Big changes at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Online
Post categories: FM&T,Ìýcuts,Ìýstrategic review
| 16:25 PM, Monday, 24 January 2011
Some big changes have been announced today by management at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Online. A cut amounting to 25% will affect the whole of the Corporation's online division (Future Media & Technology). 360 posts will close all together, including between 35 and 39 at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Audio & Music Interactive. Around 200 individual web sites ('TLD's) will be closed.
Outgoing boss of Ö÷²¥´óÐã FM&T Erik Huggers has written a detailed post for the About the Ö÷²¥´óÐã blog, based on his announcement to staff.
On the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Internet Blog, executive Ian Hunter has written two blog posts. The first, published this morning, is about the effect of the cuts on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's social media, including the planned disposal of H2G2, the long-running online community and closure of the iPlayer messageboard. In his second post he writes about the mechanics of closing and archiving 200 Ö÷²¥´óÐã web sites.
On the Sports Editors blog, Ben Gallop explains that the will be closed, along with several other sport services.
On its web site, the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Trust confirms that it has approved the cuts as part of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's new online strategy. There's a formal announcement on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Press Office web site.
The news has produced a great deal of discussion in the media and on the social networks. '' has trended strongly on Twitter all day, as have several cuts-related hashtags. Many thousands of tweets and nearly 900 blogs mentioned the changes.
Media coverage included , , The Guardian's , and .
More blog posts from Ö÷²¥´óÐã executives are due tomorrow.
Steve Bowbrick, blogs editor
Comment number 1.
At 25th Jan 2011, Jonnie Jensen wrote:How much tv do I watch on iplayer versus listen to radio?! This decision is shocking. The Ö÷²¥´óÐã iplayer is a fabulous service with fabulous content. What will replace it?
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Comment number 2.
At 25th Jan 2011, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Jonnie, there has been some confusion since yesterday's announcement. We should have made it much clearer that everything you currently watch or listen to at bbc.co.uk - live radio, archived programmes and podcasts - will still be there after the reorganisation. And it should be much easier to find and share too. An iPlayer executive, Daniel Danker, has clarified things on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Internet blog. Do leave a comment if you have further questions. And keep listening!
Steve Bowbrick, blogs editor
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Comment number 3.
At 8th Feb 2011, battingforbell wrote:Another of Ö÷²¥´óÐã's very poor decisions. The popularity of 606 is a PR dream. Cricket 606 attracts comments from all over the world, with debates raging between England fans and the rest of the cricketing community, including Pakistan and Indian fans, Sri Lankan and New Zealand fans, and last but not least of course, Australia fans. What a fantastic way to get a product appreciated overseas, because 606 was linked to the Test Match Special page and Sports coverage. I thought the Beeb would have wanted to respond to the idea of the Big Society...Why destroy something that is very well run and very popular on the world wide web? Either the Ö÷²¥´óÐã has no community sense or no business sense, or both as in this case. Bad decision by executives too far away from the action.
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