Hamilton key to new CanWest tack
 

Hamilton key to new CanWest tack
GRANT ROBERTSON

Globe and Mail Update

November 11, 2007 at 10:42 PM EST

When CanWest Global Communications Corp. bought into the newspaper industry in 2000, an easily ignored piece of the deal was a small operation in Hamilton that produced prepackaged sports statistics, television listings and weather for the papers involved.

Now called CanWest Editorial Services (CES), the 11-year-old business has grown since then to 20 full-time employees and several more part-time staff. It also sells such content to dozens of papers across Canada and the United States, which prefer to buy the data rather than spend to produce it themselves.

But the Hamilton operation is now being given a larger role inside CanWest, rankling some of the company's newsrooms, which have been faced with job cuts and buyouts over the past two weeks.

As Winnipeg-based CanWest looks to cut newspaper costs and shift more resources to producing news for the Internet, a larger number of news pages from its 10 city papers will be produced at the CES offices in coming months.

Several of CanWest's papers – which include the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal and Vancouver Sun – will have portions of their national and international news pages assembled there, along with auto and travel sections.

The new strategy has caused a string of job cuts and buyouts, which have trickled out paper by paper in the past two weeks. Taken in full, the reductions could total between 80 to 100 jobs, marking one of the larger cutbacks the industry has seen of late, next to 120 layoffs at Quebecor Inc.'s Sun Media chain last year.

CanWest officials say the company is waiting to see how many editorial employees accept buyouts at some papers to determine the total number of layoffs.

Jamie Pitblado, vice-president of promotions and community investment at CanWest's two Vancouver papers, the Sun and the Province, said the decision will allow CanWest to invest more resources in its Internet-based news operations, which could include adding positions on its websites. “I think we're seeing a transition from a newspaper to a news-gathering organization. By moving some of this work out of here [to Hamilton], it will provide us with an opportunity to focus more energy and resources on driving local content, both online and in the paper.”

Focusing on the Web has become the mantra of media operations as online audiences multiply. CanWest wants to staff its Web properties around-the-clock, or at least 18 hours a day, at most papers. One official cited a massive residential fire in Edmonton this summer that began overnight. The event caused a surge in traffic on the Edmonton Journal's website in the early morning, but the online story was delayed due to staffing, the official said.

The impact of CanWest's move on its newspaper operations is significant though.

The restructuring will see 20 to 30 positions bought out in Vancouver, while as many as 10 positions are being eliminated in Calgary through layoffs. About 15 positions could be affected at the Montreal Gazette's 155-person newsroom, with similar numbers expected in Ottawa and Edmonton. The Victoria Times Colonist, a smaller newsroom with roughly 80 people, may not be affected as much.

In terms of dollars, the Montreal paper is faced with buyouts worth roughly $2-million from a total newsroom budget of about $12-million, according to the guild representing editorial employees.

Peter Murdoch, vice-president of media for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, which represents the two Vancouver newsrooms, said he isn't confident that shifting layout and headline writing on national news pages to Hamilton is good for local papers. “This centralization is just slowly eroding local coverage in a whole variety of ways.”

CanWest has been reducing costs throughout its operations. It cut 200 jobs from its television business this year, shifting production work in smaller markets to larger cities where camera work on newscasts can be done by remote. In all, the reductions in print and television could reach 300 jobs at the company, Mr. Murdoch said. “That's a significant amount that's going to show up on their bottom line.”

CanWest disagrees with Mr. Murdoch's suggestion that the company is centralizing its news production. Unlike Quebecor's Sun Media chain, which last year began producing news pages that run in all of its tabloids across the country, Mr. Pitblado said the Hamilton-produced pages will be different for each market. “The decision-making on content and all of that will remain with the newspapers.”

Where's the CanWest newspaper operation in Hamilton? The CHCH building? The Spec is owned by Torstar.

I would assume the Spec building?? no idea though.
soon enough all of these media outlets will be owned by one person or company. Hamilton could use another couple papers, half dozen radio stations and another TV station (all owned by different people!).

Now why would Torstar (the Spec) allow CanWest employees to work in their building? ha

Curious to know where these CanWest employees work at.

With only 20-30 employees and everything done on computers, they wouldn't need a very big office. It could be anywhere.

Which is crazy having 20-30 employees at Hamilton doing all of CanWest newspaper coverage for national, international, auto and travel news.

What's even crazier is that all camera operations at CHCH such as, News at 6, Noon, etc is done by a remote at Toronto. No more cameramen.

Practically all news is pulled from the wire, they don't need to do much.

^which explains the insanely wretched reportage we enjoy from nearly every media outlet today.

lot's of hilarious media related rants on hamilton craigslist lately:
http://hamilton.craigslist.ca/rnr/

I'm now fully understanding why I have had no desire to follow North American media in recent years and am about to give up on the Spec.
Brutal.
There's much I hate about the internet, but international media and independent media is a saviour.
I saw a billboard the other day for CHtv. the background was all these goofy computer-generated images. hilarious.

Only in this Forum would something as positive as work being moved TO Hamilton be spun into a negative.

BTW--last I knew this CanWest pagination operation being discussed was still being operated out of 44 Frid (The Spec). Our local paper The Windsor Star lists that address as a contact for TV listing insert TV Times. Though Torstar owns the building, this is a holdover from The Spec's days as a key Southam News property. It may have moved, or may plan to move, but if so I'm thinking that it's a recent switch.

you're from Windsor???

How did you know it was for CHtv? They have dropped the call letters (and any reference to Hamilton) in all their billboard advertising in Toronto. There, it is simply known as Canada's E! network. No reference to CH or Hamilton.

CRTC can't be blind to their lack of local identity. Adding an extra half-hour of Lori DeAngelis making a fool of herself at an hour where viewership is at its lowest is not what I would describe as enhancing local television coverage. Yet they get away with it. Talk about a toothless watchdog...

He's from Hamilton but lives in Windsor

it was for CHCH news. I guess the newscast advertises their own show to highlight the 'local content'.

Thanks Flar, for paying attention to my posts for the past 2 years. For the record I was born and raised in the Hamilton area (gasp!...in the exurbs) and now live in Tecumseh, Ontario, which is a (gasp!) suburb of Windsor.

So you don't like the type of local content CHCH-TV has added...that's really what you're saying. Back in the so-called "good old" days CHCH had an hour of news at dinner time and 30 minutes at 11pm...and that's it. No noon, no morning...90 minutes of news and hours of sitcoms and serial dramas bought from the U.S.

Bottom line is that successive ownership from Maclean Hunter to WIC to CanWest have each added greater local news content.

BTW, from a business perspective, why would CHCH-TV use local branding in Toronto where they are obviously competing for a completely different audience? Would you prefer a reversion to ONTV when much of the local news content was Toronto-specific in an effort to better compete there?

Did you know that CH Morning Live is one of the highest rated morning shows in Canada? That's why it was extended early recently.

wow. they've obviously tapped into a good demographic. Certainly not my cup of tea. I haven't watched that show in a few years. Granted, I haven't watched much of any TV in years other than sports, TVO and CBC.

to be honest, CH Morning Live is the only CHCH program I CAN stand (minus Lori DeAngelis).
I tend to keep my TV to the weather network in the AM while getting ready, but one can only stand that channel for so long b4 switching. So I'll put it to CH Morning Live.
At least Morning Live doesn't air those stupid pirated US news stories... unless they have started to recently... I have no idea. I tend to watch less than 20 mins of it if I AM watching it.