News

Here's some of the changes revealed by Helen Boaden, Director of News at the BBC.  Over the next five years there'll be a net loss of 550 to 650 jobs - reflecting a net cut in budget of 13%.  It looks like the big hit is local radio in England, with an average of 6 jobs to go at each station over the next two years. It some, it's more. 11 posts at Radio Leeds, 11 at Radio WM, 8 at Hereford and Worcestershire, seven at Coventry and Warwickshire.  There'll be shared programming in clusters in the afternoons, and right across England in the evening. Football commentaries will stay - but be shared. (This will hurt audiences).  Medium wave transmitters will be switched off, where they overlap with FM.

The News channel loses its business slots, and there'll be more single presentation. However, reporters and correspondents with breaking stories will go to the channel first (after texting a brief version of their scoop-ettes) rather than Five Live.  And, it seems, Five Live Breakfast goes further down the list - Today steps up in priority.   Five Live takes a 7.5% hit in its programme budget over the next five years, a nice parting gift as it heads to Salford.

Newsgathering abroad will manage both licence-fee funded staff and World Service reporting staff. And there'll be reductions in the number of correspondents in the longer-term, as new hires will need to have perfect English. 17 sponsored reporter (stringer) posts will close, as will the Colombo bureau.

Andrew Neil will present a "Sunday Politics" show from January, replacing the regional Politics Shows - but there'll still be a slot for one regional big interview.