Running Canadian journalism cuts thread

Torstar recently did some chopping in the newsrooms of three of its southern Ontario dailies - Hamilton Spectator, K-W Record and Guelph Mercury - and CTV Globemedia is slashing the shit out of its A Channels in Ontario. Two channels, one in Windsor and one in Wingham, will be closed down. I can't speak for the Windsor operation but the Wingham one has been so downgraded in recent years that it's not much more than a repeater station for CFPL in London.

 

Torstar just cut 60 non-newsroom jobs this week.

 

Yeah, what's different about the TorStar move is that the cuts weren't in editorial. Many were even in management.

Heard about the A Channels, too, and forgot to post. Apparently Toronto axed its morning show the other day?

Met two fellas from OMNI Calgary the other day. They left A Channels in Ontario to come out here for these jobs. They were breathing heavy sighs of relief.

 

When did CTV put a station in Windsor?

 

The station has been in Windsor for years, CHWI, and it was licenced actually primarily in Wheatley, ON. It was run by Baton Broadcasting for some time, until it bought CTV in the 90s.

 

CHWI is one of a group of stations that has bounced around from owner to owner for the last few years, first from Baton Broadcasting to the CHUM empire, which rebranded it as "the new WI." When CTV Globemedia took these stations over, it changed the names to "A Channel whatever" and then to just plain, in this case, "A Windsor."

The "A Toronto" station is actually based in Barrie, where it was known for years as CKVR, famous in southern Ontario for its noon-hour reruns of "Leave It To Beaver." I'm not kidding. Every weekday, for years and years and years, it was on at 12 noon. It catered to Barrie and the Huronia area north and west of that city when Toronto still ended at or before Steeles Avenue. Now, of course, its service is geared toward points south of Barrie as that's where the vast majority of Toronto-area growth is taking place. A clever way for CTV, and before that CHUM, to have more than one market in the same area.

As for the station in my part of the world, "A Wingham," it went on the air in 1955 as CKNX in a small town, population then and now about 2,000 people, and was the first station many viewers in this area ever saw. Cable TV was fairly late coming to Midwestern Ontario, as was satellite, but you could always get CKNX on the rabbit ears. It was a CBC affiliate but it produced a substantial amount of local programming, including news and some of the best agricultural reporting in the province. Over the years it has been whittled down to almost nothing, and is now little more than a repeater of "A London." And that's a shame, because there is a vast area here that is now all but ignored by TV.

CTV says the news coverage in this area will be handled by two reporters. The area in question spans about 150 miles from north to south by about 80 miles west to east and is home to more than 300,000 people.

 

10 more to go at the Calgary Sun today. Awaiting the fate of friends.

 

From torontosunfamily.blogspot.com:

"Quebecor sent out its Think media newsletter today, with the lovely news that the company posted $3.73 billion in revenues in 2008, up 10.8 per cent, and an operating profit of $1.12 billion, up 18 per cent."

Fucking bastard asshole scum-of-the-earth cocksucking prick PKP.

 

Shawn Logan, the kind of news reporter who would bullfight or bungee jump for a story if you told him to, has been given his walking papers.

 

OK, so Logan, a web person and one position lost to attrition. That's it for the news room.

I'm not sure there's much blood left to bleed at The Little Paper That Could.

 

Sirs, Madames,

I wasn't even sure there were ten left.

o-<

 

Was pretty tight with Shawn in J-school, and this one really hurts. Still remember covering the Mac's tourney together in our first year... can't believe this. I mean, I can, but damn...