BBC to cut 450 jobs across news programmes as part of £80m savings drive

National Union of Journalists describes losses as ‘damaging’

Hundreds of jobs will be cut at the BBC as part of plans to reduce costs and “modernise” the newsroom, the broadcaster has announced.

The measures will lead to an estimated 450 job losses, including at Newsnight and Radio 5 Live.

Plans to end Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC2 programme were leaked last week, with the host saying she was “absolutely devastated”.

The corporation said there would also be a review of “the number of presenters we have and how they work”.

The corporation needs to save £80m to reduce financial pressures, which include paying for free TV licences for over-75s on pension credit.

The corporation said it wanted to “reduce duplication” while making the savings, which will see a reduction in the number of films produced by Newsnight, the flagship political programme which recently made headlines with its interview with the Duke of York.

There will also be ”post closures at 5 Live driven by the changing listening habits of the audience and demand for digital content”.

The changes mean there will be “a reduction in the overall number of stories covered” and “there will be further investment in digital news”, the broadcaster said.

Fran Unsworth, director of news and current affairs at the BBC, said: “The BBC has to face up to the changing way audiences are using us.

“We need to reshape BBC News for the next decade in a way which saves substantial amounts of money. We are spending too much of our resources on traditional linear broadcasting and not enough on digital.

“Our duty as a publicly funded broadcaster is to inform, educate and entertain every citizen. But there are many people in this country that we are not serving well enough.”

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary Michelle Stanistreet described the cuts as “damaging”.

It comes as the corporation begins its search for a new director general after Lord Tony Hall announced he will step down from the role in the summer.

Ms Derbyshire said she first found out about the plans to axe her show in a newspaper. She said her Bafta-winning show had delivered on its remit, breaking original stories and “attracting a working class, young, diverse audience”.

A petition to save the programme has received more than 30,000 signatures.