A look at how the Bell layoffs affect their journalism platform

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This article was published 14/06/2023 (902 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – BCE Inc. announced Wednesday that it is cutting 1,300 positions, around three per cent of its workforce, and closing or selling nine radio stations as the company plans to “significantly adapt” how it delivers the news. Here’s a look at who and what’s affected by the cuts to their journalism platform.

Fewer Journalists

The layoffs include a six per cent cut at Bell Media. Many of those who received notices of their termination shared the news on social media throughout the day, including some of Bell’s prominent journalists.

As part of Bell’s shift to a more streamlined newsroom across its brands, the company said CTV National News executive producer Rosa Hwang is no longer with the company, effective immediately.

The company updated the online profile of several journalists to say they were no longer with the company.

Those include CTV National News Ottawa bureau chief Joyce Napier, senior political correspondent Glen McGregor, chief international correspondent Paul Workman, London news bureau correspondent Daniele Hamamdjian and Los Angeles bureau chief Tom Walters.

The cuts come as part of a wider wave of cuts in journalism this year.

In the U.S., the media industry has announced more than 17,000 cuts so far this year, the highest year-to-date on record, according to the May 2023 Challenger Report, which tracks layoffs. The second-highest year-to-date for the sector occurred in 2020, when 16,750 cuts were announced through May.

In 2021, Bell Media laid off 210 employees in the Toronto area.

Smaller footprint

CTV’s foreign bureaus in London, U.K, and Los Angeles are set to close while its Washington, D.C. will be scaled back.

The company said it would shutdown Winnipeg’s Funny 1290, Calgary’s Funny 1060, Edmonton’s TSN 1260 Radio, Vancouver’s BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 and Funny 1040, along with London’s NewsTalk 1290.

It is also selling Hamilton’s AM Radio 1150 and AM 820, as well as Windsor’s AM 580, to an undisclosed third party, subject to CRTC approval.

The company did however say it was adding videographers to four new provinces, including immediately in St. John’s, N.L. and Regina, Sask., with others to come later this year in Fredericton, N.B. and Charlottetown, PEI.