Rogers Media to trim 200 jobs in TV, radio, publishing and admin

Cuts amount to four per cent of company’s workforce; changes expected at all levels

The governments are going to have to get involved in the public policy solution. HOWARD LAW MEDIA SECTOR, UNIFOR

TORONTO — It was another bleak day for Canadian news outlets on Monday as Rogers Media moved to trim its workforce by four per cent — or 200 jobs.

Rogers Media says the cuts, which will impact jobs in television, radio, publishing and administration, are part of efficiency efforts at Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s largest telecom companies.

A memo to Rogers Media staff says the job cuts will begin in February and will conclude as soon as possible.

“Today’s announcement impacts all areas within Rogers Media, except the Toronto Blue Jays,” said Andrea Goldstein, the company’s senior director of communications, in an email.

Rogers Media operates 24 TV stations, 52 radio stations, 57 publications and 93 websites.

Goldstein said “it is too early” to identify specifics about which programs or publications will be affected. She said changes will happen at all levels in the company across the country.

The latest layoffs come after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission was told that half of the country’s local TV stations could be off the air by 2020 without a boost in revenues to pay for local programming.

The warning comes in a study submitted to the federal broadcast watchdog as it kicked off hearings into local and community television programming in Gatineau on Monday.

Howard Law, director of the media sector for Unifor — a union representing some Rogers Media employees — said the news of yet more layoffs in the media business is foreboding.

“We’re going down the path where journalism and the coverage of news that’s important for a functioning democracy is at existential risk in this country,” he said from Ottawa.

“As the bodies pile up, as we have more layoffs, less coverage of news, more closures of either television stations or newspapers, the governments are going to have to get involved in the public policy solution,” said Law. “And that discussion is going to have to start soon.”

Rogers did not announce plans to offer employee buyouts, but if workers come forward requesting a package “we will evaluate at that time,” Goldstein said.

The company also recently announced a $5 price hike to monthly share-everything cellphone contracts for new customers and $10$15 increases in monthly costs for new customers who bring their own devices.