BBC Scotland presenter Anne McAlpine is leaving the corporation after 14 years, as the broadcaster presses ahead with plans to cut jobs and reduce its workforce.
McAlpine, 40, has been a familiar face on Reporting Scotland and has also presented the farming and countryside programme Landward. She said she was moving into “a new chapter” after a career that had taken her across a wide range of broadcasting assignments.
In a social media post, she thanked the people, friendships, adventures and memories that had made her time at the BBC special. She said her work had included elections, documentaries, Gaelic-language programmes Eòrpa and An Là, as well as reporting from farms, parliaments and major news events.
“I’ve covered news, weather, politics, sport, culture and rural life, collected an impressive number of hats and accumulated more tales than I know what to do with,” she wrote. “It’s been a blast.”
McAlpine said she would continue working in broadcasting as a freelancer. The BBC confirmed that she would remain the narrator of Scotland’s Home of the Year, made by an independent production company.
She also revealed that she was working on a new project with her production company for BBC Alba, adding that more details would follow when contractual restrictions allowed. She described her departure as “very much a ‘see you soon’ rather than ‘goodbye’”.
BBC Scotland faces job cuts
Her exit comes as the BBC seeks to save at least £500 million over the next three years and cut up to 2,000 jobs across the organisation. Around 60 roles in Scotland are understood to be affected.
The future of the BBC Scotland channel is also uncertain amid concerns over its cost per viewer. Nearly 50,000 Scots are reported to have stopped paying the television licence fee over the past year.
Former BBC Scotland business and economy editor Douglas Fraser, who left in March, has described low morale and uncertainty among staff. He said nine senior presenters were currently in post but that only seven positions would remain after the cuts.
Fraser named Martin Geissler, radio presenters Gary Robertson and Hayley Millar, Fiona Stalker and Laura Goodwin, Laura Maciver, Laura Maxwell and Laura Miller among those he said were in the firing line.
Another former BBC Scotland journalist, James Shaw, said managers had failed in their “duty to manage and preserve the value of a vital public asset” through changes to Radio Scotland. He said journalists’ work had been made increasingly difficult by a long history of cuts and warned that a further wave was about to hit.
A BBC spokesman said: “As announced earlier this year, the BBC needs to save at least £500million over the next three years across the organisation.”
He added: “BBC Scotland is making proportionate savings, and a review across all of our departments is ongoing as part of the process.”
The corporation said McAlpine finished her stint with Reporting Scotland last week and would leave the BBC later this month.
