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BBC Monitoring service to lose nearly 100 jobs


A © JEFFREY BLACKLER / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


lmost 100 jobs are to be cut at the BBC Monitoring service in Caversham, Berkshire.


Staff were told that BBC Monitoring had


been set a tough savings target of £4 million, which had to be achieved by April 2017. Nearly one in three posts in the editorial and


related support teams will be closed, with a net loss of 98, as posts will be created. Monitoring’s overseas offices have had staffing cut by about 20 per cent; 40 per cent of staff in the UK face dismissal. The BBC said Monitoring would move out of


Caversham Park, its base since 1943, to London. IT and other non-editorial teams will face cuts once the editorial operation shrinks. BBC Monitoring surveys the world’s


broadcast and print media, selecting and translating reports from 150 countries in 100 languages. Its consumers include government bodies, commercial organisations, NGOs, other media organisations and the BBC. Monitoring was paid for by government bodies and the BBC until 2013, when the BBC took it into the licence fee under a 2010 deal. There were deep funding cuts and job losses in 2006, followed by redundancies in 2011. This latest contraction effectively means the end of


its ability to keep a constant, global watch. Stuart Seaman, NUJ father of chapel at BBC


Monitoring, said: “This is a classic case of knowing the cost but not the value. Users have always praised our reporting on other countries through their media. But, all too often, our paymasters have seen Monitoring as an easy target for savings. The world is an increasingly difficult place and we need to not only know what is happening but also make


“ M S


GRADING STRIKE AT PARLIAMENT CHANNEL The strike follows a


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Ps and peers were lobbied about the treatment of BBC


journalists working on the Parliament Channel during a one-day strike in June. Staff at the channel handed out leaflets outside


the London Millbank studios during a 24-hour strike over pay grading levels. The strike ballot had a 100


per cent turnout and 100 per cent vote in favour of action where union membership was at 100 per cent.


prolonged period during which staff raised the pay grade disparity issue with managers.


The majority of those who


produce content for BBC Parliament are broadcast


assistants – grade 5 within the BBC’s structure – compared with colleagues at the BBC News Channel and BBC World, who are grade 7 broadcast journalists, although they do the same work.


Walk-out at World News over rota changes


taff at BBC World News walked out for 24 hours over rota changes that will require them to work more hours. Many at the station work unsocial, irregular and night shifts. There is a


longstanding agreement that allows flexible hours, in an acknowledgment of the health risks of unsocial shifts and working late. The BBC now wants to cut costs by imposing new rosters. The BBC decision ignored an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive into


conditions at BBC World News, which reported staff working “excessive hours”. David Campanale, father of chapel of BBC World News, said: “We care about the quality of our output and these roster changes will mean many of us working substantially more hours, putting our health at risk.”


CYBERSTOCK / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO theJournalist | 5


Staff were told that BBC Monitoring had been set a tough savings target of £4 million which had to be achieved by April 2017


in brief...


AUDIT OFFICE PRAISE FOR WORLD SERVICE The National Audit Office has praised the work of the BBC’s World Service. It said that the service reached, on average, 246 million people around the world each week with impartial and independent news and current affairs. It said that it had reduced its annual expenditure by £46.8 million by 2014-15.


SIR CLIFF CAMPAIGNS FOR ANONYMITY LAW Sir Cliff Richard, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini and Conservative MP Nigel Evans have joined together to campaign for a change in the law that allows people accused of sexual offences to be named publicly. All three men were accused of such offences before the cases against them were dropped. The three also want to set up a support group for those who have been wrongly accused.


NEWS CORP BUYS WIRELESS GROUP News Corp, the owner of The Times and The Sun, is buying Wireless Group, the owner of TalkSport, for £220 million.The radio business was originally founded by Kelvin MacKenzie, former editor of The Sun and a current columnist on the paper, who sold it to UTV in 2005 for £98 million.


NEW TRINITY MIRROR REGIONAL CHIEFS Trinity Mirror has appointed the Evening Gazette’s George Oliver as editor of the Leicester Mercury. Oliver was executive editor at the Gazette in Teesside. The publisher has also appointed David Bartlett, executive editor of the Liverpool Echo, as editor-in-chief of the Cambridge News


EX CHRONICLE EDITOR TAKES OVER AT BQ Paul Robertson, an editor of the Newcastle Chronicle who left his role five years ago to set up a media consultancy, is to run a regional business magazine. He has become the editor of the North East and Cumbria edition of the business magazine, BQ.


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