EXCLUSIVE: BBC News has started the year with a sober reminder for staff: money will be tight.
Jonathan Munro, BBC News’ deputy CEO and director of journalism, emailed colleagues on Wednesday to warn that significant funding has already been committed to elections, wars, and major sports events.
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The news bonanza, coupled with the BBC’s need to find an additional £90M ($113M) in savings on top of ongoing content cuts, means that BBC News will have to be judicious in its spending.
Munro said: “Undoubtedly more of our cash is earmarked up front than in any year in recent times … We are going to need some patience. We won’t be able to back every idea or service every request. The bar for discretionary spending will have to rise, at least for the next 12 months.”
In the message, seen by Deadline, he added: “Every pound, dollar or rupee we spend has got to contribute to the heavy lifting which is needed throughout the year. Let’s not get disheartened by that – it’s simple housekeeping.”
One insider summed up the email like this: “I think this means BBC News is skint.”
BBC News is in the process of making its latest round of content cuts under a £7.5M ($9.5M) savings plan. Newsnight has been hit hard by the cuts, with plans to strip the flagship current affairs show of its original reporting and shorten its episodes.
Insiders feel ground down by the cuts and there is a feeling that BBC News is in perpetual contraction. “It never ends,” said one source. “You get through it [a round of cuts] and then [it] starts all over again.”
Munro remained upbeat, saying that the 2024 news cycle will “play to our strengths.” He pointed to the BBC’s emphasis on verification at a time when potentially overlapping elections in the UK and U.S. could flood social media feeds with misinformation and disinformation.
Jonathan Munro’s Full Email:
Happy New Year everyone
I thought I’d drop an early note into your inbox as we start a very busy news year. The wall chart of news events in 2024 is already heavily coloured in – which presents us with lots of opportunities, a fair few challenges and a significant amount of work to do.
Voting everywhere
Elections come round in all democracies, but never have the timings aligned like they do this year. Some statisticians reckon half the world’s adults will vote in national polls, or their equivalents, in 2024. That’s a lot of counting.
India – the world’s biggest democracy, the United States, Indonesia, Venezuela and South Africa are all definitely voting. Pakistan, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and even the Solomon Islands are also scheduled. And there are more. Plus, if Britain’s election is called, it’ll be the first time since 1992 that it’s been in the same year as the US Presidentials (Conservative win here, Democrat win there); if the UK’s election is in the autumn, it would be the first time since 1964 that the campaigns have overlapped (Labour here, Democrat there).
So that potential overlap is something we’ll all be dealing with for the first time. An emergency resupply of live pages will be needed.
Also on the wall chart
It’s not just elections. 2024 is a year of other major events – the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris are sure to be of huge interest, as are the European Football Championships in Germany, where we know already that England and Scotland will play – the Scots having the honour of opening the tournament against the hosts. And there’s still a chance that Wales might join them.
That’s good news for football lovers. Avert your eyes this summer if sport isn’t your thing, but doubtless there’ll be stories springing up around the events which will be of massive interest to almost all audiences.
Continuing conflict
We start the year covering two major wars – in the Middle East and in Ukraine, as well as multiple other trouble spots the world over. Particular thanks are due to colleagues who’ve been on or near the front lines during the holiday season, including our colleagues in Gaza.
And thanks also to those who scrambled to the Japan earthquake – the first major breaking story of the new year.
Decision points ahead
All of 2024’s huge stories will play to our strengths. We have the journalists to report and analyse. Our verification tools are in better shape than ever – at the start of a year where misinformation and disinformation will be regular visitors to everyone’s feeds. And we have the production and technical skills to do all of that with immense quality.
But, we also have a challenge. In line with every other major newsroom, we will have to commit significant proportions of our budgets to these events. Undoubtedly more of our cash is earmarked up front than in any year in recent times. Obviously we also need to allow for the as-yet unknown stories which really matter, and to resource everything which makes us distinctive – interrogative journalism, eyewitness reporting, live coverage.
All of which means that we are going to need some patience. We won’t be able to back every idea or service every request. The bar for discretionary spending will have to rise, at least for the next twelve months. Working together to make our content travel further will be more important than ever. Every pound, dollar or rupee we spend has got to contribute to the heavy lifting which is needed throughout the year.
Let’s not get disheartened by that – it’s simple housekeeping.
Happy New Year
So there’s much to think about. But none of us came into the news business to endure the quiet times. This is a wall chart which news lovers will relish. Fascinating events lie ahead, some of them deeply consequential.
And with that, it just remains for me to repeat my wishes for all of you to have a very happy 2024.
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