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Job Cuts
The BBC said Wednesday that it plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs to save 10% of its annual budget - 500 million pounds ($677 million) - over the next two years. The layoffs announced during a call with staff are the biggest in more than a decade at the UK national broadcaster. "I know this creates real uncertainty, but we wanted to be open about the challenge," interim Director-General Rhodri Talfan Davies said in a staff email. Davies said that the reductions were driven by inflation, pressures to license fee and commercial income and a turbulent global economy. The BBC said earlier this year that it faced "substantial financial pressures" and wanted to cut about a tenth of its budget by 2029. The bulk of the cuts are to be made in the next fiscal year beginning April 1, 2027. The cuts come as former Google executive Matt Brittin is scheduled to take over as director-general next month. He will fill the vacancy left after Tim Davie, and head of news Deborah Turness resigned over a .
The Washington Post laid off one-third of its staff Wednesday, eliminating its sports section, several foreign bureaus and its books coverage in a widespread purge that represented a brutal blow to journalism and one of its most legendary brands. The Post's executive editor, Matt Murray, called the move painful but necessary to put the outlet on stronger footing and weather changes in technology and user habits. "We can't be everything to everyone," Murray said in a note to staff members. He outlined the changes in a companywide online meeting, and staff members then began getting emails with one of two subject lines - telling them their role was or was not eliminated. Rumors of layoffs had circulated for weeks, ever since word leaked that sports reporters who had expected to travel to Italy for the Winter Olympics would not be going. But when official word came down, the size and scale of the cuts were shocking, affecting virtually every department in the newsroom. "It's just ...