Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Newspaper publisher Postmedia Network Corp. is laying off 11 per cent of its editorial staff, less than a week after workers were told the company was grappling with "economic contraction," sources tell The Canadian Press.
Postmedia, which owns publications including the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Calgary Herald and employs about 650 journalists, announced the layoffs at a town hall Tuesday afternoon.
In an audio recording of the meeting obtained by CP, Gerry Nott, acting senior vice-president of editorial content, said the cuts would impact all of the company's publications with the exception of Brunswick News and Postmedia Editorial Services, which have already been downsized.
"There isn't a property in our network that won't be affected by a restructuring, reorganization or layoff," he said.
"And to be clear, this is about aligning our cost structure with our revenue stream against ongoing decline in our industry and strong economic headwinds leading up to this difficult decision on staff reduction."
Postmedia did not respond to a request for comment on the cuts.
The sources asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to publicly speak on the matter or share recordings of the meeting.
The job cuts come days after the company warned staff in a memo that an unspecified number of roles would be eliminated across Postmedia over the coming months through hiring restrictions and layoffs.
At the same time, it announced it was moving a dozen of its Alberta community newspapers to digital-only formats, eyeing more outsourcing deals for printing, laying off workers and selling the home of the Calgary Herald.
The company had also adjusted print deadlines in major markets, made changes to its comics and puzzles and eliminated publishing papers on some days, Nott said Tuesday.
"Had we not made those changes, the number of journalists affected by layoff would be considerably higher," he said.
Nott added that the company had yet to identify specific jobs that will be cut and said it is possible that management positions will be affected at a higher or disproportionate rate than non-management roles.
He expected to begin having conversations with editors carrying out the reductions in the next 24 hours and urged anyone feeling like they can't be part of the company's future to talk to union, human resources or editorial representatives about voluntary layoff packages.
Nott also revealed the company was going to move to remote work on a permanent basis, except for markets like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, which he said would return to the office.
He acknowledged the moves would create a "difficult time," but said it was "vital" to find a path through this "extremely turbulent stretch."
Staff were “totally demoralized and disillusioned” by Nott’s announcement, said Martin O’Hanlon, president of CWA Canada, a union representing some Postmedia workers.
“I always think we've hit rock bottom, and then they always find a new bottom,” he said. “I just don't know how you can run a successful media company with this level of staffing.”
He added that the cuts only make the fight against disinformation and misinformation harder, are bad for democracy and mean that “Postmedia is now treading water to survive.”
Newspaper conglomerates including Postmedia have long been struggling with dwindling print subscriber numbers, the rise of big tech companies that have eaten into media profits and more advertising moving online from print.
"The unassailable truth is that the print audience is going away, it's a demographic that's not being replaced by another readership audience who consumes news in the same way," said Nott.
"It's clear that our advertisers have moved from print to digital. It's clear that in the digital space we're up against some behemoth that make it very competitive and very difficult for us."
In recent years, Postmedia has coped by closing a number of small-town newspapers, reducing print production of some of its titles and resorting to layoffs and voluntary buyouts to manage costs.
Asked whether the Montreal Gazette or even Postmedia will exist in the coming years, Nott said, "I think there's every reason for hope and that we will exist three to five years from now."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2023.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.