BBC review may shut more websites

By Ian Youngs
BBC News Online entertainment staff

Mr Highfield said the public value of all BBC websites would be assessed

More BBC websites may be closed when an internal review has been completed, BBC director of new media Ashley Highfield has announced.

"The process is not over," he said, after announcing five BBC sites would close in the wake of the Graf Report.

"The review is going to look at all of our websites. Nothing is going to escape scrutiny of its public value."

But he said no jobs would go immediately, with staff transferred to other parts of the corporation.

Mr Highfield also said a new remit for BBC online services would focus on the corporation's cornerstone aims to educate, inform and entertain.

Connect

But he added a fourth aim for BBC Online - to connect with audiences whenever and wherever they want.

He would aim to reach the "50% of the people on the wrong side of the digital divide", and unveiled a redesigned BBC homepage to appeal to the internet novice.

The BBC would never enter the e-commerce, e-mail, gambling or dating markets, Mr Highfield pledged.

But he would not commit to one of Mr Graf's key recommendations - to get 25% of online content (excluding news) from external producers by the end of 2006.

He said the corporation would "look at its achievability in the timeframe and come back in the autumn" with a decision.

The five BBC site closures announced on Monday were Fantasy Football, the central What's On events listings, the Surfing portal, the Games portal and Pure Soap.

The BBC sites that have already been "slimmed down" but not closed include Parenting, Science and Nature and Lifestyle.