Canadian media conglomerate Bell Media announced Thursday that it is laying off a total of 4,800 employees, or 9% of its total workforce. The company also reported that it is putting 45 of the group's 103 radio stations up for sale.
The news was announced by the company through an internal statement, which assured that networks such as CTV and BNN Bloomberg would be immediately affected due to personnel cuts. The radio stations that are for sale, the AP reports, are located in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
The memo, signed by Dave Daigle, vice president of local television, radio and Bell Media Studios, and Richard Gray, vice president of news for Bell Media, includes another series of changes. The first is the end of midday weekday newscasts on all CTV stations except in Toronto. In addition, they will end the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts that air on CTV and CTV2 stations on the weekends, with the exception of those that air in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
British Columbia premier strongly opposes Bell Media layoffs
The decision did not sit well with British Columbia Premier David Eby. In statements reported by CBC, he said that Bell Media's parent company, BCE Inc., is carrying out the company's largest round of layoffs in the last 30 years. He says this greatly affects British Columbia, as 21 of the 45 stations that are going to close are located in this province:
On behalf of all British Columbians that have watched their local news station slowly turn to garbage by these companies, who now say, unsurprisingly, that there is not a lot of support for them, I just want to say: shame on you.
Although BCE Inc. tried to justify the need to make staff cuts as it found itself in the middle of a strong "digital transformation," Eby did not consider the argument valid and assured that the corporation is profitable and that, therefore, he does not understand these cuts:
Bell and other corporations like Bell have overseen the assembly of local media assets that are treasures to local communities. They bought them up, like corporate vampires, sucked the life out of them, laid off journalists.
