BBC to scrap Ariel print edition after 75 years

The BBC's staff newspaper Ariel is to close its print edition as the broadcaster's communications department prepares for a restructuring that will cost 30 jobs.

The Ariel team – eight-strong, with some working on the newspaper part time – will lose four full-time staff as the title goes online-only.

The final edition of the weekly newspaper, first published 75 years ago, will appear in December.

The communications department restructuring is part of the BBC's Delivering Quality First (DQF) plan, under which it will cut nearly 2,000 jobs as it seeks to make savings of £670 million by 2016/17.

Candida Watson – editor of Ariel for the past two years, who will lose her job in the cuts – said that the closure of the newspaper "pales into insignificance" in the context of the "savage cuts being inflicted in other areas".

But she added: "That doesn't make it any less of a shock to the long-serving staff who produce Ariel, to our regular correspondents who make the letters page a thing of occasional joy and frequent conversation, or to those of you who like to pick up the paper and read it quietly in a break, or take it to read on the journey home.

"And how will certain tabloids fill their diary columns now?"

Watson acknowledged that some staff would see it as a "none too subtle way of diminishing internal criticism of BBC management", but said that it was "hard to argue" for a licence fee-funded internal newspaper at a time of deep cuts to the broadcaster's budget.

Director general Mark Thompson said: "Ariel newspaper has been an important part of the BBC's history for 75 years and like many of you I will be sad the paper version has to close as part of DQF savings.

"However, I am pleased that it will live on online, reflecting the lives, issues and challenges that we face every day."

Thompson came under fire from print and broadcast unions last week after telling staff in a Belfast meeting: "No one is forcing you to stay". The BBC's head of news Helen Boaden was also criticised by the unions this week after she reportedly told regional journalists at the corporation to "grow up" when they complained about cuts, adding: "We could have killed you off".

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