I read the news today, oh boy.
BCE Inc. is cutting 1,300 positions, around three per cent of its workforce, and closing or selling nine radio stations as the company plans to "significantly adapt" how it delivers the news.
The company says the job cuts are in response to unfavourable public policy and regulatory conditions that it can no longer outwait.
The plan entails "moving to a single newsroom approach across brands, allowing for greater collaboration and efficiency," said Richard Gray, vice-president of news at Bell Media, in an internal memo distributed to staff Wednesday morning and provided to The Canadian Press.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Bell executive vice-president and chief legal and regulatory officer Robert Malcolmson said the company's media branch "can't afford" to continue operating with its various brands — such as CTV National News, BNN, CP24, its local TV news stations and radio channels — operating independently of one another.
The following Bell-owned radio stations have been shuttered... they're not changing formats, they're literally being turned off.
- Edmonton's TSN 1260 Radio
- Winnipeg's Funny 1290
- Calgary's Funny 1060
- Vancouver's BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410
- Vancouver's Funny 1040
- London's NewsTalk 1290
Bell Media is also selling Hamilton's AM Radio 1150 and AM 820, as well as Windsor's AM 580, to an undisclosed third party, subject to CRTC approval.
As far as firings go, 1300 is a shitload of jobs being eliminated. In addition to the fine people working at the aforementioned radio stations, I'm sure a number of the cuts will be people working at CTV National News, BNN and CP24 as they consolidate. Among the names we know are CTV National News executive producer Rosa Hwang. Leafs Lunch on TSN 1050, has also been cancelled and replaced with syndicated content from ESPN.
If you have any specifics you'd like to share confidentially, my DMs on Twitter are always open and you can write me an email at mike (at) torontomike (dot) com.
And if you're someone affected by this latest round of Bell Media cuts, trust me when I tell you it gets better.
