CHANGES AT BBC NEWS

James Harding, the BBC’s Director of News has announced that BBC News will shift its focus to provide more analysis and explanation.

Harding told BBC staff last month that the BBC is ‘extremely good at reporting the what but we need to be better at the why.’ To aid the strategy, the present BBC News will be divided into two divisions: BBC News for daily news content and BBC Stories for analytical content and the stories of human experience.

These changes are very welcome. IBT has been urging the BBC to shift its focus away from the big story of the day and to increase the range of its news content. We also understand that BBC News is looking for ways of telling more positive news stories that have the potential to be empowering, as they feel these are the sort of stories that appeal to younger audiences.