• The corporation’s web pages are to be halved
• backed by a 25 per cent cut in staff numbers
• Its £112 million (web) budget will also be cut by 25 percent
• It is also pledging to include more links to newspaper articles to drive traffic to the websites of rival publishers (this is an old pledge that BBC News has never quite manage to make good on)
• A pledge not ever to produce services at a “more local” level than is currently the case

Here’s what the Trust said in November...

“Beyond the core offer of news, sport, education, children’s and the iPlayer, which parts of the online service are essential to the BBC’s mission and which could be stopped?

“In particular, where should the boundary be drawn between the online expression or extension of BBC programming and the creation of new online content with a less direct relationship to BBC programming?

“Could clearer boundaries help the online service to provide even greater depth and authority in core areas?”

And here’s what Thompson said about the website: “Does it have to be this big? Can we focus it more?”

Many commercial publishers will doubtless welcome a slimmed-down BBC.co.uk, and news groups - who routinely protest that a free BBC News site makes it impossible for them to charge - may also look on this as an opportunity.

But the BBC is not going to switch off the BBC News site any more than it will take BBC News Channel off the air. Any cutbacks are likely to be answered by the question: “What are we doing that is not core?”, rather than an arbitrary desire to halve the web page count…

That is likely to mean piecemeal closure of some websites that aren’t linked to existing BBC output. Indeed, the future of BBC.co.uk is looking increasingly broadcast-centric, already resting heavily on iPlayer VOD.

Incidentally, BBC.co.uk’s budget is not £112 million, as the report says - the 2008/09 budget of £114.4 million was, in March 2009, increased by £30.7 million for the next three years, taking it to £145.1 million.

More cuts reported by Times Online…

• 6Music and Asian Network to be shut
• “will also pledge to allow commercial stations to be the main providers of popular music to listeners aged 30 to 50”
• BBC Switch (cross-platform teen brand) to be shut
• BBC Blast (a project to help teenagers produce creative output) to be shut
• Sports rights outlay capped to 8.5 percent of licence fee income

• £600 million redirected in to higher-quality content…
• BBC Two budget going “up-market” by taking £25 million from the £100 million budget for imported programme buys

• BBC Worldwide must focus overseas
• Must sell UK magazine arm