Restructuring the BBC
- 20 Jul 06, 04:29 PM
So we at the BBC have had one of those “organisational moments”, making substantial changes to how we run ourselves.
Mark Thompson’s announcement included an emphasis on BBC Journalism as one of the main planks of what the BBC does – alongside Audio & Music and BBC Vision. The idea at the heart of BBC Journalism builds on what we’ve been doing over the last few years. We’ve worked hard to create stronger links between the BBC’s journalistic output, locally, nationally and internationally. Sport now joins the mix as well.
Our aim is to ensure we fully achieve our mission of delivering the world’s best journalism and that what we do is available to as many people as possible across all appropriate platforms.
Of course this only really matters if it makes a difference to audiences. I think it will. It should help us be more ambitious in what we do across the big themes of our time – climate change, energy supply, China, global security and many more.
When all of the BBC’s journalists work together we can give audiences an unrivalled insight into major issues. The expertise of the World Service, the innovation of our interactive teams, the grass roots understanding from our teams across the UK can all combine to strengthen our coverage of subjects ranging from immigration to the environment.
Of course it’s happened in the past but we know we can and should do more.
Secondly it’s vital that all areas of the BBC’s journalism work together as we adapt to the changing technological world. Finding the right ways of offering content and the best technology to support that content needs to be thought about across the BBC – not just in individual areas.
What we provide in terms of news services to mobiles for example is likely to cuts across boundaries of local, national and international.
In a world where greater personalisation will be one of the key themes, audiences will be in control rather than our traditional boundaries and demarcations. There will be people who regularly want a diet of news which ranges from the local to the global and we need to make sure our way of doing things supports, rather than gets in the way of, providing this.
Journalism is at the heart of why the BBC exists. The changes to the organisation reflect this and I think can only encourage anyone who wants the BBC to continue to offer the best in on-the-spot reporting, analysis and explanation, robust interviewing and original story finding.
Adrian Van-Klaveren is deputy director of BBC News
Adrian Van-Klaveren is deputy director, BBC News
We're not great at blowing our own trumpets on these occasions. But I did alert the Press Association newsdesk, other BBC programmes and the BBC press office. 
The icing on the top of the Levy/Noon cake was hearing Sarah Montague introduce Anita's interview, in full, on the following morning's Today programme. At the end of the interview she gave Anita another name-check. 
Today, 
