The Toronto Sun, on life support when it comes to employee numbers a decade after Quebecor bought Sun Media, appears to be content with summing up Black Tuesday in two paragraphs.
We were thinking there might be some words for the 49 Toronto Sun casualties in the Sunday Sun, for the benefit of those who lost their jobs and readers, but not a word.
These are sad times at 333 and across the Sun Media chain.
If we wished the Toronto Sun anything for 2009 it would be its sale to newspaper people who still give a damn about journalism.
That won't happen as long as the Toronto Sun is profitable, a cash cow with Quebecor forever clinging to its teat.
We were thinking there might be some words for the 49 Toronto Sun casualties in the Sunday Sun, for the benefit of those who lost their jobs and readers, but not a word.
These are sad times at 333 and across the Sun Media chain.
If we wished the Toronto Sun anything for 2009 it would be its sale to newspaper people who still give a damn about journalism.
That won't happen as long as the Toronto Sun is profitable, a cash cow with Quebecor forever clinging to its teat.
What makes you think the Toronto Sun is still turning a profit? That's quite an assumption to make given the current economic climate, the decline of print media in general and last week's layoffs.
ReplyDelete"What makes you think the Toronto Sun is still turning a profit?"
ReplyDeleteA week before Black Tuesday, all non-union employees received profit sharing, on average about $500 each. So before they axed 600 people, they were handing out profits.
And yes, that's correct ... if you're in a union, you received nothing. They talk about teamwork and 'coming together' as a staff, and then decide only certain staff members get hundreds of dollars before Christmas.
It has negligible delivery costs, since it only delivers on weekends. Unlike all the other papers in town, it shares its copy with every other paper in the chain, hence the skeleton staff chainwide. Before we unionized in 2003, it was making $45 million profit a year. And that was before they stripped costs.
ReplyDeleteIf the Toronto Sun is not making a profit, nobody is.
Finally, if you really think layoffs are always a sign of financial precariousness, I have one word for you - CTV. Sometimes they just mean you're not making as much as you used to.
Jim