BBC News Channel & World News to merge?

I don't mind some of the changes made, like Victoria Derbyshire but maybe they could have handled it better and found a balance in the morning between rolling news and Victoria Derbyshire.

The Torygraph is claiming cost savings will be made by stopping main anchors flying out to cover major events abroad.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/18/bbc-to-stop-flying-its-big-name-newsreaders-out-to-anchor-covera/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I don't mind the BBC sending out reporters to cover events, they have a plethora of platforms to cover.

One thing I find shocking is that the average BBC salary is £43,000. I wonder how many license fee payers are aware of that high figure?

Wow, that seems like a bargain. Wonder what the average anchors salary is?

well we know that in 2009 a news channel anchor could expect to be paid around £92,000

That was one individual who chose to disclose her salary, I would be wary of extrapolating that to others.

I noticed the cuts with recent events when they didn't send anyone for the major events recently.

Care to expand on this?

Yes, I noticed there haven't been a lot of big presenters sent to France or Germany (except Clive Myrie to Nice).

I think there have been more than you care to remember. Lucy Hockings has spent the last two weeks in the US, presenting GMT from Washington DC last week, and New York this week. Plus Ros Atkins was in Paris for the Euros. Planned big news stories admittedly, but it's not as if regular reporters haven't been sent to cover unforeseen stories. Richard Galpin is just back from Rouen for one.

I think the argument was that the cancelled merger has meant that they have to make efficiency savings somewhere else so for major breaking news stories, instead of sending half a dozen people, including a couple of presenters, instead send a couple of correspondents who would have got sent there anyway.

Think about how many people were sent to Paris to cover the attacks there and compare it to Nice or Rouen recently.

It's normal to send presenters to big planned stories, we still have Rio and the presenters based out there during the games. The US Election is a major worldwide story so sending major personalities to the US is understandable and not forgetting Katty Kay has been on location at the conventions.

The budget requirements as well for planned events and unplanned events will be different. The money will have already been secured for Lucy Hockings in the US and Ros Atkins in Paris just to name a couple of recent deployments but when a big name presenter has to suddenly travel then the cost is bigger. I was merely commenting on recent events and making the point that the cuts are already starting to bite. London Lite posted an article about the BBC not sending big names to cover stories.

As an example from memory:

Paris (before efficiency savings): Huw Edwards, Tim Willcox, Lyse Doucet, Gavin Hewitt, Alan Little, Katya Adler (all in Paris), Christian Fraser in Brussels for the secondary story there.

Nice (after merger plans cancelled): Clive Myrie and Christian Fraser. Also the Paris bureau did decamp but to be expected for an event in France.

I don't know if it is the scale of the event or the efficiency savings BBC News have to make but it's certainly not to the same scale, which would save them some money.