If you haven’t seen the announcements, the big news is that BBC Online is having to cut its budget by 25% and is being reorganised. Part of this reorganisation will see the BBC moving away from stand alone communities and message boards. Last year some message boards were closed, more will close this year. The BBC’s other big community 606 is scheduled for closure. (You can read about why we’re moving in this direction on this blog post from Ian Hunter.)
The review is part of the BBC’s Putting Quality First strategy which you can read about here. BBC Online will be reorganised into five portfolios of “products”. All parts of BBC Online have to fit with these. Over the past year all areas of the site have been reviewed to see where, and if, they fit. Sadly the conclusion myself and my colleagues have come to is that H2G2 does not fit in the new shape of BBC Online — via redwolf.newsvine.com