The wave of layoffs continues in the news sector following the passage of the Online News Act.
One of the things that was repeatedly said with the Online News Act was that it would completely rejuvenate the journalism sector. There would be a wave of hirings and we would be entering this new golden era of journalism. Well, the lobbyists got what they demanded no matter what the experts warned about thanks to the passage of the Online News Act back in 2023. This while concerns about how Australia’s version of the link tax saw the slashing of 1,250 jobs (something that lobbyists pinky swore was a one-off, go figure).
Well, to the surprise of no one paying attention, history repeated itself with a nonstop wave of pink slips in the media sector. Examples include the threat by CBC to lay off 10% of their workforce – a threat only averted when the government agreed to issue a bailout. The CBC then took that money and showered their CEO with bonuses.
Bell media also slashed 9% of their workforce. Corus joined in the festivities of hacking and slashing of jobs with the slashing of 25% of their workforce. This while halting some of their productions with third parties. Global also joined in with the 46 additional pink slips getting added to the flood.
Today, I learned that the flood of pink slips is continuing with Quebec media organization, TVA. In a press release, Quebecor announced the layoffs of 87 additional media employees:
TVA Group has announced that it has been forced to eliminate positions, primarily unionized jobs, in its Broadcasting segment. Permanent positions, temporary positions and shifts related to the operations of the Broadcasting segment are being cut in Montreal and at local stations in Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke Saguenay, and Rimouski. A total of 87 employees are affected.
This decision comes as TVA Group’s financial situation continues to deteriorate. TVA Group has posted cumulative net losses of more than $93 million since January 2022[1]. Its restructuring and workforce rationalization plans have partially offset the decline in advertising revenues, but that decline is a long-term, industry-wide trend that continues to accelerate. Repeated appeals to government authorities to support the private television industry, at a time when it faces fierce competition from the web giants and CBC/Radio-Canada, have been ignored, most recently in the federal budget.
One of the notes left in the press release was something I found interesting:
No announcement on when the digital services tax already paid by private broadcasters will be refunded.
So, it almost sounds like that is one of the ways they are pointing the finger at the government. It is actually kind of ironic given that so many in the media sector were proudly proclaiming the passage as a major success story for Canada (even though it really is not). The media companies pushed the narrative that it was the so-called “Big Tech” companies that would pay for it. People suggesting that it was Canadians that would be paying for this (which is freaking obvious to anyone who have a basic understanding of how taxes works) were dismissed as little more than misinformed or shills working for Big Tech. Here, TVA not only flatly admits this, but even goes so far as to cite this as a relevant reason for the layoffs.
Still, it seems this “golden age” for journalism that was promised by supporters of the Online News Act is continuing as more layoffs grace the headlines. Nothing about this is surprising, but it is, nevertheless, a continued vindication that us critics were right all along.
(Via @Fagstein)
Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.
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