TORONTO – Rogers-owned Citytv shook up its television operations Tuesday, cutting staff and local news shows in four of its five markets.
A Rogers spokesperson confirmed to Cartt.ca that the restructuring affected 6% of the Citytv workforce across Canada. A Toronto-based blog reports that 35 full time staff were let go from Citytv Toronto, including long time on-air personalities Anne Mroczkowski and Laura DiBattista.
Rogers blamed the move on the economy and “shifting viewer patterns”.
"Today’s changes, although difficult, are necessary to align our operations with the economic and regulatory realities of our industry," said Leslie Sole, CEO of Rogers Media Television, in a statement. "We are improving our core business by tightening our operations and concentrating on the strengths of our top performing local programs."
Citytv will continue to produce its popular Breakfast Television and CityLine shows for its Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg markets. According to the Citytv website, CityNews at Noon, CityNews at Five and CityNews Weekend in the Toronto market have been dropped, as has CityNews International which airs nationally.
Stations in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary had their noon and 6 p.m. newscasts cut effective immediately, but Citytv Winnipeg not included in the layoffs.
Despite the cuts, Rogers said that Citytv will stay true to its intensely-local style.
"We believe in local television," said Jamie Haggarty, EVP Television Operations at Rogers Media Television, in a statement. "We remain committed to innovation and development of our stations to increase our impact on our local markets. We will focus on quality over quantity."
Rogers Media bought the five Citytv television stations from CTVglobemedia in 2007.
– Lesley Hunter
