Summary of complaint
We have received complaints about our plan to reformat Newsnight as part of changes to ±«Óãtv News programming.
Our response
±«Óãtv News has set out savings and reinvestment plans to boost its digital journalism around the clock; increase its streaming offer on ±«Óãtv iPlayer and the ±«Óãtv 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 ±«Óãtv needs to invest in online news to respond to this. With the flat Licence Fee settlement and the impact of inflation, this means the ±«Óãtv 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 ±«Óãtv 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 ±«Óãtv’s talent and news-making interviews to make sense of the day’s news.
±«Óãtv News and Current Affairs CEO Deborah Turness has said: “Audiences have told us how much they value Newsnight as an iconic ±«Óãtv 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 ±«Óãtv News.â€
As part of this, a new ±«Óãtv News Investigations Unit will bring together the best investigative talent across ±«Óãtv 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 ±«Óãtv Verify, the specialist team with a range of investigative skills at its fingertips.
We can assure our audience that ±«Óãtv News remains committed to providing high quality journalism.