Deborah's Skims

Whenever the BBC put staff together in a larger administrative group, I'm afraid it's because it's easier to cull more of them. 

BBC News CEO Deborah Turness has put together most of the former fiefdom of departing Digital Director Naja Nielsen under the sway of John Lucius McAndrew, Director of Programmes, who will henceforth be hailed as Director Live and Daily News. He will doubtless improve on his current £215k+, and probably need at least two deputies. 

Debs says "These changes move us beyond the digital/broadcast divide to become one editorial organisation". There are many who will say the digital/broadcast divide in News is as big as it was when she arrived in September 2022. And forget about that divide; there's a chasm between the cold-eyed warriors of News Content, and their planners and commissioners, and the people trying to make quality programmes of insight and engagement. 

John Lucius is a man who knows how to make programmes down to a price, from his time as an indie, consultant, and co-creator of GB News. He's already defining Newsnight Lite as a triumph, taking a low starting baseline when the programme was in turmoil ahead of the cuts. 

The rump of Naja's team will report to a new Director, BBC News Growth, Innovation and AI. Reading between the lines, their job will be to logjam TikTok, Instagram and X with a fatburger of machine-reversioned content.