Summary of complaint
We have received complaints about our plan to reformat Newsnight as part of changes to ĢƵ News programming.
Our response
ĢƵ News has set out savings and reinvestment plans to boost its digital journalism around the clock; increase its streaming offer on ĢƵ iPlayer and the ĢƵ News app; and bring more in-depth, analytical, and high-impact reporting to its online audiences. We are also enhancing our ability to commission more investigations across all of output – precisely the kind of original journalism for which Newsnight is known.
It is worth observing that news consumption habits are changing, with linear TV audiences declining by 11% over the last five years, and the ĢƵ needs to invest in online news to respond to this. With the flat Licence Fee settlement and the impact of inflation, this means the ĢƵ also needs to make £500m of savings.
We have also listened to detailed audience feedback about Newsnight which clearly demonstrated that consumers valued high-quality, consequential, news-making interviews, discussion and debate the most. This research informed the changes we made, namely that Newsnight will remain as a nightly ĢƵ Two TV programme from Mondays to Fridays, and will become a 30 minute interview, debate and discussion show which draws on the best of the ĢƵ’s talent and news-making interviews to make sense of the day’s news.
ĢƵ News and Current Affairs CEO Deborah Turness has said: “Audiences have told us how much they value Newsnight as an iconic ĢƵ debate and discussion programme, and we’ve listened to what they’ve said – we’ve made the decision to keep the programme on air five days a week, despite the financial challenges we face.
“Newsnight has also been a source of great investigative reporting and films but we know that people are consuming the news in different ways, and it can no longer make sense to keep a bespoke reporting team for a single television programme. We will offer more to audiences by investing to ensure the best investigative journalism and reporting is produced – and consumed – across the whole of ĢƵ News.”
As part of this, a new ĢƵ News Investigations Unit will bring together the best investigative talent across ĢƵ News. New roles will be created in financial and political investigations, alongside specialist roles with OSINT (open source intelligence) and policy analysis expertise within an expanded ĢƵ Verify, the specialist team with a range of investigative skills at its fingertips.
We can assure our audience that ĢƵ News remains committed to providing high quality journalism.