Employees at two of B.C.’s biggest newspapers were warned Wednesday that their jobs are on the line in the midst of severe revenue declines.
Staff at the Vancouver Sun and The Province received a four-page memo from their new president detailing the company’s financial woes.
Gordon Fisher, the new president and publisher of Pacific Newspaper Group, said in the ominous letter that job cuts are inevitable.
“We must take some immediate steps to stop the bleeding,” Fisher wrote, adding that he believes the business model of the publications can be re-engineered.
PNG will offer a voluntary staff reduction program with the incentive of a buyout, Fisher said, but those cuts will likely be followed by involuntary layoffs.
The publisher says it’s taking drastic action in light of an unprecedented drop in profits. Despite growth in digital revenue, year-to-date financials at the end of March showed traditional print revenue was down 16 per cent.
These challenges have become a trend, as the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail also announced buyouts in the last month.
Alfred Hermida, associate professor at the UBC School of Journalism, said papers need to ask fundamental questions about the market they serve in changing times.
“Layoffs are happening in an industry that’s having to make a transition to digital, and it’s happening much faster than people expected.”
He says the Sun and The Province face the challenge of serving a metropolis where people have the option of reading area-specific publications.
“They need to think, what do Vancouverites need from our service, and how can we best provide it?”
