Newspaper closings are an epidemic
Chronicle Herald layoffs
February 4, 2009 Ed: that’s sad news about the Halifax Chronicle Herald. My dad wrote sports there in the 40’s.
The reporters drank and played craps against the wall after midnight while the proofs were printed.
That was the newspaper business back then, just like in the movies. I wrote a music column for the Halifax Mail Star, the afternoon paper, in the 60’s. I earned $5 a column and all the records I wanted plus free tickets to live shows. Those were great days, long gone now.
AP
A drop in advertising amid tough economic times is exacting a toll on Canada’s newspapers, with the Halifax Chronicle Herald giving layoff notices to almost a quarter of its newsroom staff while the Globe and Mail revealed details of a previously announced plan to cut 10 per cent of its workforce. “It’s a terrible day,” Dan Leger, the Halifax newspaper’s director of news content, said Tuesday. “It’s an absolutely horrible day.
“This is something we fought tooth and nail to resist but the numbers just kept getting worse and worse and worse and we just don’t know where they’re going to end.”
The newspaper didn’t specify how many people are affected but Rick Conrad, vice-president of the Halifax Typographical Union, said 24 of 103 reporters, editors and photographers will receive notices.
The Globe said Tuesday it laid off 30 people, although the number had been expected to be higher when the national newspaper originally outlined plans to cut the paper’s workforce by 10 per cent.
Globe and Mail publisher Phillip Crawley told The Canadian Press on Tuesday that 60 staff members opted to take a voluntary severance package – about double what the company had anticipated.
“We were pleased with such a positive response,” Crawley said. “It was obviously a good package; it was an attractive package.”
“I think a lot of people who had been here for a number of years, getting older and closer to ‘normal’ retirement age … looked at this (new package) and thought the opportunity might not come their way for a number of years.”
The Globe has about 700 employees in various departments, while CTVglobemedia employs about 6,500 workers across all of its divisions, which also include the CTV network and CHUM Radio, one of Canada’s largest radio broadcasters.
Other Canadian companies, from Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B) to Canwest Global Communications (TSX:CGS) and Quebecor Inc. (TSX:QBR.B), have also cut jobs in recent months as revenues erode from the worsening economy.
The Quebecor and Canwest cuts included reductions at the Sun Media newspaper chain and Canwest’s newspaper division, which operates big city papers from Vancouver to Montreal, including Globe rival the National Post.
Before the current round of job cuts the Globe and Mail had avoided major job losses tied to the struggling economy.
However, sliding advertising revenues have hit the newspaper hard, considering that it thrives on selling ad space for jobs and careers, as well as the real estate and automotive industries.
Crawley said that the Globe hopes the job cuts will be enough to help it weather the rest of its financial year, which wraps up at the end of August.
“A lot of that will depend on how well the market performs and how well business performs over the next many months,” Crawley said.
“This isn’t the only factor that affects our financial performance, but I think it certainly makes a good contribution towards our goals.”
The layoffs at the Chronicle Herald, which take effect in 45 days, affected reporters in both the Halifax newsroom and in bureaus across the province, as well as photographers and librarians.
Leger said he would welcome ideas from the union on ways to reduce the number of layoffs through buyouts and early retirement.
“I’m sincerely hoping with all my heart we’ll find a way to reduce the number leaving here because there’s some really good folks and we’d love to keep them,” he said.
Owned by the Dennis family of Halifax, the paper is one of the last independent newspapers in the country.
“This is not something we ever wanted to do,” said Chronicle Herald vice-president Sarah Dennis on the newspaper’s website.
“It’s something that’s been forced on us by the economy and by the way the business is changing.”
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