Monday, 28 November 2011

Layoff forum

Comments re Nov. 28, 2011 Sun Media layoffs:

Posted by Toronto Sun Family at 17:23

49 comments:

  1. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 17:28

    Five whacked in Winnipeg, including two non-union editorial staff:

    http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Winnipeg-Sun-lays-off-five-employees-134616643.html

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous17 February 2012 at 18:12

      I know a very experienced 32 year vetran BUMPED by a 7 year from another departmentwith no experience .how is that justified

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20 February 2012 at 13:59

      The person with seven years of experience likely made less money than the person with 32 years of experience.
      That's all the justification the bean counters at Sun Media need for whacking someone.
      Loyalty and seniority don't matter to these people.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous17 May 2013 at 20:26

      that's because the 7 year guy had more seniority in the union than the experienced 32 year guy. That's how unions work

      Delete
  2. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 17:50

    A real shame.

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  3. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 18:46

    Any layoffs in Niagara?

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  4. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 19:02

    FYI
    http://www.globaltvbc.com/money/quebecor+cutting+400+sun+media+jobs+through+layoffs+buyouts+attrition+union/6442530886/story.html

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  5. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 20:44

    We haven't heard anything at our Ontario daily, but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's usually a duck.
    Our newsroom, like most, is hardly in a position where we could let people go. It's just so sad.

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  6. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 21:54

    Toronto Sun's imaging department gone in late January. It is being outsourced to India.

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  7. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 22:28

    Any word on who was let go in Calgary?

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  8. Anonymous28 November 2011 at 23:27

    Sounds like Lisa Wilton was let go from Calgary

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  9. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 00:48

    Launch a 24-hour news outlet and of course you layoff reporters!

    And Quebecor won't comment? Probably couldn't find a reporter left around to write a press release.

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  10. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 01:18

    Long-time columnist Mindy Jacobs was let go in Edmonton.

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  11. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 01:50

    Who needs a reporter to write a press release - or a news story? Quality has certainly disintegrated, at least in Niagara. RE 8:44 p.m., you are wrong: There are always ways to eliminate payroll and make those left behind pick up the slack. Papa must need a new sports franchise or something.

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  12. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 07:03

    If it were you, would you really want your name posted on here before you'd had a chance to tell all your family & friends? The numbers are news, but as for the names...how about a little time & space for these people?

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  13. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 07:16

    Any one laid off at the London Free press?

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  14. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 10:03

    We were supposed to move into our new Peterborough office this week but construction was stalled. Now we know reason. Why build workstations and run wiring for people who will soon be shown the door?

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  15. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 13:29

    Who was laid off in Winnipeg?

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  16. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 13:41

    How about getting ride of some of the old, out of date, high paid management rather than low paid content producers. I guess that would make sense, so it's completely out of the question for Sun Media.

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  17. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 16:26

    You can't beat the Peterborough Examiner for letting us know who died the day before.

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  18. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 16:34

    Re 7:16 a.m.
    Mark Beers, union chair for the London Free Press, says 12 people took the voluntary buyout and five people were laid off plus one person who was kept but got reduced hours.

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  19. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 18:11

    Mindelle Jacobs, a long time Edmonton Sun columnist is the biggest name connected to the layoffs in Edmonton. She will be missed

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  20. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 19:50

    Re. 10:03 a.m.....For the record, the Peterborough Examiner construction has not been stalled...
    It would seem that Sun Media competitors love to post anonymous comments in order to stir things up.

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  21. Anonymous29 November 2011 at 22:58

    One long time ad rep in Welland was let go on Tuesday morning. That makes three ad reps to be let go at the Tribune in the last month or so. One was 'early retirement', but we all know what that means.
    Editorial department hasn't been touched there, or at the Standard or Review. No word on whether anyone else in the Niagara chain was let go

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  22. Anonymous30 November 2011 at 00:03

    None of the local papers are really local when they are stuffed with at least 4 pages of generic Sun crap...every day! It's a sinking ship.

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  23. Anonymous30 November 2011 at 16:10

    Jim Cressman, longtime sports reporter, and veteran photographer Sue Reeve, are among those at the London Free Press who have taken buyouts.

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  24. Toronto Sun Family1 December 2011 at 03:52

    Three days later, any official buyout and layoff numbers at each paper across the Sun Media chain?

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  25. Anonymous1 December 2011 at 09:05

    The most infuriating thing is whenever this happens you always hear companyspeak that it makes the Sun a "stronger company". The first time I experienced a layoff I was a newbie reporter and I actually called out senior management for saying that during "the staff meeting". I probably killed my career at the Sun then and there but I got a few back-slaps afterwards. By the way is anyone else having trouble accessing the "Layoff Forum"? I had to come here through Google, not the main TSF page where the link isn't working.

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  26. Anonymous1 December 2011 at 09:13

    I suppose the closing of the graphics and production departments was inevitable considering mediocre is all it takes to satisfy the lucky folks who get to make the decisions about who goes and who stays. It's the ''cherry picking laced with politics'' however that really hurts. No one is watching the hen house at the over paid senior management level. And this has been going on for a very long time. I know, it happened to me two years ago.

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  27. Toronto Sun Family1 December 2011 at 15:04

    9:05 a.m.: TSF layoff forum links working fine here.

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  28. Anonymous1 December 2011 at 18:41

    9:13 - senior management will have their day eventually too --- it is inevitable that this company will eventually figure out that it is cheaper to have one ME in charge of 10 papers as opposed to just a few now, and one group publisher can be in charge of 11 newspapers not just a couple

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  29. Mark A1 December 2011 at 19:13

    @TSF : The headline links don't work for me either (using Mac/Safari). Started with the Tuesday Nov 22 post.

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  30. Toronto Sun Family1 December 2011 at 21:06

    That is puzzling. Does the TSF blog archive link for "layoff forum" to the left work for you?

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  31. Anonymous1 December 2011 at 21:13

    @6:41: Not just senior managers, but mid-level ones. In many of the smaller and medium-sized papers, the number of managers exceeds the number of employees, not least because salaried workers were laid off but managers were not. I don't really get that business model of maintaining higher-paid managers who don't actually work while laying off lower-paid people who write stories and take pictures and stuff. I also note that their perks have not been cut either. We don't have a newsroom cell phone, but every manager has a Blackberry.

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  32. Anonymous2 December 2011 at 02:54

    Only the link on the side worked. Can't help but wonder if all the investing in new ventures in recent years will be what ends up costing many more newspaper employees their jobs. From the numbers that were out about the revenue made by 'news,' the drop didn't appear that drastic. Is the new TV station/website/video emphasis more lucrative than traditional newspapers?

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  33. Anonymous2 December 2011 at 07:09

    At the paper I worked, every senior manager had a company car....even the publishers assistant. The concert tickets that once were used to perk hard working employees stopped being available to middle management to use as incentive, they all went to senior and their friends and family. Most of middle management (and I was one of them) worked hard. We were the buffer and definitely were not in the club. Without union protection...and pushed around. Even walked in on my director playing on Facebook. So, you see....

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  34. Anonymous2 December 2011 at 10:16

    Ha, TV station lucrative? I'm sure its 6,000 viewers enjoy it. Try selling those numbers to advertisers. Not going to work.

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  35. Anonymous2 December 2011 at 16:00

    7:09 in our group, the group GM still has a personal 'club'. If you are one of the managers in the group but not one of those 'pets' lucky to be in that inner circle, you are kept out of the loop on almost e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g

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  36. Anonymous2 December 2011 at 20:33

    Kathy Rumleski,it is reported by her on her blog, that she took a buy out from the London Free press after 17 years.

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  37. Anonymous3 December 2011 at 00:24

    National Photo Editor A.P. Hovasse and two national Biz reporters axed this week. A.P. was only there 18 months or so.

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  38. Anonymous3 December 2011 at 23:06

    The Toronto Sun is losing veteran crime reporter Rob Lamberti and photo vet Mark O'Neill to buyouts. Could be more.

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  39. Anonymous4 December 2011 at 13:46

    Dump veteran writers that readers enjoyed and followed and were willing to go buy a paper to read their content.

    Makes perfect sense to boost readership.

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  40. Anonymous5 December 2011 at 19:11

    I'm certain the circulation people who provide me with my Sun every day must have been let go.

    How else to comprehend why, after months of not getting a daily paper, and not asking to re-subscribe, I'm getting a paper now? As far as I know, I'm not paying for it.

    And if they keep getting rid of high quality folks like Lamberti, why they hell would I continue to read it?

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  41. Anonymous8 December 2011 at 19:22

    Attn: mods - I was the poster at 9:05 AM on 1 December reporting I couldn't access this forum. Now I can, but it's Forum 2's link that isn't working. Weird. I'm using Firefox 8 if that means anything.

    Back on topic, I was just perusing the letter to the editor links for Toronto Sun and I was rather disgusted to see one of those pithy letter replies that I thought was really insulting to the person who wrote the letter. The person was claiming planned city hall budget cuts were going to negatively impact kids, and the reply said something about "what are they putting in the water there - try decaff". Keep 'er classy, Sun.

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  42. Anonymous26 December 2011 at 18:13

    It seems a joke how the number of employee;s at the Toronto Sun have dwindled , but in comparison of the number of management stays the same. It is a sinking ship anyway.

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  43. Anonymous4 January 2012 at 16:33

    I was laid off from sunmedia nov 28. It was an awesome place to work, but unfortunately buying hockey teams and arenas are more important than staff. Good luck quebecor sunmedia staff they are moving all staff to india where employees are cheaper and they can afford to buy the hockey teams and arenas they have always wanted. I cant wait until they layoff more, just to see how heartless they really are.

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  44. Anonymous15 January 2012 at 21:33

    I feel for 1:33pm. Being laid off is most disruptive to ones career goals. I also agree, hockey and arenas seem to be far more important than the underpaid and much overworked few that are left. Wonder how someone in India will take the pic at a local hockey game or how they will deliver those last few papers when the press is late in London or Islington. Lets face facts we are all just a number leading to an end. It hurts when we all care so much about what we do everyday

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous18 January 2012 at 20:45

      I work for Sunmedia. It has been scary since being bought (was previously Osprey) by Sun Media as i have seen many good people being lead to the door. Hope my job is safe lucky for me noone in India does what i do here at a local level. I wish everyone the best in their future endeavors.

      Delete
  45. Anonymous26 November 2012 at 22:24

    I worked at the Sun for just over 3 years and was alway's treated with respect from all people
    who I was in contact with.It is just to bad money is put in front of the good worker.It seems to be the new world order.

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