Work Outsourced from Sun, Province Newsrooms
Sun editor: union concerns over local control 'pretty silly.'
CEP's Bocking: Blames debt.
Work traditionally done in the newsroom at the Vancouver Sun is now being sent by e-mail across the country to be done by non-union staff of the CanWest empire in Hamilton, Ontario, union sources say, claiming the result will be further erosion of the paper's local character and erosion of the unionized work force here.
An announcement of similar in-house work transfer at the Province is expected any day now, and both newsrooms are buzzing with rumors of upcoming cuts to newsroom staff, expected to be announced in the next two weeks.
"Our members are extremely concerned," says Mike Bocking, local 2000 president at the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) which represents workers at both the Sun and the Province. Bocking told The Tyee that work usually done by copy editors laying out pages in the Vancouver Sun newsroom was being sent across the country to a Hamilton, Ontario operation, CanWest Editorial Services, a non-union shop, for lower cost completion of the lay-out .
He said that work from the Province newsroom was soon to be added to the cross-country work transfer, and that similar shifts were taking place at other CanWest papers, including the Ottawa Citizen, where the Newspaper Guild represents newsroom workers.
'Local control, local voice'
"There are important issues here of local control and local voice," Bocking said. "What we're seeing here is an increased homogenization of the news that makes the paper tedious.
"This isn't classic outsourcing because the work is going to another CanWest entity, but the impact on the newsroom and on the quality of the paper is bad," Bocking said.
"Layout might seem like a mechanical or packaging issue to a layperson, but it isn't really. It determines the play you are giving to a particular story. The layout of content is very important, and we think it should be done in the local newsroom. That's why we've launched a grievance about this matter at the Sun, and will soon at the Province," Bocking added.
Sun editor-in-chief Patricia Graham characterizes Bocking's concerns about preserving local control and voice as "pretty silly." She says the transfer of Vancouver layout work to Hamilton is essentially "in the family" and calls the layout being done there "essentially a mechanical function."
"For years," Graham told The Tyee," we've had some stock and sports, movie and TV listings done outside the newsroom. More recently we've started to have other pages done in Hamilton, but all the important decisions are made here in Vancouver."
In addition to the union concern about newsroom work lost to Hamilton, Bocking said that the CEP was hearing very credible rumors that both the Sun and Province would be announcing newsroom layoffs at staff meetings Wednesday, Nov. 7.
"I have heard from reliable sources that layoffs are coming," Bocking said, "and if these predictions are true, they only represent more erosion of the newsroom, a trend we've seen for a long time now at CanWest. There used to be a lot more unionized workers in the two newsrooms than there are now, and the threat of more job losses and the current moves to send our work across the country both suggest the trend is continuing. This is a product of insane levels of media concentration in Canada."
Concentration and debt
Sun editor Graham, asked on Nov. 2 about these accounts of upcoming lay-offs in her newsroom, told The Tyee, "I never comment on rumors."
Province editor Wayne Moriarty said "I can't give you any information. I can't have my staff reading something in The Tyee before they hear it from me."
On Friday the company reported losing over $50 million on operations in the last fiscal quarter. On Wednesday the publisher of the CanWest-owned Montreal Gazette announced newsroom staffing cuts through "voluntary" measures, and last month CanWest cut 200 jobs at its television stations across Canada, a move the company said would make it "more leading edge."
Bocking told The Tyee that big Canadian media companies repeatedly merge and create huge debt in the process, and then management tries to make cuts to journalists and other media workers to pay off the debt. There is a continual churning of sale and purchase in Canadian media, he said, with control consolidating in fewer and fewer corporate hands.
"It is important that the Canadian Radio and Television Commission and the Competition Tribunal act to stop this process of concentration", he said.
Dwindling newsrooms
The size of newsroom staff at the Sun and Province has been cut in half since the early 1990s, Bocking said, leaving approximately 275 journalists now at the two papers.
The cuts, he emphasized, were not exclusively the work of CanWest. A process of downsizing and attrition has reduced the newsroom under Southam, Hollinger and CanWest ownership since the early 1990s, and has been driven by the perceived need in management circles to address the debt created by corporate mergers by reducing payroll costs, he said.
CanWest is a prime example of the process of ownership concentration that concerns Bocking and many other observers of the Canadian media scene.
Since it was founded as Canwest Capital in the early 1970s, the company, controlled by the Asper family, has expanded both nationally and internationally, with 11 major daily papers in Canada, 20 weeklies and TV operations that claim to reach 100 per cent of the Canadian market.
Currently, CanWest is putting the finishing touches on a takeover of Alliance-Atlantis (which has a big share of the cash cow CSI crime show franchise) with financial backing from New York investment giant Goldman Sachs, a deal that many see as problematic in terms of Canadian policy that prohibits off shore control of Canadian media.
All these deals create debt, as the CEP's Bocking points out, and debt creates pressure for changes that may or may not serve the interests of local viewers and readers, let alone local journalists and media workers. That's what's got many observers worried about changes like the work shifting away from the Sun newsroom.
'Competitive journalism' threatened: UBC prof
Beth Haddon is an adjunct professor at the UBC School of Journalism and a veteran of both print and broadcast media. She sees the news of editorial content work being sent out of town by CanWest management as symptomatic of corporate concentration and that, she says, is reason to worry.
"This sounds like more of what comes when a few companies control media right across the country," Haddon told The Tyee. "Despite all that is said about the benefits of what some people call convergence but I call corporate concentration, it is certainly not good for original and competitive journalism. It just doesn't seem to be working out in the way promised by the enthusiasts."
Outsourcing versus local expertise
Penny Gurstein, a UBC professor who studies job outsourcing and the social impact in the workplace and beyond, also is concerned about the effects of concentrated media ownership in Canada.
"I wanted at one point to do a case study of these impacts at the Vancouver Sun," Gurstein told The Tyee, "but management there wasn't willing. The argument being made by the union about how sending their work out of town decreases local voice and input has some merit. As companies get larger, they end up not knowing about local conditions."
Outsourcing is taking some surprising forms in North America's fast changing media landscape. One California online news source, PasadenaNow.com, has hired outsourced journalists from India to monitor Pasadena City Council meetings on the Internet and file city hall coverage from Asia.
On its website, CanWest Global Communications describes itself as "Canada's largest publisher of English language daily newspapers [which] owns, operates and/or holds substantial interests in free-to-air and subscription-based television networks, out-of-home advertising, websites, and radio stations and networks in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States."
Related Tyee stories:
- Sun, Province Dip to 1957 Level
Combined circulation sliding, but is profit margin? - CanWest Targets Ethnic Readers, Produces Gibberish
Automated 'instant translation' yields instant frustration. - How CanWest Helped Elect Campbell and Company
Unlike the dubious 'strike vote' story, a report bad for Libs lay buried until after election day.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Frank
04-11-2007
Things that make you go hmm
I find it interesting that the Right is always breathlessly claiming the great opportunities before us if we would just become more skilled. That Cdn workers will stay a jump ahead by leaving the hands-on work to developing countries while we concentrate on "knowledge-based" work.
Yet much of Canada' job growth demonstrates the opposite, that hands-on jobs are secure and its the "knowledge-based" jobs that are prone to being outsourced to the developing world.
Financial books can be done anywhere in the world, legal and medical opinions can be garnered from anywhere in the world, software writers can be anywhere in the world, even political journalists apparently can be anywhere in the world. But if you want guys to hold a shovel and dig up the tar sands, you have to hire Canadians.
The lesson perhaps is that students should avoid occupations in the "knowledge" sector and instead stick to careers where the competition is more than a few mouse clicks away.
murdock
05-11-2007
terrible waste of trees
all 'commercial' or 'avert filled' newspapers.
stop buying them.
Jeffrey J.
05-11-2007
Monopolization at work
This continuing trend of Canadian monopolization of our Fourth Estate is following highly predictable patterns. Mergers driven by desire for more profit; financed by increasing debt; resulting in "rationalizations" and lay offs; followed by drop in quality and relevance. It has always been thus, until and unless the public uses legislative tools to restrict monopolization. Which are very simple and very effective. No rocket science there. Except when your government has lost the concept of public good. As both the BC and Federal leaders have done. All of which is a great reason to turn off your monopolized TV and begin reading the independents. Excellent article Tyee!
TTTT
05-11-2007
as much as you'd like
to convince yourselves that no one watches/reads - it really is a silly comment.
Lotsa people read and watch CanWest crap....wishing it away ain't gonna help.
Fiat lux
05-11-2007
Neoclassical economics at
Neoclassical economics at work....so what else is new ? This is going to go on and on and increase by the day, until the papers will be written and all office work ill be done in India, or some other "economically competitive" area
The interesting part is that these so called professional writers and unions, still didn't wake up to the sordid fact of this crap being taught in our universities as a science, then inform the public.
How about the Tyee waking up and starting the avalanche rolling ?
Or is it too much to ask to smell the rot and daring to report this simple and well documented fraud for the enslavement of humanity?
Ed Deak, Big Lake.
Working Memory
05-11-2007
One step at a time
Each time something like this happens it becomes easier to understand why the 2010 Olympics is so important to CanWest.
The money they will receive over the next couple of years in their now official capacity as "Olympics Booster" will come in handy to help keep them afloat until they can regroup and figure out how to keep moving forward.
It's not a coincidence that recently they have been running a number of stories regarding how important the internet is to our community. As usual though, they are a few years late and trail the crowd instead of leading it.
Great article Tom.
southdeltawalker
05-11-2007
News Flash- Fennie leaves Fennies
Yes it true Rob Fennie has left Fennies/Lumiere.
This story of "famous" chef Rob Fennie leaving these restaurants has recieved extensive coverage in the weekend "Sun" and on the front page of today's "Sun". Big news!
Today's front page story reported that: the "leek puree looked dull",
"the "truffle foam" just didn't work
and the "pan fired gnocci...looked more rustic than elegant"..horrors!
With good investigative reporting a thing of the past in the "Sun" newsroom and layoff's looming, fluff pieces reporting on the rich and famous is all that will be left.
Fiat lux
05-11-2007
How about the wonderful
How about the wonderful series last week on the TV by Brian Coxford on how everything is OK, living standards are up. After all even the Fraser Inst. and Jim Pattison declared that future generations will have unlimited opportunities, and they know the facts and are always right ? Right ?
Ed Deak.
alive
05-11-2007
1984
What springs to my mind is that we now will see everything edited from a Toronto perspective, much like the CBC has many news stories that clearly are not based on local input.
Of course it will be easier for "Big Brother" to control our knowledge of the world, if he sits on all the decisions in one place!
Glen Murtz
05-11-2007
Hands On Jobs more "Safe"? Don't be so sure...
Frank Says:
At least until politicians change immigration and visa rules to benefit companies who donate properly - Canada Line anyone?
James Burns
05-11-2007
Dehumanizing work
No you don't, you can import temporary workers from poverty stricken countries to work cheaply, with no protections, because they aren't citizens. That's been happening all over Canada for a long time now, particularly here in Vancouver, with the construction of all the real estate and of RAV. Even then, however, there has been a shortage.
The hardest people to offshore are those that need to be present to be effective, and are highly trained. Teachers, physicians, and most of the trades. Of course all of these can be substituted by temporary imported labour, like the aforementioned tar sands workers. They usually aren't as effective as locals, but they can do the job. For example, we could easily solve our doctor shortage in this country by bringing in Cuban doctors who would give patients far more personalized care. The problem is that the more elite professional associations, like those of physicians and lawyers prevent any real competition. Yet those very same professions are usually comprised of the people most in favor of so-called "deregulated" free markets. Free that is, as long as it doesn't apply to them.
southdeltawalker
05-11-2007
Big Fennie Scoop!
Since my last posting "Fennie leaves Fennie's", I have it on good authority that the "Sun" is busy investigating the uncertain future of Fennie's restaurant's 'famous' $12 hot dog, the "Fennie's Weinie".
This front page story will be called "Fennie's Weinie Bites The Dust".
Stay tuned as this story breaks.
BC Mary
05-11-2007
CanWest confusion is visible in Gangland Shooting
Interesting little collision of facts, fears, and newz over the weekend ...
Friday, the "Top cop" in Vancouver is assuring everybody that generally speaking the citizens have little to fear ...
On Saturday, nothing more about organized crime. But unfortunately, a Shaughnessy resident is lying dead in front of his multi-million $ mansion, his body riddled with bullets. It is presented as a great mystery. The victim is "not known to police".
Sunday, The Province has a different point of view as the story begins to unfold.
Not until Monday did all the big West Coast dailies begin to tell the story. And believe me, it's Organized Crime. The murder victim not only has a name, but also some hotshot status in gangland history as one of the top members of the notorious, most-feared "Big Circle Gang" ...
I am certainly not advocating further integration of the CanWest media. But this sure looks to me as if the CanWest newsrooms are stumbling, scrambling, and falling down in confusion even on this one story of major public concern.
Read more http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com
tricia58
05-11-2007
Outsourcing
Yup does not surprise me. Understanding the term "Neo-Liberalism" explains it to me. The gap between rich and poor will keep growing. The reason for outsourcing is cheaper wages. That means the poor population grows and middle class disappears.
Busting unions is a big part of the plan. Maybe we need to look at England and what they went through with Thatcher. It is happening here. We need to unite and let governments and big business know we will not accept it.
TTTT
05-11-2007
CanWest new profits rise to $197 million
http://www.marketingmag.ca/daily/20071105/national3.html
Excerpt:
CanWest new profits rise to $197 million
CanWest Global Communications Corp. reported higher fourth quarter profits and revenues Friday as the company benefited from a special gain on the sale of its New Zealand and Canadian radio properties and continued cost cutting and ratings increases that helped boost its television profits.
....
Skywalker
05-11-2007
Stop wishing just change sources.
Don't buy their useless rags, ignore their advertisers, it just encourages them. If anyone today wants to know what is happening in the world that is of any consequence, the BC media is the last place to look. If you want to know about the latest celebrity scandal then you can get that from the CanWest group. A public stuffed with the latest titillating details about a celebrity won't have enough time left to deal with hard truthful news.
SharingIsGood
05-11-2007
Canwest-Global
It is beyond me how an educated citizenry can put up with the horrific reporting and now outsourcing of our dollars to somewhere else. They act like they don't know where their advertisers get their money from in the first place. I have no respect for just about anyone connected with the main stream media. I wish all of their employees would take out loans, quit their jobs and form their own independent newpaper and TV station. Those that continue to spew only the hardline neoconservative/fascist dogma could be fired for cause.
If they really wanted to sell newspapers - boost readership, they would report both sides of every story, and they would do it in such a way that we can see the shallowness of worthless politicians when they are being such. Why don't they hold this government's feet to the fire on page one like they did with the last government? Scandal after scandal, and increased impediments to the workings of the government on a daily basis and the Canwest-Global does nothing but post a few collumns that only some people read!
Lilly-livered reporting and publishing! I hope "Rosebud" and images of Citizen Cane fills their restless sleep. I hope they get ulcers and heart disease over worrying about their money and their power.
marshallrmb
06-11-2007
outsourcing
Well, finally the tables have turned on the editorial prima donas...maybe if they had done a little investigative journalism, a lose use of the word "journalism" as most are just cookie cutter variety, work when companies like Quebecor were outsourcing everything and if they had shown some compassion and support for the production departments etc, the world of the newspaper industry might just be a different and better place to be...the editorial groups sat back and watched, even cheered, the closure of most of the production facilities throughout Canada and did nothing...so boys, it is your turn so enjoy.
happy
06-11-2007
Thats a shame
That Canwest media can't be taken seriously. Theres a lovely article in todays Province critical of Campbell that most on this thread would get themselves all hot and horny over as more proof that Campbell is arrogant,shifty and incompetent. But, since that source has been declared Right Wing Propoganda its off limits for critique here. No cherry picking people, can't have it both ways
Frank
06-11-2007
Circulation
Pacific Press attacked the NDP for 10 years. One so-called "scandal" after another.
In the past 6 years, they've supported the Libs. Even things like Basi-Virk have had less column inches than Glen Clark's deck.
In response their circulation numbers have declined by the thousands in spite of the fact that the population has grown considerably. Many have posted on the Tyee that they are ex-Sun and ex-Province readers, but have cancelled their subscriptions because of the bias.
The Sun and Province, refusing to believe it could be their ideology and blatant overboard support of Campbell that could be behind their rapidly falling circulation numbers instead blame the internet.
Right, whatever.
snert
06-11-2007
If you say so. Frank
You trend spotter, you.
SharingIsGood
06-11-2007
BC Liberal Scandals
BC Rail:
* the lie that it would not be sold;
* the way it was sold;
* inflated expenses attributed to sale;
* though profitable, it was sold anyhow;
* pretense that the land is leased(999 yrs)
* Basi and Virk hand-picked;
* Stonewally;
* Falcon's disappearance;
* Taxpayer money for obfuscating kawyers;
* Campbell's no comments.
Convention Center:
* $388 million over budget and counting;
* promised as a supreme example of how to complete a budget on time and on budget;
* poorly managed by Premiere's hand-picked inexperienced, go to guy, Dobell;
Car Booster seats:
* paid fr by province: only available at Liberal MLA offices;
Promise of accountable open government:
* blacking out of information in reports that the public deserves to know about child abuse and the failure of this government to address it;
* Stonewally
* Shortening of question period
* Dobell working to lobby the Premiere while paid by the Premiere
* Paid "media monitors"
Shoddy accounting/accountability practices:
*Claims that public health care will bankrupt system (as created by Liberals) while government hauls in huge surplus that is not spent on Health.
*Huge bonuses for execs of ICBC when good winter weather caused profits to rise.
Health Care:
* Closing rural facilities;
* Privatizing and 3Ps;
* Breaking UN agreements on treatment of workers;
* Tearing up legal contracts with public health employees;
* Contravening the Charter of Rights;
* Closing public senior's facilities and moving them to private facilities away from their friends and loved ones
Increases of poverty and homelessnes during world and Canadian economic upswing - while Liberals vote themselves a huge raise.
SharingIsGood
06-11-2007
Liberal scandals continued
Transportation:
* No toll for sea to sky highway for Whistlerites
* Continued toll on Coquihalla when Liberals memoaned NDP keeping the Toll
* Attempt to sell Coquihalla when promised otherwise during campaign.
* Twinning Port Mann Bridge before designing light rail service.
* Ludicrosity of the RAV line and the toll cut and cover has placed on the life's work of many business people along the way.
* Interior highways in the worst shape in memory of most people.
Education:
* The obvious failure of Bill 33 and the Liberals repeated stance that it is working.
* Tearing up contracts and contravening the UN...etc. There is more
Elections:
* Adding new "pro-Liberal" seats
* Huge contributions by corporations and wealthy owners of multinational stock.
Addictions and counselling Issues:
* Hawaii
* Increasing venues and hours of alcohol distribution
* Increasing VDTs and other forms of gambling
* Lottery ticket scandal
* Privatizing of couselling serves
* Reducing services for victims of sexual abuse
* reduction of probation services
* Doubling of marijuana cultivation
Premier congratulating self "green government" in a town where a behive burner continues to belch out smoke (and will continue to do so), despite its residents top on the list for lung disease.
Forestry:
* Firing of forestry workers rather than send them out to clean up underbrush when told that interface fires could be an issue. Huge interface fires followed.
* Selling off of whole logs from Pacific Coast forests while mills were forced to close down for lack of timber, and while beetle wood in the Interior is going unused/uncut.
Whistler sliding center for more than $100 milllion while no increase in quarters for homeless.
$6.50 per hour training wage! $8 minimum wage while premier voted himself raise of 56% plus increased housing allowances for MLAs.
Mining Issues...
There is lots more, I just grew weary of the heavy load. Listing these things is kind of like Frodo's having to carry the ring.
SharingIsGood
06-11-2007
Liberal Scandals - Happy
Happy said:
Your comment is fair though barely, Happy. What the posters here often talk about is the complete lack of equality in the reporting of the MSM. They are heavily slanted. If I recall correctly, Conrad Black would not let positive things be printed about the NDP in his papers. Certainly, Canwest has been giving us more of the same philosophy: http://www.canadians.org/archive/documents/press_freedom.pdf
Yes, there is the occasional negative article about the Liberals, but it is not six months of front page news about a deck that someone built for his neighbour, something I have done myself for free on more than one occasion. To a builder, a deck is not a big deal, as long as the materials are paid for by someone else, and Clark bought his own materials.
I've listed just some of the huge leadership mistakes and outright scandals that this government has been involved in. This news rarely hits the front page - its often not seen until pg. 12 or 14 of the Sun. Also, most bad news is released on Friday afternoon and it is forgotten in the Press by Monday.
Other Scandal topics:
Outsourcing private medical information of British Columbians to companies from the US.
Sending ferries to be built in Germany rather than having our people build them here.
BC Hydro privatization.
BC Gas privatization.
Graham Bruce: former MLA and paid lobbiest.
Voter cotract scandal
I'm sure if you google: scandal liberal and any of several topics i have provided, you may find scandals that Canwest is giving cursory once overs. Often when they report a scandal, they rehash the BC Ferries. The ferries scandal is now dwarfed by the huge convention Centre and BC Rail.
snert
07-11-2007
None
Inadequate journalism, mostly. Free local rags and the internet tend to make both papers irrelevant for the most part except for the odd 'in depth report'. Remember that BC is probably in the vanguard of change as far as adopting new technology is concerned.
Then again some people just want to save trees or should I say Spotted Owl homes.
Frank
07-11-2007
snert
But the Sun was losing readers even in the 90's, back when we were using Compuserve. That's why they brought in Cruickshanks from the Globe wasn't it?
I think the Sun's problems predate the internet,
snert
07-11-2007
Probably
since before they went to a morning paper. The Sun is still the more interesting. The Province takes less time to read.
Stump
08-11-2007
Lefty slant in the USA
-------------------------------
MSNBC Increasingly Leaning Left
-------------------------------
Riding a ratings wave from "Countdown With Keith Olbermann," a program
that takes strong issue with the Bush administration, MSNBC is
increasingly seeking to showcase its nighttime lineup as a welcome
haven for viewers of a similar mind. Lest there be any doubt that the
cable channel believes there is ratings gold in shows that criticize
the administration with the same vigor with which Fox News's hosts
often champion it, two NBC executives acknowledged yesterday that they
were talking to Rosie O'Donnell about a prime-time show on MSNBC. But
even without Ms. O'Donnell, MSNBC already presents a three-hour block
of nighttime talk - Chris Matthews's "Hardball" at 7, Mr. Olbermann at
8, and "Live With Dan Abrams" at 9 - in which the White House takes a
regular beating. The one early-evening program on MSNBC that is often
most sympathetic to the administration, "Tucker" with Tucker Carlson
at 6 p.m., is in real danger of being canceled, said one NBC
executive, who, like those who spoke of Ms. O'Donnell, would do so
only on condition of anonymity. Having a prime-time lineup that tilts
ever more demonstrably to the left could be risky for General
Electric, MSNBC's parent company, which is subject to legislation and
regulation far afield of the cable landscape. Officials at MSNBC
emphasize that they never set out to create a liberal version of Fox
News. (Jacques Steinberg
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/business/media/06msnb.html 11/6/07)
Frank
08-11-2007
snert
If the comparison is between the Sun and the Province, then sure, I'll take the Sun. And if its between the Sun and the National Post I'll take the Sun too.
But there was a time when, in my opinion, that Pacific Press had a better balance. I could read right-wing opinions like Trevor Lautens but there were also those of a more lefty bent like Lyn Cockburn and Crawford Kilian etc. I also thought the Sun had a good book review section going at one time.
But one by one the voices I preferred disappeared from those papers and were replaced by people who seemed to have "Fraser Institute" in their resume.
Besides the constant attacks on the NDP, the last straw for me was when they hired Michael Campbell. His columns, like his radio show, were constantly political in nature. So I dropped my subscription.
CKNW was already pretty right-wing, voice of the Social Credit party, but just became more so. So I eventually stopped listening to it except for Dan Russel's Sportstalk.
Now I don't claim there isn't a single decent journalist at the Sun and Province. I like Paul Willcocks and on most days Vaughn Palmer. And I used to like reading David Bains. But the wheat to chaff ratio is just not favourable enough to renew my sub. And its not like I'm that hard to please, I prefer to support the local guy in everything including newspapers so I'm more than happy to meet them part way.
As I said before there's probably around 20 or so people who have said on here they can no longer stomach either the Sun or the Province. And with the falling circulation numbers in spite of a growing population it seemed to me that I wasn't the only one that dropped the Sun due to either the attacks on the NDP or the flag waving for the Libs.
Nor do I deny that the internet makes that an easier decision now than it was in the 90's.
Your thoughts?
Watermelon
08-11-2007
Graham's comments
What Patricia Graham didn't mention is that when TV Times listings were outsourced to an American firm in New York, the quality of the product plummeted and several newspapers in the chain saw their Saturday circulation drop off dramatically. The centralization of those listings marked the beginning of the slide in circulation. People who were buying the Saturday paper specifically for the TV Times simply cancelled their papers. Today, in its present format, the grid-style listings are almost unreadable.
CanWest just doesn't get it. Reduce the quality of the product, and people will stop reading it. Sounds like Business 101 to me. They treat readers with contempt, and wonder why circulation is dropping.
It's easy for them to blame the Internet, but it isn't the Internet's fault. It's a lack of vision on CanWest's part. They will never be able to compete with the likes of Google and Yahoo. They should be working on making their printed products better, not worse.
In the meantime, they are opening themselves up to competition as more and more people grow disenchanted with their papers. Eventually, someone is going to twig to that and start putting out papers in markets where CanWest thinks it's safe. It's no wonder projections for CanWest's stock were reduced recently to a range of $5 to $12. Looks like a penny stock in the making to me.
Meanwhile, I'll get my news from Canadian Press and Associated Press free on my Yahoo home page.
Watermelon
08-11-2007
Seasons greetings to the Aspers
As the Aspers throw people out into the street in the name of the almighty buck during this holiday season, they might do well to tune in to an old Christmas classic penned by the immortal Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
From an article by Ingrid Van Mater:
One of the most moving statements in this Christmas tale is by Marley's Ghost when despairing over "life's opportunities misused." Scrooge, trembling with fear and beginning to share in Marley's guilt, says: "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob." Upon which the Ghost cried out in anguish:
Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
kootcoot
08-11-2007
Watermelon + today's sequel
Watermelon, your comments regarding the TV listings are right on. Of course if you prefer the Sun as the lesser evil (as I do) that means the Friday edition. I prefer to watch targeted Tee Vee when I watch it at all, rather than watching whatever is on or I can click to. I particularly resented the way the Sun made the change, as far as I could tell there was no notice, the listings just disappeared for a few weeks and then the diminished version of listings appeared one Friday - of course the elevated Friday Price remained the same the whole time, in spite of the only justification for an increased price for the Friday Sun was/is the listings.
If you check today's front page (of the Tyee) you will see the next article in this series, the other shoe has dropped in the Canned Waste Newsroom.