Jealousy

The BBC, as an agglomeration of warring baronies, can be obtuse.

It's looking like the end for the Victoria Derbyshire show. Midwives for its shaky birth were James Harding and Keith Blackmore, now departed. They upset the news old guard by finding funding part from News and part from BBC Daytime. It had way more resources than anything else on the News Channel, and thus was resented; it was better at being a newsy daytime show than a magazine-y news show, and opponents joyfully leaked early poor viewing figures. 

But over time, it discovered a range of great stories away from the traditional 'BBC News' agenda, and got even better at propagating them online. It's deservedly won awards, and regular pick-up in the press. Cut to an hour in the last year, it's sharper.

But, sadly, the BBC, when looking for cuts, treats new stuff with disdain. They've come several times for the Newsbeat strand - BBC Radio thought it had got too big for its boots and was doing too much 'video'; then the papers thought it was doing too much 'showbiz' online for their liking. The cuts ran in parallel with the disappearing under-35 audiences. 

I'm not a fan of continuous and permanent transparency, but it would be good to know the saving here, compared with, say, the cost per viewer of Newsnight, or the cost of the BBC Sounds launch events, or the cost of His Dark Materials, or the annual cost of Homes Under The Hammer.