Job losses announced at Radio 1’s Newsbeat

Yesterday BBC News announced it was cutting 140 posts yesterday – with 17 posts being cut from Radio 1 and 1Xtra‘s news team.

It was announced that the result of the cutbacks will mean that Radio 1 and 1Xtra will no longer have a dedicated news service, apart from at breakfast.

The job losses are not expected to take place until April 2013, but unions have already criticised the move, which they claim is a “severe threat” to the BBC’s quality journalism.

Sue Harris from the National Union of Journalists said: “In his leaving letter [outgoing director general] Mark Thompson had the nerve to say that ‘the BBC I will be leaving is so much stronger than the BBC I inherited back in 2004’. I beg to differ.”

The job losses in Radio 1’s Newsbeat will mean more reliance on BBC News’ radio output with more shared services for 1Xtra.

What do you think of the decision? Let us know on the forums.