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Squeaky bum Monday approaches for BBC staff in "online".  Cuts of 25% in sites have been in gestation since the strategy leaked out nearly a year ago.  Insiders have seen a sort of web version of Pompeii created, with some sites petrified where they lie; others stagger on with old templates and breathing difficulties, and must be suspicious that they are not for the future. 

Who will express the new strategy ?  Neil Midgley of the Telepgraph thinks both Mark Thompson and the departing Erik Huggers will do the talking. Neil guesses at 350 post closures, 150 currently unfilled. He thinks BBC Local will be one victim.  I suspect it'll be the sort of local history stuff that will go ("Your Memories of World War II" etc, much lauded before the Byford Gap appeared), as sites retreat to a core of news, sport and weather which might be auto-generated from existing content.  Sites that seek to entertain, without being partnered with current tv and radio output, will have to go. But which "skyscraper" sites will remain ?

Meanwhile in News, the annual invitation to consider an exit has gone out to staff, this time emphasising that if over-55s go before April 6, there's a more generous pension arrangement on offer.  It's signed by my old boss, Steve Mitchell, now entering his 62nd year.  His boss, Helen Boaden, will be 55 on March 1st.   On past form, neither will seek a deal.