The newspaper for BBC pensioners – with highlights from Ariel A future plan Delivering Quality First – Page 2 Photo courtesy of Jeff Overs November 2011 • Issue 8 tales of Print edition of Musical televison ariel to close memories Centre Page 2 Page 6 Page 9 NEWS • MEMoriES • ClaSSifiEdS • Your lEttErS • obituariES • CroSPEro 02 uPdatE froM thE bbC commissioning and scheduling will be • More landmark output for Radio 4 (which closely aligned. sees its overall budget hardly changed). Delivering Quality First • Job grading, redundancy terms and • More money for the Proms. unpredictability allowances will be • The further rollout of HD and DAB. Mark Thompson sets out ‘a plan for living within our means’ as ‘modernised’ and reformed. A consultation he reveals job losses, output changes, relocations, structured process on those proposals begins Union response immediately. The National Union of Journalists issued a re-investment in a digital public space, and new content and • Production will be streamlined into a swift response to the announcement, calling programmes on BBC services. single UK production economy. for the licence fee negotiations to be re- • Radio and TV commissioning for Science opened and ‘a proper public debate about Fewer staff, a flatter structure, more jobs • All new daytime programming will be and Music will be brought together. BBC funding’. shifting to Salford and more output from on BBC One. In a statement the NUJ said: ‘The BBC will outside London, these are the conclusions of • BBC Two’s daytime output will focus on Reinvestment not be the same organisation if these cuts go the Delivering Quality First process. repeats and international current affairs. At the start of the DQF process, Thompson said ahead. You cannot reduce budgets by 20% In a ringmain broadcast (the BBC’s internal • BBC Three will move to Salford. last year’s licence fee settlement necessitated and pretend that everything is the same. It broadcast network), Mark Thompson and BBC • The BBC HD channel will close – BBC Two savings of 16%, but because the BBC needed won’t be…The quality of journalism and Trust chairman Lord Patten announced the will be solely HD. to invest in output, he set the organisation as programming will inevitably be diluted.’ headline decisions from months of debate, • Local radio afternoon output will be a whole, a 20% savings target. He explained Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of discussion and number crunching. shared across regions. how the surplus savings will be re-invested. media and entertainment union Bectu, Delivering the broad outlines the DG said: • Some news bureaux will close. The key priorities are to unite channels, said the proposals should have been called ‘By 2016 the BBC will be significantly smaller • White City will be emptied out and sold. networks and online content on ‘four screens’ ‘destroying quality first’. than it is today; employing fewer people, • The BBC’s orchestras and performing – TV, tablets, mobiles and computers. ‘They are destroying jobs, and destroying occupying less space, and spending less money.’ groups will be independently assessed, Money will be pumped into: the BBC,’ he said. Explaining that he could not go in to all with the possibility of reductions. • Drama and comedy the changes in depth, he said staff will be • Asian Network’s budget will be cut by for BBC One, factual briefed by their managers as to how they are 34% and the service will be ‘re-focused.’ genres on BBC Two affected. And he explained that the focus of • Comedy on Radio 2 and 5 Live will be and BBC Four. the changes was to concentrate spending on reduced, there will be fewer lunchtime • Children’s peak programming. concerts on Radio 3. programming, ‘This is a plan for living within our means,’ • Factual programming for TV and Radio 4 which will also Thompson said. ‘It’s also about making sure will move from Birmingham to Bristol gradually wholly we don’t accidentally cancel the future.’ and Cardiff. move onto CBBC • More content will be shared and more and CBeebies. The cutbacks programming from the Nations will be • Newsgathering in The following list is not comprehensive, but broadcast on network. ‘core’ areas around highlights the key points. • The News Channel will focus on breaking the world, as well as • Two thousand jobs will go. news, with more repeated material during local and regional • One thousand more posts will go to Salford. off-peak hours. coverage of the UK. • The Sports rights budget will be cut by 15%. • BBC Four will be more ‘complementary’ to • An increased • BBC One’s spend on films and bought-in BBC Two, and BBC Three will be more of a investigations fund programmes will reduce. test bed for BBC One. In both cases for Panorama. Print edition of Ariel to close ‘However I am pleased that it will live presence, and when the news in the newspaper The Ariel newspaper is on online, reflecting the lives, issues and has already been reported on that site.’ Et tu, Prospero? to close, 75 years after challenges that we face every day.’ She adds: ‘I know staff will be sad to see it News of Ariel’s demise may have our its first edition, in a DQF Candida Watson, Ariel editor for the last go, and that the online version is different to readers asking: ‘What about Prospero?’ We two years, admitted that compared with the the print issue; I know some people will see asked Jan Killick, Head of Pensions, for restructuring that will see the pan-BBC savings through DQF, the end of the it as a none-too-subtle way of diminishing a reponse. Communications division newspaper ‘pales into insignificance’. internal criticism of BBC management. Jan says: ‘There are no plans to stop ‘That doesn’t make it any less of a shock ‘It is true that the current Ariel online site Prospero, although as explained in this year’s shed 30 posts. to the long-serving staff who produce Ariel, has no comment facility on stories, but that summary report, we are conscious of Ariel Online, which was revamped in to our regular correspondents who make is something we are working to address. We the need to ensure the Scheme’s services February and now uses the BBC News the letters page a thing of occasional joy and still have a letters ‘page’ and readers can still deliver value, particularly at a time when content management system, will continue frequent conversation, or to those of you comment on any issue that they want to raise, the BBC is going through significant to carry BBC staff news and views. who like to pick up the paper and read it and in the online only Ariel you won’t have to change and the Scheme is in deficit. Four posts will be lost from the existing quietly in a break, or take it to read on the wait a week to see your letter printed.’ ‘Over the last year, we have made bi-media Ariel team along with comms journey home,’ she said. The Ariel website would contain more changes to the way we produce, design, jobs across the division, as it seeks to make ‘As Editor of Ariel for just over two years audio and video in the future and would print and distribute Prospero. We believe 25% savings. I am sad to be presiding over the end of the welcome readers’ suggestions on content, these have helped to improve Prospero Communications colleagues in the nations most recognised form of a BBC institution, Watson said, promising: ‘Ariel will still bring as well as reduce costs. Looking ahead, are not affected by the news. and sad that the post I hold is also closing. you news about the BBC, interesting features we will examine whether any further Mark Thompson acknowledged Ariel’s ‘But as the BBC prunes back frontline staff and opinion, and will still endeavour to be changes are necessary and will keep contribution: ‘Ariel newspaper has been an and output, it is hard to argue that it should the BBC’s concerned and impartial friend.’ pensioners informed.’ important part of the BBC’s history for 75 years devote licence fee income to publishing an The final printed Ariel will hit the presses at the Remember that you can also download a copy of and like many of you I will be sad the paper internal newspaper, particularly when it has end of December. You can view the online Ariel at Prospero by visiting bbc.co.uk/mypension version has to close as part of DQF savings. an intranet on which Ariel has an established www.bbc.co.uk/ariel Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC Editorial contributions: Write to: Prospero, employees, or to their spouses and dependants. BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Prospero provides a source of news on former Cardiff CF5 2YQ. Email: [email protected] colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are issues, plus classified adverts. scanned at 300 dpi. To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12. To view Ariel online, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/ariel. The next issue of Prospero will appear in December. PROSPERO NOVEMBER 2011 uPdatE froM thE bbC 03 will be cut. On this point Boaden said: ‘In all of this we £2m will be spent on completing the roll must not lose our editorial focus. Even as Hundreds of News jobs to go out of local radio political correspondents. we use and re-use material we will expect Up to 800 jobs will be lost in BBC News over the next five years editors to be creative about giving their Local radio and TV audiences something special.’ as the division cuts costs and re-shapes itself, Helen Boaden Some local radio stations will share off-peak has announced.