SONG words

A statement from Brad Honywill, president of the Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild, in an e-mail to TSF early today after another hectic day on the road:

"Sorry I didn't get to you earlier. Drove to Stratford for another vote to join SONG and had four media interviews, calls from two Sun employees, two SONG staffers and one from the new Stratford group, along the way. And that was supposed to be my free time to call you.

Quote on layoffs:

I don't think Toronto's, or, for that matter, North America's, media landscape will look the same after this recession. We're going through a fundamental shift that will result in fewer sources of news and less and less depth.

Increasingly, stories will be shared across chains, diminishing local voices. And reporters, under increasing pressure to fill the paper and with less time to do it, will be less and less able to research and ask the hard questions.

So these cutbacks represent a real loss to the community and to our democracy.

On a personal level, the cutbacks are now beginning to take out employees who have more than 10 years in their workplaces, as well as encouraging the early departure of others who have spent, in some cases, more than 30 years in these newspapers.

Employees are leaving people with whom they grew up, shared the joys and tribulations of child rearing, suffered through divorces and deaths. Throughout it all, the newspaper was a constant.

But that's coming to an end and it's devastating to everyone."