TORONTO – Global News is cutting close to 80 positions across the country, many of them tied to TV production, as part of its "transformation into a sustainable, digital-first organization".
A story on the Global News website said that the company will add 50 new positions in “the growth area of digital news”, mostly journalists who will file for new, local versions of the Globalnews.ca website in Ottawa, Kitchener, Guelph and Barrie in Ontario.
Global already has 18 websites across Canada that it says were born from the company’s traditional television and news-talk radio stations.
“With digital platforms, our audience no longer is tied to just the locations where we have TV and radio licences, so we will be adding journalists to cover local news in markets where we see opportunity created by the recent closure or consolidation of local newspapers”, said Troy Reeb, SVP of Global News and Corus Radio, in the story.
Impacted employees who qualify will be given the opportunity to apply for the new jobs. The news organization added that it is also expanding its content internationally and launching a podcast production team that will work with both internal radio and television talent as well as third-party producers.
Despite the cuts, Reeb said that Global News will not be producing less content or fewer hours of television news.
“This is an opportunity (to) have coverage that’s closer to home,” he added. “We’ve always seen local news as the front door to the rich content Global News has to offer. Now, we’re opening up more doors.”
Unifor, the union representing many Global News journalists, said that the outlook of broadcast revenues in Canada are “bleak” if “the government doesn’t take action now.”
“The federal government stood by while Canada’s local newspapers struggled and now our members in TV news are being asked to do more to fill the same number of programming hours with fewer resources, all on this government’s watch,” said Unifor national president Jerry Dias, in a statement. “The CRTC paved the way for the cuts announced today by watering down the obligations for big media companies like (Global parent) Corus to protect local news and it’s proving disastrous.”
