THE BBC has made cut backs to a legendary show in a desperate bid to save cash – but it’s good news for Breakfast fans.
The Corporation has been tasked with finding £500m in savings as a result of a two-year freeze on the price of a TV licence.
It has already made changes to BBC News, merging its International and UK news channels earlier this year.
Now, it has revealed that Newsnight will face a number of cuts and changes.
These include 10 minutes being taken off its runtime and over half of its staff members being let go from their roles.
Its investigative films will also be axed, with the focus switching to studio-based debates instead.
There are currently 57 members of the Newsnight team and that will be cut to 23.
BBC News and Current Affairs CEO Deborah Turness said: “When we started work on this announcement, I did not know if it would make financial sense to keep Newsnight on air.
“We, like many other news organisations, have streamlined our editorial teams to avoid duplication.
“It simply no longer makes sense to keep a bespoke reporting team dedicated to a single news programme with a small and declining audience, however good that programme is.”
However, she said audiences found Newsnight to be an “important BBC brand” and added: “So we’ve made the decision to reformat Newsnight as a 30 minute late-night news-making debate, discussion and interview programme.”
The news comes weeks after Newsnight’s editor Stewart Maclean quit for a new role as BBC World News Content’s African bureau chief.
Meanwhile, the BBC News at One bulletin will be extended to an hour and broadcast from Salford, the first time a a daily BBC national news bulletin will be broadcast from outside London.
The news team at Salford will also be boosted by the fact BBC Breakfast will be extended for an extra 15 minutes daily, meaning it will air from 6am to 9.30am.
There will be an extra £5m for digital initiatives, and Turness said it would be for “streaming, boosting online journalism around the clock, and making sure that the best of our in-depth, thought-provoking, and analytical journalism is much easier to find online”.
