word count rates are shown for all kinds of media outlets. But it relies on self-reporting, with many of the figures hopelessly out of date.

Even in a relatively small, definable section of the BBC there is often little or no consistency. A Nations and Regions Journalist (with a capital J, BBC Grade C) can earn one of two day rates for an eight hour shift - the higher one paid for the more experienced. But those rates have barely changed in the past decade. And where they have increased, this has happened through arbitrary decisions in individual departments. The Unions’ collective bargaining rights do not exist for the “extended workforce.”

For the BBC’s part, I know from experience that every single department is always trying to cut its freelance spend, but often hopelessly fails. Last year, Nations and Regions cut a number of staff weather presenter jobs and insisted that many who were working four ten hour days would move to five eight hour days. The Unions were categorically told there would be “no freelance budget”. Months on, the remaining staff are run off their feet, with many working extra hours just to ensure each English region gets its weather forecasts. The outlook is indeed gloomy.

So now a new review is in progress, codenamed Project Kodiak. I never did find out why it was named after an Alaskan grizzly bear, and it would be entirely wrong to suggest it related to any individual involved in the process. What I do know is that after a further eighteen months we were no closer to getting a plan of action. In an ideal world, the solution would be a published Rate Card, clearly setting out daily and weekly fees for any given task. Another side of freelancing is those who are hired for fixed term projects, which again need to be quantified in terms of worth.

In the meantime, freelancers have been informed that the Talent Cloud is “being retired” while the BBC decides on a replacement. Anyone on the existing system can register an interest to be included on the new one, but the whole timing leaves a huge void. My own suspicion is that few BBC managers were actively using the Talent Cloud; I certainly had no bookings from it. It’s entirely possible that money was spent on a system that few knew about.

The standard email sent out this week suggests we look for work via a third party website where opportunities are posted, or to check the BBC Careers website. Of course, with more massive cuts looming the number of opportunities may become increasingly limited.

None of this is unique to the BBC. Many big outlets know the freelancers need the shifts, and are often more flexible than their own in house staff. Pay in the broadcast news sector is annoyingly stagnant. But after years of debate, the BBC really does need to come up with a solution that matches talent with a fair and equitable rate for the job, and do so quickly.

With many universities now cutting Journalism courses, broadcast risks a skills shortage; one that can only be met by experienced journalists who can master the tasks required to keep high quality, trusted news content.

Kevin Stanley is a former BBC staff journalist who now specialises in communications, content and coaching

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• Cuts to journalism education

• Why it still matters

• The connection to Local TV

• Notts TV and Nottingham Trent University

• NTU’s decision to close Notts TV

• What’s next for the sector?

The best and worst of times

I am often asked by students “do I need a Journalism degree to get into the industry” I usually answer with a slight sense of guilt, because I am, strictly speaking, not a qualified journalist. My own degree was in Communications - where I applied for a course at the Dorset Institute of Higher Education, attended Bournemouth Polytechnic and graduated from Bournemouth University. Naming conventions aside, there were very few Journalism degrees around in the early 1990s - though annoyingly, Bournemouth did introduce its renowned Multi Media Journalism course just as I was about to leave.

In the years that followed, Journalism degrees and post graduate courses boomed. It was a good time for the industry as a whole, with deregulation increasing the overall number of broadcast outlets, most of whom had to provide some kind of news service, often serving small towns and cities or wider regional patches.

So it was sad to read last week that Nottingham Trent University is to end its postgraduate Magazine and Broadcast Journalism MA courses, merging them into a single “Journalism” genre. While this will still be accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), it will no longer be endorsed by its broadcast equivalent, the BCJT.

NTU’s Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism

Why does this matter - the legacy media is a dying breed, right?

It’s certainly the case that technology has changed the way news is distributed and consumed, but that is precisely why we still need factual, trustworthy news and the skills that are required to create it. Nottingham Trent was often seen as a pioneer, continuously reshaping the curriculum and offering new courses. With a certain level of irony, the National Union of Journalists censured NTU after investigating its Investigative Journalism MA, after students complained about the quality of teaching. Refunds of course fees were issued and it never ran again.

However, this was a relatively minor footnote in an otherwise brilliant reputation. NTU’s students were among the best I’ve ever seen in my own newsroom during work experience sessions, and that’s because they were taught by the best. Importantly, they were also taught the specialist skills required for broadcast news, which is an artform in itself. Scriptwriting is entirely different to that for digital platforms, presentation and delivery have to be learned, as does the array of technical equipment and software.

That’s why it’s sad, if not puzzling, that NTU has decided to pull the plug on its Broadcast Journalism MA. Although it is not all that surprising after decisions taken in the last couple of years.

Jeremy Hunt’s personal train set

“Why,” asks the Culture Secretary, “Does a city like Birmingham, Alabama have fifty TV stations yet Birmingham in the UK has none”? Jeremy Hunt’s question raised a few eyebrows as he set out ambitious plans for a network of Local TV stations across the country. Technically speaking - and I use a non technical term here - he was talking bollocks.

TV in the US had grown from a system embedded in local stations affiliated to the national networks. It was also a question of scale; the American model was connected to the challenge of sending signals over hundreds and thousands of miles - local affiliates were able to hyper serve relatively small communities, backed by an abundance of local advertising.

But Hunt was determined to launch his own train set, or TV network. Local TV would be initially funded by skimming the BBC Licence Fee to meet the start up costs, and this funding would be slowly removed, meaning the stations would need to be self funding. In Nottingham, the result was Notts TV - an ambitious consortium made up of (among others) Reach PLC (owners of the Nottingham Post) and Confetti, a creative further education college.

Notts TV’s studio

Work experience on steroids

Notts TV went on the air in 2014, with an impressive schedule of hyper local content. There was a whole hour of local news each day (repeated twice), programmes about music, the arts, gardening - all intially paid for by the BBC Licence Fee. A year later, Nottingham Trent University bought a controlling interest in Confetti, meaning it had a real life TV station for its students to work on.

Most universities doing broadcasting degrees have a mock TV or radio channel to provide an authentic experience, complete with real deadlines and (occasionally) visiting journalists barking orders at them as would happen in real life. But Notts TV was on the air - via Freeview and Virgin - to a small but real audience. It brought to life the skills of presentation, editing, voiceovers and packaging that other students could only practice doing.

But without the BBC funding, Notts TV, along with its counterparts across the country, had to find its own way. Distribution was a huge expense, and in time it was dropped from Virgin’s platform. Many other Local TV stations more or less dropped their local content, some closed, while others were acquired by companies including That’s TV.

Frances Finn (centre) presents the Channel 8 Debate on Notts TV

You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone

Despite all of its challenges, Notts TV continued with its local news programming, helped with the input of students. But the writing was on the wall, and in early 2025 NTU announced that it would not be applying for the renewal of the channel’s licence. While students were gaining valuable real life experience, it said the numbers were not enough.

Yet those aren’t the only numbers of interest. Like many local stations, Notts TV had faced tough financial challenges. But its last accounts published in March this year showed a small profit after tax. To many observers, the decision to close Notts TV was an odd one. The National Union of Journalists was told that this was done with no consultation with the Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism, and the union has since tried to seek clarity with NTU’s management.

In May 2025, the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson announced cuts to funding for journalism education. Again, the NUJ has backed a campaign by the NCTJ to rethink that decision. It is, therefore, not all that surprising that post graduate courses are the first to feel the squeeze.

The wider picture that nobody’s seeing

It’s easy for any Government to say that “the arts” (of which Journalism is one) matter less than what many politicians call “proper subjects”. And yes, science, technology and AI are all important to prepare the next generation of our workforce. Yet this risks missing perhaps the most important threat right now. Disinformation.

We know that the world is facing a huge issue with bad actors and rogue states who seek to disrupt and divide. Some are right on our doorsteps, others may be thousands of miles away - a good number are robots. The Government and Ofcom have both said that broadcasters have an enormous part to play in tackling disinformation. In a policy submission to the British Broadcasting Challenge, I suggested that a new Media Literacy Trust - funded by broadcasters and online providers - could provide a framework for this.

And perhaps this threat is best tackled early on - in our school curriculum and, yes in bespoke journalism education. The MA Broadcast Journalism could easily be modified into a new offer, reflecting the evolved digital landscape. It could embrace today’s online threats while also teaching those vital legacy skills of TV and audio production.

It doesn’t need to be a case of either/or. And Journalism matters more now than ever before.

Kevin Stanley is a former BBC journalist who now specialises in communications, content and coaching.

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“I wasn’t allowed to have opinions when I was Chair of Ofcom but I’m free of the shackles!” he enthused. Well, I personally know how good that feels, but the way he expressed one of those opinions left a nasty taste in my mouth. In a discussion on where the BBC might save money, Grade said :

“You go around the BBC through the Nations and Regions and you see these palaces they occupy around the place, there’s an awful lot of money slopping about inside the BBC.”

Ahh yes, the wasteful BBC. An easy line to push out, but one that is demonstrably untrue. Few colleagues based in Tunbridge Wells, for example, would recognise the characterisation of “BBC palaces”. As the NUJ Rep for the Nations and Regions I made a number of trips to Kent, and the only things the BBC South East building had in common with a palace was an abundance of crumbling walls, leaks in all the wrong places and a lack of initiative by the landlords to do anything about it.

I should say that things did eventually get a bit better. But the ironically named Great Hall, in which the BBC is housed, still leaves much to be desired. The issue was not the fault of local management, or indeed senior management in Nations, but a frustrating back and forth between the facilities management company and the owners of the historic building. My former colleagues there are rightly disgusted at Tunbridge Wells.

My own “home” BBC base, Nottingham, has never been entirely waterproof. Three years ago, I came in at 6am for a newsreading shift on Christmas Day - the only person in the building - to find a full sized bin (like a household waste one) almost full of water from the leaking roof. I could have followed protocol and called out someone from facilities in Salford, but it was easier to haul said bin into the lift and empty it down the drain outside. (I later filled out the relevant form). On the same weekend, I placed a crate usually reserved for broken headphones below a the urinal in the Gents that would frequently created an unwanted paddling pool on the floor.

Perhaps Lord Grade was thinking of BBC Newcastle, literally dubbed The Pink Palace due to its colourful exterior cladding. Hardly palatial, it was opened almost 40 years ago, and houses nor only Radio Newcastle, BBC online and BBC North East TV, but also a substantial tech development department.

Its interior was not quite as grotty as Tunbridge Wells, but last year had a much needed makeover. I recall sitting in a radio studio there in around 2008. It had been upgraded to the now-obsolete Radioman digital system, but its mixing desk was still an old “Mark 3” with faders that opened downwards instead of upwards. Additional computer monitors and screens had been bolted on at various times in its long life, looking more like a radio ham’s shed than a professional broadcasting facility.

It is fair to say that the BBC does have a number of modern, even futuristic buildings. You cannot fail to be impressed by the size of the relatively new Central Square in Cardiff, which replace the ageing facilities in Llandaff. Real thought has gone into the layout of the building, And yes, lots of public money went into it - £120 million to be precise. However, that investment is designed for up to 1,000 staff.

It would be wrong to dismiss Lord Grade’s wider assessment of what he sees as waste at the BBC.

“If you’re at a policy level, you go to a meeting and twelve people turn up. Then you have another meeting in three months time where a different twelve people turn up for the same issue. My son’s in TV he’s a freelance sports producer. He can run a live broadcast from a laptop on his kitchen table.”

He does have a point, especially on the matter of meetings. My NUJ role was to attend many of these meetings (though often remotely) and some of it was like a real life episode of W1A. However, I was representing over 1,000 members across the Nations and Regions and a quarterly cycle of meetings with management was absolutely necessary to hold them to account.

On this issue of remote working yes, it can be done - but not always. During the pandemic many presenters found themselves broadcasting from home (often because they or a family member had Covid) but the infrastructure wasn’t entirely suited to doing this long term. Complex speech programmes require a studio producer, for example, and an assisstant to deal with phone calls and social media.

I did sit in a number of meetings with very senior managers, who would often say they needed to take “a close look” at the BBC’s property portfolio and see where money could be saved. A new HQ in Belfast was eventually ruled out on the grounds of cost, the large centre in Cambridge was closed when it lost it’s local TV output and a smaller, cheaper location was found.

There is no doubt that technology enables lots of remote working. But it also sucks the lifeblood out of the creative industries. With rose tinted specs, I fondly remember walking into a newsroom buzzing with life. Journalists and Editors would loudly argue the case for and against covering a story. If you got stuck with an idea, you’d share it with a colleague and come up with a solution. And yes, all of this was done while dodging the rain coming through a leaking roof right over the central technical area.

There is a more fundamental point here about the BBC’s public purpose. I don’t buy the slick TV promos that boast a programme is “Made of Here”. If the BBC is to truly reflect every corner of the Nations and Regions it needs to maintain that physical presence in the heart of its communities. In an experiment a few years ago, the BBC did run Radio Wolverhampton from its studios in Birmingham - but it would be ludicrous if what little local output remains at Radio Devon, for example, was broadcast from Bristol. And if you’re making a commitment to Local Radio, you still need a building in that local area.

And very few could be described as palaces.

Kevin Stanley is a former BBC journalist who now specialises in communications, content and coaching.

© 2026 Kevin Stanley