Newsnight to lose reporting team and be cut by 15 minutes

The BBC’s Newsnight is to be cut to a 30-minute debate show as part of plans to save £500 million.

The programme, on BBC2, will lose its team of dedicated reporters, drop its investigative reports and be shortened by 15 minutes.

Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, said that the decision was in response to changing audience habits and committed herself to keeping it on air five nights a week.

“Newsnight has also been a source of great investigative reporting and films but we know that people are consuming the news in different ways, and it can no longer make sense to keep a bespoke reporting team for a single television programme,” she said.

The cuts were revealed by The Times in