After many press reports predicting big job losses at the BBC, the new DG, Mark Thompson, sent this email to staff:

"Some of you may see (or hear about) a headline in one of the papers today suggesting that half of BBC staff might face redundancy as a result of the famous four reviews.

"Inevitably, staff numbers are one of the issues we are looking at in the context of Value for Money but the idea that anyone anywhere in the BBC is seriously suggesting making half the BBC redundant is simply preposterous.

"I haven't seen any firm recommendations from the VFM review yet, so anything you read in the papers is pure speculation in any event. We will be discussing the reviews with the Governors towards the end of November and, as I said in my email on Monday, I will be sharing the real conclusions with you on 7th December. I know it's difficult, but I really would urge you to ignore all the speculation until then - unsettling though I know it is.

"I'll also be setting out a broader vision for the BBC on the 7th, which the reviews are there to enable, with much more detail about our ambitions and our programme strategy - in other words, setting up why I believe we have to change and where I think we need to invest more than we do at present. This is not an exercise in cutting services but in enriching them and about spending more, not less, of the licence fee on the air."

All the best

Mark