Here we go again

2,000 more jobs to go - just how much more can the BBC cut?

Despite its many challenges, I still maintain that the BBC is the world’s greatest public service broadcaster. I would say that, of course, having had Auntie pay my way in the world for over a quarter of a century. Today’s announcement that up to 2,000 posts are being shed comes as no surprise. A decline in folk paying the Licence Fee, the financial pressures of pay which every employer faces, and a major shift in the broadcast/digital markets all add up to the inevitable.

Once again, I feel deeply for my former colleagues - the hard working journalists in BBC Local - who, for a third time in five years, now face a Summer of uncertainty and speculation about which posts will go. A familiar pattern has emerged - an all staff call in which the senior managers give so little information away that everyone is left in the dark, though some on the ground have told me that yesterday’s staff call was “better” than previous ones.

The interim Director General, Rhodri Talfan Davies, is reported to have said : “We have a funding model that… is reaching the end of sell-by date.” A typically brutal (and some might say unempathetic) assessment from the man that oversaw many of the previous cuts in the BBC’s Nations and Regions. The counter argument is to say at least he was being honest.

Boom Radio founder and broadcasting consultant David Lloyd previously disclosed a lengthy conversation in which Rhodri claimed that BBC had “run a very fair process” in relation to slashing the output of BBC Local Radio to fund new investment in digital. Many who lived through that process would not agree.

I first met Rhodri - virtually - on my fiftieth birthday. It was during lockdown, and it turned out that we had both marked the same milestone just a few weeks apart. We mused on how odd it was to be prevented from socialising and doing the big things we had each planned for our birthdays. He came across as a pleasant enough chap, and one who would actually listen to some of the many concerns I was bringing to him as a rep for the National Union of Journalists. Some of those concerns were related to quite senior figures, and he seemed to want to put things right.

But new managers have a habit of doing that; being nice before getting down to business. Soon, he was implementing the “digital first” policy championed by the DG Tim Davie. Yes, digital benefitted from a huge cash investment with new jobs and more output on the BBC’s Local pages. None of that’s a bad thing. But it came at a huge price, which may ultimately be part of the reason the BBC needs to cut more jobs now. Looking at what recent cuts have actually done, it is no surprise that sections of the audience have lost confidence in the Corporation.

Firstly, 450 jobs were cut in 2020/21. Some savings were more obvious than other to the audience, notably reducing the number of regional news anchors and ending double headed TV presentation. But others, like ending the valued Current Affairs strand Inside Out, were in my view deeply damaging. Not necessarily in audience terms, but in cultural terms. An important piece of journalism was removed and never fully replaced. It created a void in boots on the ground investigative content, which broke genuinely important stories, in some cases leading to changes in the law.

BBC Local had been slashed, and many thought that their part of the Corporation had done its bit towards financial savings. But then - with the dubious reason of “post Covid” being used, the management came for Local Radio. Most of the 39 stations in England lost their dedicated afternoon output and everything at the weekend - with the exception of sport - became regional or national. And yes, the “digital first” strategy did open up more jobs and content online, but it also took away the heart and soul, the unique selling point, of BBC Local’s offer; the personal connection with its audience.

Diverse and “hard to reach” communities who had so long come to the BBC for trusted local content were suddenly left with another void. The underserved (and lucrative) older audiences were abandoned, soon to be served by new upstarts like Boom. And rightly so - why would you ignore such a section of the listening public, who were historically more likely to support the BBC and its Licence Fee?

The big question is : what is there left to cut? As early as 2011 there were rumours of merging BBC Local Radio with Five Live - providing peak time opt outs for local speech led content, not dissimilar to the model used by the ABC in Australia. That was quickly dismissed, not least due to a vocal backlash by local editors and a significant amount of political lobbying; which MP would forgo the convenience of a regular appearance on their local radio station?

More recent speculation has been around making the current daytime (1000-1400) programmes regional, along similar lines to the current afternoon offer. But it’s hard to see how merging 39 individual shows would make much of a dent in the overall BBC savings of £500 million. There are already closer financial partnerships with Five Live; BBC Nations (which oversees Local) already produces its Up All Night programme from Glasgow and London - with fewer resources than had been the case when it was made in Salford.

Another strategic consideration is that of property; would people stomach “local” output if it came from a regional hub, with expensive buildings around the country being closed down? That may be unlikely since the BBC has recently invested in new leases in places like Cambridge, and is currently scoping new options for Bristol.

These are once again trying times for the BBC, and it’s hard to make the case for Local Radio when its audiences have steadily declined since the last round of cuts - though in staff emails, colleagues are always told the figures are “stabilising”. In some corners of the country, local - or at least less regional - output has been restored. There’ve been new weekend Breakfast Shows in the West Midlands and East of England, and a revived West Midlands sports programme on weekday evenings. You won’t hear the BBC heavily advertising this output, since much is dependent on short term funding, and a target for audience growth.

Perhaps a bigger danger is what will fill the void left by a slimmed down BBC? Disinformation is a massive issue in the digital world. The Government’s White Paper on the future of Public Service Broadcasting calls for greater efforts in delivering media literacy, teaching young people (and adults) how to safely navigate the digital world. The BBC is in a prime position to do just that, but with fewer resources these “nice to have” products are likely to be fewer and further between.

The void is already being filled by disruptors like GB News and Talk TV. While their overall audience figures may be small, their populist output chimes with sections of the audience, even though that output frequently displays partisan political views that the regulator Ofcom appears incapable or uninterested in addressing. A free market and free speech is all well and good, but it should be underpinned by legislation requiring impartial and factual reporting.

In the end, the continued uncertainty was enough for me. I managed my own decline and negotiated a voluntary redundancy at the end of 2025. Nice if you can get it, some will say. And yes, although the deal was satisfactory, I now have even less certainty of regular income in the freelance world. It’s a gamble, but one that has removed me from the daily internal politics that comes with being one of Auntie’s children.

I miss my old colleagues. I don’t miss the stress.