Bell ends some newscasts, sells radio stations amid widespread layoffs
Bell Media is ending multiple television newscasts and making other programming cuts after its parent company announced widespread layoffs and the sale of 45 of its 103 regional radio stations.
In an internal memo to Bell Media employees on Thursday, it said news stations such as CTV and BNN Bloomberg would be affected immediately.
The radio stations being sold are in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
The memo, signed by Dave Daigle, vice-president of local TV, radio and Bell Media Studios, and Richard Gray, vice-president of news at Bell Media, said weekday noon newscasts at all CTV stations except Toronto would end. It is also scrapping its 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on weekends at all CTV and CTV2 stations except Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.
Daigle and Gray said “multi-skilled journalists” would replace news correspondent and technician teams reporting to CTV National News in Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, while other correspondent changes would be made in Ottawa.
Earlier in the day, Bell Media’s parent company BCE Inc. announced it was cutting nine per cent of its workforce.
The company, in an open letter signed by chief executive Mirko Bibic, said 4,800 jobs “at all levels of the company” would be cut. Fewer than 10 per cent of the total job cuts are at Bell Media specifically.
The job cuts mark the second major layoff at the media and telecommunications giant since last spring, when six per cent of Bell Media jobs were eliminated and nine radio stations were either shuttered or sold.
Bell chief legal and regulatory officer Robert Malcolmson in an interview with The Canadian Press said Bell Media is in the midst of a “digital transformation” for both entertainment and news.
But whether or not prioritizing digital growth is viable for the company in terms of generating profit remains to be determined.
“We’re investing in it; we’ll see,” said Malcolmson. “Without some form of regulatory supports, it’s tough.”
He blamed the federal government for taking too long to provide relief for media companies as well as the CRTC for being too slow to react to a “crisis that is immediate.”
The federal government argues it has done a lot to help the news industry and accused the company of breaking its promise to invest in news after being granted more than $40 million in annual regulatory relief.
Bell Media’s advertising revenues declined by $140 million in 2023 compared with the year before, and the company’s news division is seeing more than $40 million in annual operating losses, Bibic stated in his letter.