BBC Global News and Channel M suffer restructuring, cutbacks

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on March 17, 2010 at 4:18 PM

Despite promising growth forecasts made by many in the industry, staffing cuts at news organizations big and small indicate that the news media industry is not yet out of the woods.

Today, Journalism.co.uk reported that BBC's Global News division is undergoing restructuring that will result in the elimination of a number of management positions. And smaller but still significant Channel M, the Manchester regional TV station owned by Guardian Media Group (GMG), will be losing 29 positions--a reduction of 88 percent.

The BBC will be losing a laundry list of high-level positions, including the directorial positions of BBC World News, BBC World Service and BBC World Service English.

Additionally, BBC Global News will lose its Controller of Future Media, Technology and Distribution, and Controller of Business and Development Strategy, as well as its Head of Governance and Public Affairs. To round out the list come the losses of BBC World News' Director of Digital Content and its Commercial Director.

Already, BBC employees are departing--Richard Sambrook, former director of Global News, announced his resignation in November, and director of BBC World Service Peter Horrocks announced that Mike Cronk, controller of Future Media, Technology and Distribution and Hugh Saxby, director of governance, will retire soon.

After GMG's sale of GMG Regional Media to Trinity Mirror, it has since been unable to find a suitable buyer for Channel M. The hyperlocal reporting station will now staff only 4 personnel and will broadcast only traffic information, networked news and archived video.

These losses underscore the fact that the shrinking of newsrooms that took place throughout 2009--including a reduction of 100 staff members from the New York Times newsroom and cuts in foreign correspondents made by the BBC around this time last year--has not yet ended.

In April of 2009, the American Society of News Editors reported that newsroom unemployment hit a 30-year high, and it seems that the expansion of digital news services has not done enough to break this trend.

The BBC layoffs will result in some positions created, though, which Horrocks hopes will allow staff "to simply get on with their jobs." Four of the new posts created will be a controller of digital and technology resources, a controller of languages, a controller of English, and a business director.

As newsrooms adapt to the changing media landscape, restructuring is likely to continue to occur. It is yet to be seen, though, how the final product will ultimately be affected by this widespread proliferation of newsroom layoffs.

Sources: Journalism.co.uk, Mediaweek, BBC News