Richard Liebrecht is the ninth Edmonton Sun employee to leave the building in the past five months, says a TSF tipster.
The tipster says the reporter joins Glen Werkman, Kristy Brownlee, Candace Ward, Jason Franson, Alyssa Noel, Clara Ho, Jefferson Hagen and Doreen Thunder as disgruntled ex-EdSun staffers.
"Very unhappy employees over at the Edmonton Sun," says the tipster. "The exits continue and the list grows."
I keep seeing the job openings, hear the rumours, so what is happening there?
ReplyDeleteThe same bloody thing happening in every other Sun Media paper.
ReplyDeleteThis company wants the profits that come from a large daily, but refuses to acknowledge the expenses that come with it. Go into any of these buildings and check out the computers ... the camera equipment ... the lack of basic necessities to do this job. It's a fight just finding a stupid card reader to get your pics off the one camera the newsroom shares.
Most people have just mentally hit a brick wall. They realize now this isn't a real media company, and it's demoralizing.
Failure?
ReplyDeleteThe place is ran by scared yes men who know if they were to lose their jobs they would never get another job in this industry, because no one would hire them. They have no vision and revert back to the 1980s cheese and sleaze whenever they are stuck for an idea.
ReplyDeleteEmployees are underpaid,$40,000 to $44,000 a year in a city where it costs $350,000 to buy an old house. The work load and demands keep building as threats are handed out daily, if someone gets behind or makes a mistake on the 6 stories they are writing or if someone didn't take 300 photos and do 10 videos, your considered a slacker with a bad attitude. That's whats happening. It is a toxic environment.
It's a toxic environment in every newsroom belonging to this company.
ReplyDeleteWork everyone to the ground with a bare bones staff and then bitch and complain when circulation is dropping with an inferior product.
Just counting the days when the print side goes bottoms up and sit back and laugh
It's not only the dailies that are being demoralized. I do agree that you are underpaid, but it seems to be the trend in all print media. We had an issue with a card reader as well. I brought my own in and everyone was using it and wearing it out and finally I demanded that the publisher buy a couple. This company is so far behind Black Press in getting small-town newspapers a video camera, to put video on the web. BC small-town papers have been doing it for a couple years already. It's embarrassing to say I work for this cart before the horse company. If I could find another position, I would and I hope I do soon.
ReplyDeleteAnd the bean counters just smile, high-five one another as they know some college grad will get hired and be paid much less, leaving more to line PKP's pockets.
ReplyDeleteOpinion columns about the toxic environment in Quebecor's newsrooms are always welcome at http://www.altlondon.org
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's fair to say all of the staff who left are "disgruntled."
ReplyDeleteSome of it is coincidence. One left to attend post secondary, another to do freelance, another moved away and married, and a few others got jobs at other newspapers.
I was one who left and have talked to all that have left, all of them have the same stories of disliking that place. They may not have said anything to management or the ass kissers, but I have either went for beers with them or chatted quietly with them during work.
ReplyDeleteSome went back to school, some went to other papers, some went to freelance and some went to other industries, but all left as a result of being fed up with that place and the bullshit.
To second last poster: if you're actually dedicated to your work environment, then you don't look for ways to get out.
ReplyDeleteThe poster at Nov. 1 9:31 p.m. got it right. My question to Nov. 2, 3:32 p.m., is if you're so sure of yourself, why hide behind the cloak of anonymity? Someone who is a true leader would have signed that statement.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Doreen Thunder (a nice woman) was at the Sun barely long enough for a cup of coffee (she was a summer freelance photog). Hardly long enough to form a distaste of management.
Life isn't all a bowl of cherries at the Sun, but it's hardly the hell-hole this malcontent makes it out to be.
To November 4 @12:02am
ReplyDeleteI stay anonymous because of my distrust with the people who run this place. I am now enjoying life, successful, and don't need some overzealous Sun brainwashed idiot trying to screw it up for me, by yapping their big mouth to the respected and great companies I work for now.
I'm now treated with the utmost respect and appreciated. When I tell people who I now work for they say wow that's really cool, not oh sorry to hear that, or I read that once.
I make almost double the $40,000+ I was being paid, work less and don't have to put up with ridiculous requests. I can now be proud of the work I do. I no longer have to hang my head in shame.
Doreen Thunder is a nice woman and she was meant to be more than a summer freelancer. She couldn't make ends meet with the low pay while trying looking after her kid. She couldn't work on demand and that pissed management off. So she quit.
The Sun is a bowl of rotten cherries that I wish I never ate. It was a waste of my life and talents. I wish I never set foot in that place and put up with the crap that I did. The grass is so much greener on the other side.
Let me get this straight: An anonymous poster complaining about another anonymous poster using anonymity. These are all good points and really, no one should be anonymous if they truly believe what they're saying.
ReplyDeleteRob Lamberti
Toronto Sun
Chair
CEP Local 87M
Rob, everyone needs to remain anonymous if they want to keep their jobs.
ReplyDeleteThe Edmonton Sun and many other newspapers are without a union.
I agree that this is the worst company I've ever worked for and the grass is definitely greener anywhere but here. SunMedia couldn't give a rat's ass about how editorial feels. Our publisher doesn't even know anything about what we do and has openly admitted that he doesn't read our paper and can't be bothered to. However, he has no problem listening to the public complain about our paper and then blaming editorial without any knowledge on the subject because of course he doesn't read our paper. We're sick of watching sales get training while we get manuals e-mailed to us and told "figure it out on your own." We're told that PKP doesn't want us to purchase essentials such as toilet paper and paper towel to clean our hands, so the office manager has to hide where she's getting the money to pay for it. We now have no heat in the building and are sharing space heaters. It's inhumane!
ReplyDelete7 November, 2010 11:34 a.m.: Well, what should we do about that?
ReplyDeleteRob Lamberti
Toronto Sun
Chair
CEP Local 87M