Newsnight will be cut to 30 minutes as part of £500m cost-cutting plan: BBC Two show will lose half of its 60 staff and drop its investigative films in major revamp after presenter Kirsty Wark announced she was stepping down

• The latest changes mean that more than half of Newsnight’s 60 jobs will close 

Newsnight will become a 30-minute programme and replace its investigative films with studio-based debates as part of the BBC’s wider plans to make £500 million of savings, the corporation has announced. 

The changes – which come a month after lead presenter Kirsty Wark revealed she was stepping down – mean that more than half of Newsnight’s 60 jobs will close.

The programme will remain on air five days a week despite the financial pressures but the corporation said in a release that it will become a ’30 minute interview, debate and discussion show’. 

Deborah Turness, BBC News and Current Affairs chief executive, said: ‘Like many businesses, we are in a tough financial climate and as our audiences shift rapidly from TV to online news consumption, we need to make choices about where we allocate our resources.

‘While TV and radio remain crucial to BBC News, we must invest in our digital platforms to ensure they are also the home of our very best journalism, and today’s package of measures will accelerate this transformation.’

She insisted that the quality of journalism would not be compromised.  

The BBC’s Newsnight is to be cut to a 30-minute programme as part of the corporation’s wider plans to make £500 million of savings, it has announced (stock image)

Last month it was announced that Kirsty Wark would be stepping down as the lead presenter of Newsnight after the next election, having presented the programme for three decades 

Referring to the decision to cut BBC 2’s Newsnight to 30 minutes, she added: ‘Audiences have told us how much they value Newsnight as an iconic BBC 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.

‘We will offer more to audiences by investing to ensure the best investigative journalism and reporting is produced – and consumed – across the whole of BBC News.’

As part of the changes announced by the BBC, an extended hour-long edition of BBC News At One will relocate to Salford. BBC Breakfast, also broadcast from Salford, will be extended for an extra 15 minutes daily, the corporation said.

The corporation expects the raft of changes to save £7.5 million, as part of the BBC’s wider plans to make £500 million of savings.

Ms Turness said that from its inception nearly 44 years ago, when it was introduced to bring viewers analysis and in-depth coverage of the day’s news, Newsnight has made an impact. 

‘We’ll all have our own memories of Newsnight – from Jeremy Paxman famously repeating the same question to Michael Howard to the Prince Andrew interview,’ she said. 

Deborah Turness, BBC News and Current Affairs chief executive (stock image)

Former Newsnight host Emily Maitlis famously interviewed Prince Andrew in November 2019

She added that audiences today are consuming news differently and said: ‘The news is, quite literally, at their fingertips. They are listening to podcasts, when and where they want, in which they join a community of listeners and feel part of the conversation. Linear TV is in decline, and Newsnight’s viewing figures reflect this general trend.

‘So I will be frank – when we started work on this announcement, I did not know if it would make financial sense to keep Newsnight on air. We, like many other news organisations, have streamlined our editorial teams to avoid duplication. It simply no longer makes sense to keep a bespoke reporting team dedicated to a single news programme with a small and declining audience, however good that programme is.’

Read more: Kirsty Wark will step down as lead Newsnight presenter after the next election, BBC reveals

But Ms Turness said that the BBC has listened to its ‘most crucial voice’, the audience, and as such had made the decision to reformat Newsnight.

Last month it was announced that Kirsty Wark would be stepping down as the lead presenter of Newsnight after the next election, having presented the programme for three decades.

Wark, 68, will continue to present BBC shows including The Reunion, Start The Week on Radio 4 and documentaries, the corporation said.

It was also reported in October that the show’s editor, Stewart Maclean, had announced he was leaving Newsnight to take a role with the BBC in Africa.

Various outlets cited an email he is reported to have sent to his colleagues apologising for ‘signalling my departure at a time of such instability’. 

Former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, who joined the BBC in 2001 and had presented Newsnight from 2006, left the corporation in February 2022 for rival media group Global, and now hosts their The News Agents podcast with former BBC colleague Jon Sopel. 

During Maitlis’s tenure at Newsnight, she famously interviewed the Duke of York in November 2019 when he was grilled over his relationship with the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Following the Newsnight broadcast and the furore over Andrew’s friendship with Epstein, the duke stepped down from public life.

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