Canada’s largest newspaper publisher cuts jobs and merges newsrooms

The media landscape in Canada took a beating on Tuesday as almost 100 jobs, with over half of those in Alberta, were lost as Postmedia announced it would be changing how it delivers news.

The company owns two newspapers in each of the cities of Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, each of these cities will now have one newsroom with a single editorial team, but they will continue publishing two newspapers.

Chris Hofley, who was a sports reporter at the Ottawa Sun before being laid off Tuesday, said the longstanding competition between the Sun and the Citizen helped both papers and served their audiences better. In Edmonton, 35 jobs are being lost.

No one has been laid off in Vancouver, but he company says it will be offering buyout packages there in the coming days.

Postmedia Network, Inc. has cut 90 jobs nationally.

“We know this will not be without its challenges and we know there will be bumps along the road”, he said in the memo.

Each city will have one newsroom, under one editor.

Canada’s largest newspaper chain, Postmedia Network, is cutting 90 staff and merging newsrooms to cope with declining revenue and heavy indebtedness.

“This is certainly an initiative aimed at cost reduction”, said company spokeswoman Phyllise Gelfand.

On Twitter, journalists started announcing their own departures including the National Post’s basketball writer Eric Koreen and Edmonton Journal’s editor in chief Margo Goodhand and managing editor Stephanie Coombs.

Less than 10 months ago, the Competition Bureau approved the sale of Sun Media newspapers to Postmedia on the assumption that the deal was unlikely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition in any relevant market, Morse said.

“What is changing is how we produce these products”.

Ottawa Sun columnist Sue Sherring, who kept her job, was in tears as she spoke to media in Ottawa.

Gelfand said the company is creating a national sports writing team, which will consist of existing employees.

“It’s happening everywhere (in the business)”, Sherring said.

The cuts come less than a week after Postmedia announced continued losses in advertising, print circulation and digital media revenue.

Postmedia said it expects the first $50 million of savings will be implemented by the end of its third quarter, which ends May 31.