By: E&P Staff The Winnipeg (Manitoba) Free Press and Torstar Corp., parent of the Toronto Star, are both resorting to layoffs.
The Free Press, which started the year by a number of jobs, reported late yesterday that Publisher Bob Cox confirmed that five employees were laid off -- three newsroom staffers and two technical maintenance staffers. Three other jobs were eliminated in the latest round of cost cutting when positions of employees who took early retirements were left unfilled.
?We?re trying to keep layoffs to an absolute minimum, but we do face very substantial revenue challenges,? Cox told his paper.
"Revenue is down, but unlike a lot of other media outlets right now, the Free Press still makes money," Communications, Energy and Paperworkers of Canada representative Paul McKie told the Winnipeg Sun.
Torstar, which last week reported a $211 million quarterly loss (E&P Online, Feb. 26), is eliminating 60 jobs ? unionized workers and manager -- at its Vaughan printing plant, near Toronto. In February it cut 64 jobs at its Metroland Ontario dailies in Hamilton, Guelph, and The Waterloo.
The Canadian Press reports that staffers were notified of the cuts in a February memo. Toronto Star Publisher John Cruickshank said the reduction was caused in part by the smaller size of the country's largest-circulation daily.
Those losing their jobs will keep working for three months, as their contract requires. More than 400 people work in the Vaughn plant, which also prints a number of other publications.
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