United Kingdom

The BBC is poised to cut at least 12 per cent of its workforce, with the brunt of more than 2,000 redundancies falling on factual programming, senior staff have been told. The final tally of job losses, which will have to be approved by the BBC Trust, could approach 2,800, according to one person familiar with the situation. Mark Thompson, the corporation’s director-general, is seeking cuts...

Telegraph.co.uk has launched a new blog with the aim of rapidly updating developing breaking news stories. Making News will offer "updates and commentary on the day's stories" throughout a news day. There is a difference between niche comment blogs and breaking news, suggested site editor Marcus Warren. So the new site launched in test phase last week. "I, for one, was more than conscious of the...

From evening arrests on the M6 to the vehicle in flames outside Glasgow airport, the events of the past three days have highlighted the role members of the public play in reporting news as it unfolds. Rolling news channels and newspapers published scores of videos and images taken on mobile phones and digital cameras by so-called citizen journalists. Many of the images have already been collected...

When it comes to accusations of Left-liberal bias, the BBC is a bit like an alcoholic. People have been sniggering about his drinking for years; he pretends not to notice. There have been complaints; he brushes them aside. Throwing up at that wedding reception? Someone spiked the punch. Propositioning the boss's wife? That was a joke. But, deep down, the drunk knows he has a problem. More to the...

LONDON, June 12--Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday said the news media, driven by increasing competition and pressure from fast-changing technology, has largely abandoned impartial reporting in favor of sensation, shock and controversy, which he said demoralizes public servants and badly serves the public. "The fear of missing out means today's media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack,"...

The role of the National Union of Journalists is to come under discussion at a public debate where former MP Tony Benn will be among the panellists. The discussion will be lead by a panel which also includes Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, and David Aaronovitch, columnist for the Times. The moderator will be Charlie Beckett, director of the Polis think tank at the London School of Economics...

News International today announced 50 editorial job cuts at the Times and News of the World as part of its latest cost-cutting drive. The job losses at the two Wapping titles form part of company-wide cost-cutting measures, with News International understood to be seeking savings of £30m. Editors of News International's four national titles - the Sun, News of the World, Times and Sunday Times -...

The Sun and other News International newspapers could outsource part of their TV listings operation to India, as part of the company’s cost-cutting drive. News International is in talks with PA Solutions – a division of the PA Group, which also owns the Press Association wire service – about outsourcing its centralised listings operation, which supplies TV scheduling information to its four...

The National Union of Journalists is planning a "quality journalism" campaign to make sure that media workers can resist what it calls employers' attempts to "squeeze more and more" out of staff. Many journalists working on multimedia projects and new platforms such as podcasts were "approaching breaking point", warned the NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear. With the union's annual conference...

The Financial Times has abandoned controversial plans for a new staff appraisal system. The proposal would have seen all staff categorised as outperformers, steady performers or underperformers. "After a healthy debate around the office about the suggested idea of people being fitted into categories, it was decided that it would no longer be pursued," said the National Union of Journalists' father...