The BBC is to cut a further two thousand jobs to make total savings of up to £221 million a year to re-invest in programmes. The New Media division will be one of the beneficiaries.
BBC New Media will lose 58 posts over the next three years, an 18% reduction in headcount, yielding total savings of £7.7 million.
However, New Media will benefit from a total £32 million in new investment to “develop platforms and navigation, on demand and two-way applications”, although new services will need to be piloted and tested for public value.
External suppliers could also benefit from the savings dividend, as the New Media division is publicly committed to working with third parties and outside agencies.
The cuts in content and output areas follow a 46% reduction in headcount in the BBC’s professional services. The BBC is also planning to spin off its Broadcast division, taking a further thousand staff off the payroll. In total nearly one in five jobs in the BBC public service will go through a combination of redundancy, turnover and outsourcing.
The cost-cutting programme announced by Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, has been presented as an attempt to ensure the future of the corporation. He told staff: “We need to free up money to start investing in our digital future, to end our current Charter in December 2006 on budget and to show we are serious about providing value for money.”