Bbc News

[Hymie]

Apparently the BBC employs over 7,500 people to work in their news division.

I can’t see why they need so many, when much of the BBC news I watch, consists of the reporter reading articles out of that day’s newspapers; or are they including those employed by the papers?

[naomi24]

I don’t know where you got this information from, or how accurate it is, but bear in mind that BBC News is a world service and the man who reads the news is not the man who gathers the news, nor is he the man who edits the news, or films it, or researches it, or decides what goes into the bulletin… or makes the tea. There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than you realise.

[hc4361]

They have reporters all over the world and don't forget that figure includes the reporters and journalists, camera crew, sound crew, lighting crew, editors, producers, administrators, newsreaders, translators, safety experts and advisers, investigators, health and safety and first aid staff, drivers, support workers to book hotels, interviews and set up meetings, legal staff to make sure nothing defamatory is broadcast, catering crew, political and royal advisors, trauma counsellors......

[magicmick]

We are just starting tea Hymie may I get back to you later, this subject is a pet hate of mine.

[mikey4444]

I agree with Naomi here ! ( Did I just type that ? )

[coldstream-1971]

I find it rather excessive the amount of reporters the beeb send to cover a particular story or why they see the need to send any reporters at all there, take for instance during the General Election Campaign they send Huw Edwards (a Welshman) to Edinburgh castle to present the news from what was to gain from that expensive junket why not use the studio??

[magicmick]

My moan is the regional news both BBC, and ITV. Are fronted by two readers both sides mixed male female, one person says one sentence then the other, then back to the 1st person, you get the picture they can't put two sentences together. Then over to our chief reporter up in the wilds of Cumbria about a sheep that is bigger than any other, so that is at least four people. Then over to the chief sports presenter outside say Liverpool because a player has
said something on social media, another four people all unnecessary. Then we have the weather read by another person, and if Aintree is on she is in Liverpool, at least six more people. Then come weekend or bank holiday surprise surprise one person can read news, sport, and weather.

[weecalf]

28 on the now unwatchable match of the day

[Hymie]

The source of the number is Private Eye, who were also asking what they all do.

To my mind, BBC News 24 could be cut down to 3 minutes of news, 3 minutes of their sports reporter reading from the sports pages of the national papers (plus some sports footage courtesy of Sky), the same again for their business reporter, 3 minutes of the national weather, 3 minutes on the Cumbrian sheep story, one minute of some wallha standing outside No. 10 Downing Street (where nothing will happen all day) and 3 minutes of local news which consists for the most part of local travel/traffic and weather. Then repeat the whole thing on a recorded loop for the remainder of the day.

The whole thing would not be much more than the local newsagents fee (plus delivery), thereby saving the corporation a pile of cash each day.

[Kathyan]

The thing that really gets my goat is that they have a newsreader in the studio who reads an article and then they go over to a reporter who is standing outside the court, the house of the person in the article or even another country just to tell us what the newsreader has already told us!

[VHG]

Remember they also have a huge web site full of news, sport, weather and other information, which all has to be created and updated.

They have reporters all over the world, as well as local UK based reporters for TV and radio.

Plus that may include the World Service which supplies news in many languages for people all over the world (and is admired all over the world).

[ichkeria]

Why stop there?
Why not just film some bloke reciting the Daily Telegraph

Or is it somehow April 1st and I haven't noticed :-)

If you are going to have a serious debate about this then it would help to use actual facts rather than the mythical stuff about Cumbrian sheep and two people reading alternate lines: the N Ireland news for a start has only one presenter, and I suspect it's not the only one

[venator]

The BBC is a byzantine setup with layers upon layers of little empires.

The debate about the licence fee is going to be interesting!

[mikey4444]

Kathyan...is it just the Beeb that does that then ? I rather thought it was done that way the world over these days. it makes for entertaining TV.

Perhaps we ought to go back to the days of Alvar Lidell !

[Kathyan]

No Mikey it isn't, but it's still annoying.

[magicmick]

At the end of the ITV NW News she says for a more in depth news go to our NW News app for all the news we have just given, ok then why not do away with the programme, simple. But I guess not all on line.

[magicmick]

Ichkeria you really need to tune into the NW News you will have a laugh, nothing mythical about what I said.

[Zacs-Master]

Look North is just the same!

[Marshwarble]

"Get a man reading out the Daily Telegraph".

Won't that make everyone vote Tory?

[sp1814]

BBC News is a respected news source all over the world. Whenever a major story breaks, I for one will go to the BBC News website, because I can be certain that the reporting will be accurate and detailed.

As others have already pointed out, BBC News is not just the national news, it's BBC Radio News, regional news, online news etc.

If BBC News were to face major cuts, we would end up with another source of 'churnalism' (my own pet hate).

Last year, I read a book called 'Flat Earth News', which I encourage anyone with interest in news and current affairs to take a look at.

It describes the way that news is now delivered to us - newspapers have shrunk down their regional reporting capabilities and now rely on PR companies to supply (wait for it) 54% of news content.

54% of the news you read is actually advertisements dressed up to look like news stories.

The journalism department at Cardiff University (who did the number crunching for the book) also found that 70% of news stories were wholly or partly recycled from agency copy, usually the Press Association.

If you merge the two figures (for PR and PA) – and ask how much of Fleet Street quality news is, in fact, the work of Fleet Street's own reporters, the answer from the Cardiff research is: 80% of it is wholly, mainly or partially made up of second-hand material from PR and PA; 8% of it was impossible to trace; and only 12% of it was provably based on material generated by Fleet Street reporters.

I dread that happening to the BBC News division. And it doesn't need to, as long as the BBC has a strong presence both regionally, nationally and internationally.

It's with this workforce that we are able to know what our Government is doing on our behalf around the world. It's with this presence that we are able to digest both the important and trivial.

Without it, we what would we have? Somewhere else to ogle at pictures of Kim Kardashian's bottom?

[sp1814]

Incidentally, my post at 21:18 is an example of my own churnalism (I'm wearing my hypocrite trousers today). Part of it is rewritten from this piece by Nick Davies, who wrote the aforementioned, 'Flat Earth News':

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/node/40117