Sun Media has announced closure of 11 newspapers, including several that were closed in the past month or so, and 360 more job cuts across the chain.
The Canadian Press story:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/canadian-press-newsalert-sun-media-cutting-360-jobs-and-closing-11-papers-215683391.html
Five more Toronto Sun employees have been cut and gone are the three 24 Hours free newspapers in Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.
Veteran Sun columnist Mark Bonokoski was one of the Toronto Sun casualties. Names of the four other Toronto Sun casualties are pending.
The once proud and prosperous Sun empire shrinks again. The Globe and Mail lists the eight shuttered paid papers as: L’Action Régionale in Montérégie; Lindsay Daily Post; Midland Free Press; Meadow Lake Progress; Lac du Bonnet Leader; Beausejour Review; Le Magazine Saint-Lambert and Le Progrès de Bellechasse.
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Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Black Tuesday 2013 - 360 jobs, 11 papers
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So how much of the Sun's print empire is being sacrificed to feed the TV monster?
ReplyDeleteFollow Steve Ladurantaye on Twitter. He's posting a lot of info today.
ReplyDeleteA recap:
Deletehttp://www.steveladurantaye.ca/recap-sun-media-layoffs/
It says they are going to one paper in major markets.. any word on whether the Niagara three will be amalgamated into one regional paper?
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the job losses. My heart goes out to anyone who got one of the layoff notices. That was me in 2009 when Sun Media axed about 10 per cent of its work force. I ended up with a better job in a market I always wanted. Keep the faith.
ReplyDeletePapers in Niagara are not amalgamating. That rumour has been around for at least a decade now
ReplyDeleteThey're going to have to cover that $18-million deficit they're running on Stunned TV somehow when the CRTC denies the ridiculous mandatory carriage plea in a world of cable-cutters and Internet streaming. No one's buying what they're selling except about 20,000 mouth-breathers in markets where there are no dental records, all the DNA is the same and banjo music is big.
ReplyDeleteYou're a little harsh on the viewership demographic, but the core point is correct: There's not enough of a demand in Canada for this brand of talk-radio-with-headshots. TV is a far more fragmented market than it used to be. There is still no logical reason for mandatory carriage.
DeleteIt wouldn't be surprising at all to see Sun Media's next throw-it-at-the-wall-and-hope-it-sticks desperate move be the immediate shift of dozens of newspapers to web only
ReplyDeleteHow sad. On Thursday spoke to a reader that made a point to transferred to our reader sales manager to tell him they will not renew..."I don't think you'll be here in three months" was his comment. Indeed sad. Now the readers (what few there are left) have caught on to the mess we are in. How sad truly sad.
ReplyDeleteAnd those who want subscriptions can't get them because no one carries in their area - not that I blame the carriers, who receive a pittance. It's one more nail in the coffin...
ReplyDelete16:20 you hit it on the head. We have always had grumbling in the community about the newspaper because that's just that way it is in this business. But now there is a lack of confidence about our existence. This is the biggest difference. When there is no confidence that your product will be around in three months or next year, advertisers start to abandon you and readers abandon you. The death ball has started an unstoppable roll to the bottom.
ReplyDeleteAnother one bites the dust as, sadly, the Dresden-Bothwell Leader-Spirit is no more.
ReplyDeletehttp://ckdp.ca/2013/07/31/this-is-bad-news-for-the-community-misselbrook-says/
I know Sun Media pulled out of Dresden and I'm guessing they likely abandoned Bothwell as well. I'm sure the loss of a presence in the actual communities the paper was attempting to serve was detrimental to the overall success of the publication.
Sorry to hear about Dresden, though the paper has long gone without an actual dedicated reporter for the publication. While I was punted during the November 2012 cull, I have a number of friends still within the chain that are remain in a constant state of anxiety about what silly boot will drop next.
ReplyDeleteWas Dresden a paid paper? That seems to have made a difference with Stunned Media's accounting crew.
You say whether a paper is paid or not makes a difference. Is it better to be paid or free? We are a free paper. You said people are in a constant state of anxiety and that is true out West too. You never know what they will do next.
ReplyDeleteIf you can go by the history, it's best to be a paid paper. The Windsor, Leamington, and Amherstburg papers were all free distribution. I don't know about Dresden, Meadow Lake, Midland, etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteAmherstburg and Leamington both had free weeklies as competition in their markets. If they didn't offer their papers free as well, their demise likely would have came a lot sooner. After all, what advertiser would't want to hit 9-12,000 homes in a free paper as opposed to 2-4,000 homes in a paid paper?
DeleteThe conversion of some weeklies to free in Ontario in the past month is one last effort to continue them in spite of the fact advertising has been falling and readership has also been falling. When discussion turned to closing them, the 'free' option was put on the table as a 'trial' solution. It will be interesting to see which of the affected papers survive past 2014
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I kind of thought it was better to be paid. We are a free paper now. Used to be paid. Our advertising definitely falling. I guess time will tell over the coming months.
ReplyDeleteFree or not, content matters. The Metroland papers in the GTA are for the most part free at least three times a week. There recently have been times I needed a wheel barrel to carry the paper in, it was so thick with ads. They are relentlessly local. Are Quebecor weeklies relentlessly local? I ask because I have no access to them.
ReplyDeleteQuebecor has multiple Ontario weeklies that technically have no staff. Ads are sold by reps from nearby larger papers and reporters from nearby larger papers write stories. Even the phone numbers get rerouted to the nearby large paper. Communities notice that their 'community' papers have no community in it and we continually insult them by running inhouse ads that say we are part of their community
DeleteLeamington and A'burg's competition came in long after those papers had taken root.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is a lot of things, and content is definitely a big one. When you've got a skeleton crew of editorial types tweeting, Facebooking, uploading to documentum, downloading, shooting video and feeding the Mothership, something has got to give.
That being said, I still believe in print.
How is that the accountants and no. types at the top never seem to have to account for pouring all kinds of coin into the non revenue making digital stuff or, dare I say it? SUN TV.
Yes, the competition in Leamington and Amherstburg came in well after those two papers had taken root, but it did impact the operations of the now-former Sun Media weeklies.
Deletelocal? hardly at all anymore. more people stop because of content now, more than ever. there was a day not too long ago that all of the community papers were, for the most part a very big part of the community. We covered a little bit of everything, and did it well. today we have become the "other guy" that is the last thought in the minds of the few readers we cling to. instead of trying to keep them happy, we though hastily written tidbits, with little effort put into the entire story. not because the journalist can't to it, they just have no time. push digital, that's the motto that is being lost, no one buys the digital, they look at it for free and complain because there is nothing there to read. now advertisers are looking for more "deals" after all how can you expect someone to pay the rates for falling readership? they won't and it shows in the bottom line. the end is very close for some of the marginal papers...sadly we're all becoming marginal.
ReplyDeleteWe are a weekly and yes we are hyper local. Odd to hear it called a Quebecor weekly. We were once Bowes. It wasn't bad when we were first bought out by Sun Media it wasn't so bad. Michael Sifton toured many weekly papers and even took us all out for lunch. At least he seemed to value people. Sure the global economic downturn hurt the industry but sometimes I wonder if PKP used that as an excuse to cut as deep as he did. I hesitate to call him "he" because he can't be human. Can't have a soul.
ReplyDeleteThe cliche used for years by readers about our paper -- "there's nothing in it" -- have never been more true about lack of news about their community
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2013/2013-372.htm
ReplyDeleteWell, we'll have to wait and see what happens now that SUN TV has been denied in their quest for free carriage. Thank goodness for the CRTC having SOME brains!! What this means for the fate of the company? Who knows. I hope it means they can stop patching that $17million/year leak with their weeklies. . . .
ReplyDeleteThat $17M 'loss' figure that keeps getting bandied about is in itself another Quebcor lie… er, spin job.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it curious that the 17 million the company claims it is losing is exactly what they stood to make if their repulsive and unwatchable channel had received mandatory carriage?
Its all about the framing. Little Junior Pierre claiming that he was 'losing' money simply because he wasn't getting it.
Quebecor is certainly not spending seventeen million dollars a year on the no-budget network, absolutely no way. Think about it.
a) They have no overhead at all - the "studios" are inside their nearly empty newspapers, so they aren't paying for real estate.
b) The content is taken from the newspapers, so there is no writing. Any location video is shot by newspaper staff photographers.
c) The talking heads work for a pittance, because having a platform to spout their various agendas is valuable to them. They get their real money from other sources (the ethical oil astroturf group, religious ministries, various back-doors from the conservative party, etc)
At most, Quebecor are paying to lease a couple of satellite trucks and a few substandard part-time salaries for a handful of technicians. Nowhere near 17 million bucks a year.
Say goodbye to the Crowsnest Pass Promoter.
ReplyDeleteBev Ponton, publisher of a Sun Media daily in St. Thomas, Ontario announced her retirement two weeks ago to staff effective late in September with her replacement being Sun Media's senior group publisher Linda Leblanc. Leblanc is also the publisher of the Sarnia daily and weeklies in Petrolia and London. We wonder if Ponton is really a cutback rather than a retirement? If so, does it mean corporately there is a chance of widespread cuts coming around Sept. 24-27?
ReplyDeleteAt some point they are going to start cutting editorial management. Niagara is very management heavy. Seven managers for 19 staff.
ReplyDelete