BBC Online- 25% Budget cut

[SiHart]

The BBC is to cut about 200 websites as it reduces the amount of money it spends on its online output.

The changes, which will see BBC Online's budget cut by £34m, will also result in the loss of up to 360 jobs over the next two years.

Among the sites to close are teen site Switch and community sites h2g2 and 606.

The plans are part of the BBC's cost-cutting measures to make 20% savings as a result of the licence fee settlement.

The BBC says the changes are intended to make its website more distinctive and reduce competition with commercial websites.

Skills website RAW, creative teen service Blast and documentary website Video Nation will also be closed under the reorganisation.

Other reductions include the replacement of the majority of programme websites with automated content and the automation of bespoke digital radio sites 1Xtra, 5 live sports extra, 6 Music and Radio 7.

'Refocusing priorities'

There will be fewer news blogs while standalone forums, communities and message-boards will be reduced and replaced with integrated social tools.

There will also be a reduction in the overall amount of sports news, live sport and showbusiness news, but also more culture and arts coverage on the news website.

Local sites will additionally no longer publish non-news features content.

About 180 websites are expected to close ahead of schedule later this year. The overall changes will be made by February 2013-14.

BBC director general Mark Thompson said: "BBC Online is a huge success, but our vast portfolio of websites means we sometimes fall short of expectation.

"A refocusing on our editorial priorities, a commitment to the highest quality standards, and a more streamlined and collegiate way of working will help us transform BBC Online for the future."

As part of the BBC's Putting Quality First strategy, BBC Online will form 10 distinctive areas: News, Sport, Weather, CBeebies, CBBC, Knowledge & Learning, Radio & Music, TV & iPlayer, Homepage and Search.

Roly Keating, the BBC's director of archive content, said the website had "grown like Topsy" and would now be easier to navigate, doing fewer things better.

Editorial focus would be on high-quality news, clearer local sites on news, sport, weather and travel and creative spaces for children.

The iPlayer will also be reshaped, bringing together programming and programming information with archive content.

The current BBC Online budget is £137m.

Does the BBC website do too much? Is the cut justified?

Si xx

[Lissa]

The BBC website is a huge, sprawling mess which has grown and grown over the years. The severity of these cuts reminds me of the announcement that they were to close 6 Music and Asian Network - make a big announcement, whip up an outcry and they end up not having to cut as much as first anticipated.

The 606 boards are one of the few properly moderated football message boards on the internet. Football threads quickly descend into the lowest form of pointless trolling if not heavily supervised so this is quite a big loss. H2G2 on the other hand is one of those things that became obsolete very quickly and no one I know ever uses it.

Hopefully they won't cut too many news blogs - they have these people working for them so it doesn't make sense not to have the likes of Nick Robinson, Robert Peston or Stephanie Flanders write blogs that cover the developments of the day in a different way to their TV spots.

[Rob McCow]

So does this mean there definitely won't be a sequel to Scream of the Shalka?

[Si Hunt]

Bring back the TARDIS-odes!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Although it might appeal to the kids, there's a heck of a lot of unnecessary guff on the BBC Doctor Who website. For example, I recently completed a jigsaw of a photograph from Galaxy 4 - sure it filled ten minutes, but I can't imagine it's a huge winning success for BBC Worldwide.

I agree that they should do less websites but do them better.

[Captain Tancredi]

I think there are a lot of obvious economies to be made as well- a lot of the online news content is put together by the same reporters as Radio 4 and News 24.

But yes, the BBC website(s) do a lot of things that aren't really the BBC's job to do but are the legacy of the Corporation having its arm twisted into helping to get people online over the last 10-12 years or so.

[Larry]

and on top of this this the BBC have also announced cuts to the BBC World service/


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12283356

[Rob McCow]

Rupert Murdoch will be rushing to fill in the gaps! Hurrah for democracy!