Tuesday 14th November: BBC cuts face public backlash

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I feel like we’ve been here before. The past few years have been a constant cycle of the BBC having its funding stripped back, which allows it to do less of what only it does, which then impacts the public’s perception of it, which then allows the government to strip more of its funding. If there’s such a thing as the opposite of a virtuous circle, it’s this.

‘The former BBC English Regions controller Andy Griffee said on X, formerly Twitter: “It’s all gradually destroying the essential point of BBC local radio, which is its localness and the attachment people have to particular communities.” The broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, is also understood to be raising concerns about the transparency and details of the cuts in its forthcoming annual report.’

I’m not going to pretend to know how to solve this problem but it seems to me that the process starts with recognising what the BBC does best. It acts as a free source of news where it’s needed — which despite what regional publishers might say is a good thing even where it cuts into their business — and simply cutting back until all that’s left is a stump isn’t the best way to revitalise the Beeb.

Off the back of research from Toolkits and our own interview with Zamir Walimohamed at Motor Sport Magazine, I wrote up an argument that publishers should embrace legislation that makes cancelling subscriptions easier. Yes, it’ll cut into revenue in the short-term, but frankly if your business model relies on trapping consumers in subscriptions then you don’t deserve them in the first place.

A few days ago I was dispirited to note that no news outlet seemed to have learned anything from the run-up to the first time Trump ran for president. Well, at least this is a step in the right direction. As Max Tani reports, “Courier Newsroom, a network of liberal news sites, will announce a new slate of national contributors and newsletters, video series, op-eds and podcasts that largely focus on ‘explaining, exposing, and fighting back against threats to our freedoms and democracy.’”

This is an interesting experiment! Actually asking younger audiences what they want from news outlets? Who’da thunk it? Well, as Jacqui Merrington makes clear it’s a long overdue look at what younger audiences — you know, the people on whom the future of the news business rests — actually want from news businesses.

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