Monday 15 December 2008

TorSun cuts?

Could tomorrow be Black Tuesday for the Toronto Sun?

Tipsters say an undisclosed number of employees who arrive at work Tuesday will leave as the latest victims of Quebecor's hatchet.

"It ain't over," one Sun vet said of the cutbacks that have ravaged the Toronto Sun since Quebecor bought Sun Media in 1999.

"No one knows who yet, but it is supposed to be big," said another newsroom staffer.

Another TSF tipster said staff could be cut by 10%.

So small gains in staff during Michael Sifton's welcomed 12-month stay as Sun Media chief are quickly being eliminated with PKP taking personal control of Sun Media and Canoe.

Sun Media's timing in all of this stinks. Thirteen employees have been axed in Toronto and at the Kingston-Whig Standard in the past month and more today.

Christmas at the Sun sure ain't what it used to be when Doug Creighton et al were in charge.

Doug would be as disgusted as we are with a media conglomerate that terminates employees in the weeks before Christmas.

There is no heart in Quebecorville, just the cold, impersonal bottom line to benefit shareholders and PKP's $415 million bank account.

Yesterday, we mourned the loss of retired switchboard chief Margaret Kmiciewicz, a longtime loyal Tely/Sun employee who epitomized the "family" in Toronto Sun Family.

Mrs. K was from a time when the rising Sun was a home away from home, a tabloid run by newspaper people with heart and staffed by employees who cared about each other.

Quebecor has all but destroyed that unique work environment in less than a decade.

A TSF reader says Tuesday's cutbacks will be made on the day of the funeral for Mrs. K, "an employee from the days when the Sun was a pleasant, almost family-like place to work."

Another body blow for the Toronto Sun, nine days before Christmas.

Stay tuned for the casualties.

1 comment: