--Reorg will "Put Interactive and Online in the Heart of Content Creation"
The BBC's Factual & Learning department has been reorganized, in order, the Corporation says, to transform it into "the world's first large-scale, integrated cross-platform content creator." The reorganization involves, among other things, the implementation of a new management structure (Keith Scholey has been appointed as controller of factual production and Donna Taberer has been appointed as deputy controller; Liz Cleaver, meanwhile, will continue in her role as controller of learning and interactive, with special responsibility for integrating new media into the new structure), and the creation of a new system of nine genre-based studios, which the BBC says will "put interactive and online in the heart of content creation teams, to encourage collaboration and creativity across all platforms." The new studios are: Science & History (London); Docs & Specialist Features (London); Arts & Production Innovation (London); Features & Formats (London); Events (London); Features & Docs (Birmingham); Natural History (Bristol); Features & Docs (Bristol); and Religion (Manchester).
The BBC says that a "unified pan-divisional development area" will be the first part of the Factual & Learning division to integrate interactive and online with content creation, and that this integrated structure will be implemented over time in the nine genre production studios, "allowing the management of each area to oversee interactive production within TV and radio production." The reorganization will result in management responsibilities being "re-framed," the BBC says, across the whole of the Factual & Learning division, resulting in a 20 percent reduction in the management team: "This is a major step for content production within the largest factual producer in the world," the BBC's director of Factual & Learning, John Willis, said in a prepared statement. "This new structure allows us to build on multimedia successes like 'Coast' and 'Digital Picture Of Britain,' continuing to be a creative power house for television and radio content, but also fit for the non-linear future. The studio system will place creative development at the centre of the department, creating ideas suitable for a range of platforms."
The Factual & Learning division's new management structure will consist of four elements: the Factual & Learning Board (responsible for business and management); the Creative Board (responsible for editorial and commissioning priorities and performance across the entire division); the Investment Board (responsible for maximizing income and commercial partnerships); and the Development Group (which the BBC describes as being responsible for "joining up core and specialist thinking to maximize our creative offering, integrating cross-platform thinking from the start").
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