Munro bagging

First, a reminder that what we've been told so far represents just half of the cuts that BBC News has to make by the end of the financial year... 

BBC News interim boss Jonathan Munro said axing The World Tonight after 56 years was a "very difficult decision... it's excellent, it's a very, very strong journalistic offer. But we make another programme called Newshour, from the same newsroom... so we can make one programme for two audiences, which is obviously more efficient".  Yes, yes, Jonathan - so why not just merge most of R4 and the World Service in English ?

Yet the BBC's position on Charter Renewal is that it wants the Government/Foreign Office/Ministry of Defence to pay for all of the World Service from 2028.   Will they be able to 'claim back' for the 10pm slot on Radio 4; will they claim for the overnight bulletins that sustain Radio 2/5Live and Local ?

And here Munro on the future of the News Channel: "We're going to make it increasingly global in its focus, and that's because the audience for the News Channel is growing around the world, it grew in the last twelve months, it's not growing in the UK, and actually there's a revenue opportunity there with the News Channel outside the UK".  If I were Lisa Nandy, I'd want to see the books for this. And get an explanation of why the BBC seeks continued public funding while ceding UK audiences to the growing GB News.