Why is ITV getting rid of 'smoke alarms'?

Monkey is intrigued by ITV's decision to cut back its already-overstretched publicity department. The corporate office has just been expanded. Presumably to cope with all the fire-fighting ITV plc has endured thanks to its lacklustre City performance and the "zero tolerance" debacle over the phone-in scandals. But, as Greg Dyke once said: "It's the programmes, stupid." The only thing buoying up ITV at the moment is hit shows such as Britain's Got Talent, Dancing on Ice, Lewis and Doc Martin. And they didn't just launch via a page on Facebook, or a Twitter feed. Monkey wonders what the newly inflated corporate press office will have to say if the cuts in programme publicity lead to controversies such as that encountered say, during the Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell affair last year. As one seasoned ITV executive put it: "It's all very well having lots of firefighters, but why get rid of the smoke alarms?"