Tightening

From a distance, James Harding's package of BBC News cuts poses more questions than it answers - and will be tough to take, for many staff. Here are some oddities, which I'll try to iron out with better information later.

415 post closures - yet 500 staff affected. Seems to hit part-timers and job sharers disproportionately - and those are the roles that keep the gender balance in better nick in BBC news teams.

195 posts created - but Mr Harding can't say what they'll be yet. So whilst there may be chances to re-settle and re-apply, staff at risk of redundancy can take no immediate comfort - and there's little point in netting down the overall effect to 220 job closures.

6 of the post closures are, apparently, senior management. The staff will be feverishly trying to work out who they are. In the new structure, we have Newsgathering (Munro) Political Programmes (English) Current Affairs (Gray) World Service Group (Horrocks) English Regions (Holdsworth) 24/7 (Presumably Mary Hockaday) and Daily News Programmes (Presumably Ceri Thomas once he's finished with Panorama). So no big name goes. The re-structuring is set to be complete by mid-October, so disturbed villa holidays ahead for some unidentified middle managers as they prepare to apply for their own jobs.

Panorama loses its staff reporters - many are already freelancers, hired by indies or regional producers, or staff nicked from other departments. But I suspect The Exploding Tomato won't be a quiet casualty.

More investment in Newsnight, which will have an entertaining impact on its cost per viewer.

More joint programming on BBC World and the BBC News Channel. In the old days, the charge was that BBC News was cross-subsidising the international effort - it can't be long before it's the other way around.

More money for World Service next year - £5m  - but clearly funds are not being directed at retaining a dedicated specialist team writing its English news; they are to be merged with domestic writers, under a single radio news editor.  Overall, the multi-media newsroom, as was, loses a staggering 91 posts, whilst 53.5 go in newsgathering.