Tuesday 13 May 2014

Spring 2014 open forum

Have your say about 2014 happenings at Sun Media, including more cuts said to be on the horizon.

85 comments:

  1. The Dim Reapers strike again - managers being laid off across the chain, though unclear yet if it's every managing editor or just some. Several Ontario dailies lost their MEs today. Other senior staff also cut.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The plan is one ME overseeing satellite papers and new regional news teams reporting for more than one paper in each group rather than each paper having its own news staff. Don't believe it.... just watch and wait

      Delete
  2. Managing editors I know got cut:
    North Bay Nugget
    Niagara Falls Review
    Belleville Intelligencer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Niagara Falls managing editor position was eliminated in the last round of cuts, as was the editor in chief position.

      Delete
    2. Actually, Niagara Falls editor in chief and ME are two people who serve the same functions in St. Catharines. The Review lost its regional news director, who until last year was its editor in chief a situation that changed when the news staff was moved to St. Catharines.

      Delete
  3. Webco printing in London closed. As many as 40 gone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. More than 40^

      there were companies that relied on this printing company and now are out of jobs.

      Delete
    2. WOW! Just when you think they can't be any more unprofessional they pull this. Here's the conversation in Toronto.. let's close Webco, leave the customers to fend for themselves, and just to top it off give them two weeks notice. Great business acumen Stun Media. I hope the advertisers know there are LOCAL alternatives popping up everywhere, wonder why?

      Delete
  4. Chip Martin, reporter for The London Free Press since the 1970s, voluntarily departed today. Made public via Twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. One multimedia journalist position and one management position in St. Catharines. Quebecor is purposefully running its community papers into the ground.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So unhappy to hear that. Can you share the names of the people losing their jobs in St. Catharines? I'd like to see if I can give them a hand with anything :(

      Delete
    2. Can you give a hand to those of us in Niagara that were laid off last round or should I say rounds?

      Delete
    3. I was one of those cut in those previous rounds; if anyone needs a hand getting their resume tuned up or if you need help getting an internet portfolio or website contact me and I'll see if I can help

      Delete
  6. Presses shutting down in the Sault and Timmins, mailrooms closing in the Sault, Timmins and North Bay all northern printing will be done in North Bay.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. heard something about operations manager at LFP leaving as well. Maybe he couldn't take the changes anymore?

      Delete
    2. He's gone

      Delete
  7. Last I heard, the Niagara Falls Review didn't have a managing editor (cut in the December layoffs)... any idea what's going on there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Last round of cuts, the managing editor's job in Niagara Falls was cut. The ME in St. Catharines took on the roll of managing the Niagara Falls newsroom, which was shipped to St. Catharines.
      The editor in chief of Niagara Falls was demoted, so to speak, to page/copy editor for all three papers in Niagara. That person is one of the two leaving the Standard now.
      Only a matter of time before there is one paper in Niagara. Whether it is the union people who end up being screwed at the Standard and Review, or the non-union people who are screwed at the Tribune, by an inevitable merger is the only question that remains.
      Sun Media doesn't care about the communities it claims to serve.

      Delete
    2. Agreed. I think it will be the non-union Welland editorial staff that will be let go. That opinion is based on law that says you can't close a union shop to set up a non-union shop across the street.

      Delete
  8. Mailroom staff in North Bay were also let go last week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where will the inserting be done, if not in North Bay? Wonder if the pre-print business clients know what is happening. Will be almost impossible to get product out on time. Let face it most of Stun Medias business is inserts, now they seem to be walking away from that too?

      Delete
  9. Clearly, $15 million in profit for the news division in the first quarter was not enough. Work harder, people!

    ReplyDelete
  10. When the annual December chop was done, it was stated (with knowledge) in this forum that Round 2 was planned to start this spring and it is now underway. The next two months will be brutal

    ReplyDelete
  11. I was gone several rounds of cuts ago and I'm glad. It's hard having to do your job, waiting for the inevitable axe to fall. For those who are still going through this process, know there is hope after Sun Media.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Via Twitter:

    "Steve Ladurantaye ‏@sladurantaye 25m
    Ottawa Sun/Sun Media has added @CJ_Stevenson to its list of layoff casualties. I'm a big fan of his."

    ReplyDelete
  13. i own a community paper in alberta, looking for experienced salespeople.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know the newspaper business is tough right now, but the Sun chain seems to be guilty of the worst management imaginable. Not only do they screw their employees, they screw the communities they operate in by providing bare-bones service, abysmal local coverage and a disdain for improvement, which only results in even less ad revenue. Horrible company.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Rod Hilts, Chatham and Sarnia managing editor, chopped this week. Editorial shots now being called from London.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Senior editor has also left. Seems like local means London calls ALL the shots now.

      Delete
  16. Sarnia also lost someone in circulation sales, not confirmed

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Confirmed! Lost the regional circ manager last October.

      Delete
  17. When will the madness end??

    ReplyDelete
  18. I fear the end is coming faster than Stun Media thinks. What a shame they have taken a company and completely destroyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. The die is cast. It's over. The point of no return is long past. The Gods are already operating in karma with Sun Media. Peladeau's political destruction (as well as some of his brain, legs, hip and face after his bicycle mishap) is only part of the story. This past week the Toronto Sun had a major screwup on page 2 of the paper and word is it was due to the pre-press positions being outsourced. I am sure we can expect more of the same. Rest easy, the shrill calls of the idiots Levant and Menzies are on the clock. They will soon rest on the ash heap of history.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Throw Cornhole and Lilley on that particular pile as well. Aside from Akin, who's a class act, our so-called Sun News Network is an embarrassment to broadcasting. On Friday afternoon, Menzies was blathering on about how barbecues are the purview of men - it was neither news, nor funny, nor hard-hitting, just inanity that wouldn't even make the grade on a community access show produced by high schoolers. The night Rob Ford told Warmington he was taking a leave of absence, you'd think there would be co-ordination between the Sun and Sun News to release it as a package on all 'platforms'... instead, they continued to run the re-broadcast of Ezra ranting about Muslims or anti-frackers, and plugging his latest book, not even posting something on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. And the next morning, when the network finally got to the story, the best guest they could cobble together was a columnist from the National Post - while the TorSun types were making the rounds of CP24 and the American networks.
      Sun News could have been so much more than it is, and it could have been better thought-out than it is, rather than a money-losing plaything for Teneycke (someone else who needs to go overboard) that's costing the rest of the company its reputation and its ability to serve the communities where it still publishes newspapers.
      The news division had $15 million in net revenues for the first quarter (Sun News probably had $2 million or so in net losses), and they continue to gut without any understanding of how this is crippling their products, both externally in terms of the product they're producing, and internally in terms of morale and succession planning in newsrooms - where you need the 'old hands' to guide the newbies.
      I can't tell if it's mismanagement, or they're trying to minimize costs as much as possible in order to sell, either as a group or piecemeal. I get the sense it's a little from Column 'A', and a little from Column 'B'.
      Have I ranted enough?

      Delete
  20. What was the major screwup on page 2?

    ReplyDelete
  21. They always say Karma is a bitch, it had to come back on them sooner or later, bravo Karma!

    ReplyDelete
  22. It always seemed like the management decisions were made by mad accountants envious of anyone that could string more than a three-word sentence together. Oddly it also seems like the most self-serving and least astute remain in their respective positions on the management/sales side. As always the question remains: Is the end nigh? Either way it is good advice for those with a few years to go in the working world to begin studying for something else.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The chain has been its worse enemy, contributing to its own demise. First, by throwing the continually decreasing amount of news it produces online several hours before it can be found in print, and expecting subscribers to pay for what is then stale news. Secondly, as an advertiser, how can you throw your marketing dollars into the coffers of a man who is trying to break up the country? There has to be a further decrease in advertising since PKP officially came out of the closet as a separatist.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...or by not understanding the internet at all, and refusing to "throw stories" up on their websites before the print edition comes out, thereby getting scooped by all of their competitors.

      Delete
  24. I would also like to know what the "screw-up" on page 2 entailed. Does anyone know?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ask anyone in Toronto what they understand...EVERYTHING, wow to be that blind. They centralize everything only yo keep moving the jobs further away from each market. Advertisers are finding out about India doing ads and the circ call centre in Sarnia is just a joke, soon to be moved to India as well?

    ReplyDelete
  26. The "screwup" I believe was actually on page 2 of sports, the new pre-press facility accidentally ran an old page instead of the proper one. Great points on Sun News, in typical company fashion they did it on the cheap, and that's not something you can get away with easily on TV. I'd guess the channel has another year of shelf life max, Tenecke was on record saying they couldn't survive without carriage help, which they didn't get. The numbers are still awful and not improving.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Never been happier to NOT have it as part of my TV watching experience. I'd rather watch grass grow or paint dry, far more exciting and from the three minutes I watched online, far more accurate. A new low on the new front FOX north haha gives FOX a bad (if possible) name.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Nobody in their right mind is not looking to get out from under Sun Media. More weekend, night shifts and ragged schedules for those left behind is taking a toll on quality of life.

    ReplyDelete
  29. In our office we have gone from saying 'do you think they will close us' to now saying 'when they close us' in our conversations

    ReplyDelete
  30. They cut a reporter in Welland Wednesday, demoted the ME to reporter and announced all editorial staff are moving to St. Catharines to work out of the Standard office. So all daily reporters in Niagara all work out of St. Catharines.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is the first step toward the new model of one central news team in regions

      Delete
  31. What a shame to have to live and work like this.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Eric Bunnell, at the St. Thomas Times-Journal since the 1980s, or even the late 1970s, no longer on the job.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With Bunnell's departure the T-J newsroom is now down to two people. Should we anticipate the restructuring process in Niagara will be followed in southwestern Ontario with the two editorial employees now left in St. Thomas moving to London Free Press offices?

      Delete
    2. Yes, the Niagara model will be applied to other regions east of Niagara

      Delete
  33. No reporters were cut in Welland, that I am aware of. All they did was demote the ME and move the staff to St. Catharines. Wonder how that will work with non-union Tribune staff working alongside union staff from the other two papers.
    Wonder if the union will raise a stink if Tribune staff start to cover St. Catharines and Niagara Falls stories or do union weekend work.
    And you know the next round of layoffs, it will be all the non-union people that go.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Interesting - The Welland Tribune staff is apparently in the process of being moved into the St. Catharines Standard office, following in the wake of their fellows from Niagara falls.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you're not in a union, you might be in trouble. Like them of hate them, in this instance they offer some level of security.

      Delete
  35. Looks like a reporter was also laid off in Sudbury. So glad so many people are losing their jobs so the company could pay off our departing CEO for $7.8 million.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. According to Twitter it's Laura Stricker, who won the Ontario Newspaper Award for municipal reporting last month.
      Sun Media is pathetic. So much great talent gone from the chain.

      Delete
  36. Kelly Pedro is gone from the London Free Press after 12 years there. Follows Chip Martin a few weeks ago.

    ReplyDelete
  37. The ultimate long-term goal for the news side of Quebecor is 100%-outsourced copy (and perhaps one day, web) editing, although there are still many kinks to work out with the sweatshops in India and the Philippines. Don't let the language thing fool you either, it's already being tested. An assignment editor here will pass along filed stories and instruct the offshore rim where to paste them, then need to scrub it afterwards for the inevitable contextual and grammatical errors. The difference is a team here making $40-80k each or a team there making $10-35k each. The Star, Globe and Post have already essentially outsourced their copy editing domestically, Sun Media will do them one better based on their cheapness. Reporters will still be necessary, but they will be skeleton and mostly straight out of school. Columnists will solely be freelancers. And Mulroney's ascension to Quebecor board chair is nothing more than a strategic move to help with future air rights procurement from Ottawa, as well as an attempt to neutralize Peladeau's disastrous sovereignty adventure. GTFO now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe Mulroney can end the 5+ year wage freeze and start running this like a company with a future. At least the country knows how Peladeau really feels about anglophones. The further he gets away from operations the better.

      Delete
  38. Respected Mulroney right up until he started with Sun Media, he'll be just like the PKP, just watch

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have zero respect for Mulroney. Hello. Remember the Airbus/Schreiber affair? The introduction of the GST?

      Delete
  39. And now Sun Media, wow I thought he'd have hit the bottom of the barrel by now...oops yup just got there, big Sun Media logo on the bottom of the barrel.

    ReplyDelete
  40. There was one reporter laid off in Welland. She was very junior. Surprised they let her go instead of the ME who makes far more. That's usually the way it goes at Sun Media non-union shops. Lay off the high price staff

    ReplyDelete
  41. Any word on layoffs in the west?

    ReplyDelete
  42. Lay offs in the west always seem to follow a short time after lay offs in the east. It's only fair. Not fair to the east just to get them. What about cutting some fat in HR? They are over paid and ineffective. Just saying.

    ReplyDelete
  43. HR you must mean in-humane resources. All they are these days is hack and slash people. You'd think it would be hard to drive to work wearing the black cloak and carrying around the sickle. Ah Stun Media multitaskers, that's the answer, do more with less...isn't that what they keep saying? Right Mr. Mulroney?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please don't assume people in HR are inhumane because they are just following what they are being told to do, and I know for a fact that morale is low in that department too

      Delete
    2. When I was unceremoniously dumped as part of the November 2012 sweepout, the HR people bent over backwards to help me out. Anonymous 20:39, your complaint is misplaced.

      Delete
    3. That's good for you that HR bent over backwards for you but that is your experience and not the experience of the others posting on here about HR so it's not really fair to say that 20:39's complaint is misplaced. You don't think those in HR have their own biases and favour some over others and are disappointed to see some rather than others go? Obviously you were respected and liked by HR. My experience with HR is that they sit in their corporate big city offices and see the world through their corporate eyes and have no clue what it takes to run newspapers or manage employees in rural areas. They think everyone should "behave" a certain way and "say" the correct words. They don't want to hear anything that doesn't fit what buzz and politically correct words they are used to hearing and only capable of hearing in their four confined walls in the city, which is precisely why the morale is so extremely low at the majority of community papers and there is so very much infighting at many of them and not much productive work is getting done. That and the fact the remaining employees are waiting for axe to fall on them. How can staff function in that environment?

      Delete
  44. Then you got the one good one, I've watched them go through our building and they almost seem to enjoy it. Not misplaced at all, if they were true human resource people, and YES I have worked for a company that does have a human resource department, they would be pushing for more for the employee. Lets look at what they have done for the COMPANY. Benefits cost more for employee (strike one) not many (other than union) age increases (strike two) increased workload with all of the reductions, oh and to top that one off NO EXTRA pay but added duties (strike three). They can say, work for the better of the company, we"ll all benefit? When is that going to happen?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I sympathize with what you went through. My only response to that is... Who mandated these measures?It's the slash-and-burn executive officers of Quebecor, not HR at Sun Media, whose members have the thankless job of delivering the bad news and then catching crap for it. I just can't believe they enjoy their jobs.

      Delete
  45. Definition of HR: Gossip, favourtism and nepotism reign. And sweet deals under the table where the house always wins.

    ReplyDelete
  46. The North Bay Nugget is now looking for a managing editor, what's up with that flip flop?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ME took a buyout, then sports ED was made ME, he was overwhelmed so he quit after a few weeks

      Delete
  47. You seem surprised? Just another direction NOT thought out. ZERO forethought to this machine, it keeps tumbling to bottom.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Rumour has it that the call centre in Sarnia is closing or reducing staff again. Anyone here this news?

    ReplyDelete
  49. Closed effective immediately 80 staff out. Jobs moved offshore...like the others, wow what another mess.

    ReplyDelete
  50. This stuff should be publicly exposed. I'm sure it would go over as well as the foreign worker debacle. I was a casualty of the June cuts but fortunate to get work at another media group. All of Sun Media's woes are the work of Quebecor's mismanagement and everyone still working there or not is in full agreement. I hope Quebecor's braintrust read this blogspot and take note but I doubt it. I feel sorry for the talented and hard working people I left behind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been told by a friend and NOW a former advertiser that they will be bringing this up at the local Chamber of Commerce meeting. The "local" paper as they call it is no longer the truth. The poor souls still slugging are running a losing race to the finish line. He informed me that they are puling all of their future advertising budget to go to radio and the other truly local paper. Hard to argue with the truth.

      Delete
  51. The opportunity to make money on what is left of the Classified market for newspapers is now fully lost. They still owned the market on Obituaries, Real Estate and Employment. The decision to move this work overseas is just plain dumb. But hey, the folks in the call centres made $12 an hour for being order takers. They can now pay $3 an hour for somone in India to do it. Gee, hope they know how to use spellcheck over there, and/or understand the context of a complete sentence.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Complete failure from the start. How does Sun media even still exist? If I ran my house this way, I'd be living in a box in an alley. Oh and just so you know 19:11 the brain trust (if you can call it that) does monitor this blog. Not that it matters I doubt they can read and there are so few pictures on this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  53. What do you get for $1 when buying the Saturday St. Thomas Times-Journal (daily). Well, the 20-page tab had 2 locally written city news stories, a local opinion column, 3 local pics, no local sports, no local ent., no local bus. news, a hand-in 'Meals on Wheels' piece, a submitted church report, a few obits, and done. Good gracious, what a pitiful paper for a city of close to 40,000 people! Sun Media should be ashamed.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Ah but in the end...you still bought it. That's the trap people want the news, think they are getting it by purchasing the "local" paper, jokes on them it's a satellite for the only paper in the region, The London Free Press. Lets face it the only local news now will be LFP. Don't like it don't buy it, which according to CCAB not many are buying it anymore.

    ReplyDelete