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BBC Cuts 1,800 Jobs, Updates for Digital Age

Funding shortfall, shifting audience leads to restructuring

By Jim O'Neill,  Newser User

Posted Oct 18, 2007 5:41 PM CDT
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(Newser) – The BBC will cut 1,800 of its 18,000 jobs and integrate its TV, radio and Internet news operations to adapt to the digital age, the public broadcaster announced today.
As many as 2,500 positions may be lost, but others will be added, the BBC said, to reflect shifting audience habits. The Beeb will also pare by 10% its original television programming, improve online offerings and establish bbc.com to carry advertising to non-British users.

"Media is transforming, audiences are transforming. I care too much to see the BBC drift steadily into irrelevance," BBC Director General Mark Thompson told his staff, which is threatening a strike, Reuters reports.  Almost 4,000 jobs were cut in 2005, prompting a 24-hour walkout.

The BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation sign on their offices at White City in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. British Broadcasting Corp. employees threatened Wednesday to strike as the media giant's chief prepares to unveil his blueprint for how to streamline for the digital age with less moneya plan insiders say...
The BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation sign on their offices at White City in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. British Broadcasting Corp. employees threatened Wednesday to strike as the media giant's...   (Associated Press)
The BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation offices at White City in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. British Broadcasting Corp. employees threatened Wednesday to strike as the media giant's chief prepares to unveil his blueprint for how to streamline for the digital age with less money a plan insiders say includes a...
The BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation offices at White City in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. British Broadcasting Corp. employees threatened Wednesday to strike as the media giant's chief prepares...   (Associated Press)
A woman enters the British Broadcasting Corporation's Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007. The head of the BBC on Thursday announced a radical overhaul of the media giant that will cut its workforce by 1,800, reduce its number of programs and merge its radio, television...
A woman enters the British Broadcasting Corporation's Broadcasting House in Portland Place, London, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007. The head of the BBC on Thursday announced a radical overhaul of the media giant...   (Associated Press)
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BBC gets radical
Associated Press

BBC looks to the Web
Business Wire

Can "the Beeb" catch up?
Birmingham Post

 
television • layoffs • BBC • broadcasting • job cuts • Internet advertising

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