BBC Snoozify Verify’s live blog is winding down following the departure of former Head of News Deborah Turness, who launched the live service last June as a “an exciting step towards even greater transparency”. As soon as she was out the door, it was only a matter of time before the new leadership took a cleaver to it. Nobody reads it, and whenever it occasionally posts a story, it is a disaster. Don’t say Guido didn’t warn you…
The Times reports Lindsay McCoy, BBC Verify’s executive editor, gave staff the bad news in an internal memo:
“Unfortunately, the format hasn’t matched how people want to consume our work and it isn’t reaching the audience numbers we would like.
“As a result, we’ve taken the decision to focus our efforts where we can make the greatest impact. That means strengthening our presence on the main BBC News website and live page.”
At its peak, the overall BBC Verify team employed 60 people at a cost of £3.4 million. It remains to be seen what happens to the live blog staff…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”