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BBC News to close 450 posts as part of £80m savings drive

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Around 450 jobs will be cut from BBC News under plans to complete its £80m savings target by 2022.

There will be a reduction in the number of films produced by Newsnight, which will lead to post closures on the BBC Two programme.

There will also be job closures at BBC Radio 5 Live and the World Update programme on the World Service.

The job cuts announced on Wednesday include those previously announced at the Victoria Derbyshire programme.

BBC News currently employs around 6,000 people, including 1,700 outside the UK. Its budget after the changes come into effect will be around £480m per year.

The director of BBC News, Fran Unsworth, said: “The BBC has to face up to the changing way audiences are using us.

“We need to reshape BBC News for the next five to 10 years in a way which saves substantial amounts of money. We are spending too much of our resources on traditional linear broadcasting and not enough on digital.”

The corporation announced in 2016 that it needed to save £800m, with around £80m of that figure coming from News.

Just over £40m – around half – of the savings required in BBC News have already been found over the past four years.

The remaining savings will be found in large part by restructuring the newsroom to adopt a “story-led” model, which will see planned stories each rolled out across a greater number of programmes and outlets.

The BBC said this would avoid the duplication that occurs from several programmes putting resources into the same news stories.

However, the changes mean there will be a reduction in the overall number of stories covered.

The BBC announced in 2016 it needed to save £800m by 2020; BBC News was to provide £80m of those savings, and it is only half way.

The BBC is struggling to connect with many British people – especially those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds, and – even more so – those under 35.

The licence fee, which accounts for around 75% of the BBC’s revenue, is under unprecedented political and structural pressure.

These three facts have driven the changes announced today.

The first made pain inevitable; the second has determined the nature of the cuts announced; the third means the audience the BBC has in mind in making these changes isn’t just licence fee payers – it’s the inhabitants of 10 Downing Street.

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