BCE cuts raise questions about future CTV news strategy, highlight tech pressures

TORONTO –

The pressure going through conventional TV news organizations is well-established however a swath of layoffs that reduce a number of of CTV’s best-known news personalities was a shock to many, together with nationwide reporter Joyce Napier.

Until final week, Napier served as reporter and Ottawa bureau chief for “CTV National News,” however out of the blue discovered herself jobless when guardian BCE Inc. introduced Wednesday it was shedding 1,300 positions all through the corporate, consolidating media operations and shutting overseas bureaus.

The cuts raised instant questions on how the technique will have an effect on the standard of news protection and what’s in retailer for CTV’s flagship night newscast.

Reached in Toronto after the announcement, a realistic Napier stated she’s “philosophical” concerning the finish of a seven-year run with the media big, which like many firms faces a chronic promoting stoop, fracturing audiences for conventional TV news and increasing tech rivals.

While employees anticipated “a restructuring” was within the works, particulars have been “very much a mystery,” she stated. Her feedback have been echoed by one other laid-off journalist and a former colleague nonetheless with the corporate, neither of whom would go on the file.

“The warnings were there, the concerns of the higher-ups were expressed in that the financial situation of Bell Media wasn’t ideal,” stated Napier, fast so as to add that many devoted, hardworking colleagues stay to steer the ship.

“You don’t need to even read between the lines to know that something was coming (but) I did not ever think it was this magnitude.”

High-profile cuts embody senior political correspondent Glen McGregor, chief worldwide correspondent Paul Workman, London news bureau correspondent Daniele Hamamdjian and Los Angeles bureau chief Tom Walters.

Foreign bureaus in London and Los Angeles will shut, whereas the Washington, D.C., workplace is scaling again “to focus more fully on important news from the U.S.A. and the impacts on Canada,” vice-president of news Richard Gray stated in a letter to employees, including main tales will nonetheless be coated “on-location around the world when needed.”

Nevertheless, digital news continues to develop and employees will probably be added elsewhere, Gray added.

He stated videographers will instantly be stationed in Regina and St. John’s, N.L., and later this 12 months in Fredericton and Charlottetown — strikes that can put CTV National News journalists “in every province for the first time ever.”

A request to CTV News for remark and additional particulars was declined.

While the total scope of Bell Media’s plans have but to be disclosed, an trade marketing consultant with Pivotal Media stated the modifications recognized to date will nearly actually reshape its flagship newscast, “CTV National News With Omar Sachedina.”

“If you eliminate half of the veteran faces that have been there for a decade plus, of course, it’s going to look different. How they fill that vacuum remains to be seen,” stated Jennifer Burke, a former anchor for CTV News Channel who anticipated extra news footage from exterior sources.

“Instead of Paul Workman reporting out of London or Daniele reporting out of London, they’ll just take an American feed instead, an American reporter. And that’s been done for years. But what we’re losing in that is Canadian context, and how whatever story is unfolding around the globe impacts Canada.”

Marissa Nelson, a vice chairman with the Minneapolis-based media consulting agency Magid, stated TV news networks throughout North America are going through strain to evolve with their viewers however Canadian firms lag far behind their U.S. counterparts.

While she hasn’t examined Bell Media’s operations, she stated the survival of conventional retailers relies on embracing newer digital fashions akin to ad-based video-on-demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported TV (FAST).

“Canadian organizations need to move much more quickly to streaming, AVOD, FAST and all of those platforms,” stated the Toronto-based Nelson, previously of CBC and the Toronto Star.

“While we’re seeing broadcasters in Canada start to make those shifts, it isn’t in a wholesale way that we need because advertising is decreasing so quickly. One thing is changing really, really quickly and the other side — the industry, the content creation side — is changing at a much slower pace.”

Nelson stated a number of what networks stream nowadays is content material made for conventional TV broadcast that has been repurposed for digital platforms.

But if legacy retailers can solely cater to at least one service, she urges them to do the reverse — design streaming content material that, if wanted, may also be repurposed for linear tv.

“They need to understand what audiences — millennial audiences, in particular — want out of local and national news, and reorient the organization to serve that need,” stated Nelson, including there isn’t a one-size-fits-all repair.

“You know, it isn’t traditional TV packages. And it varies from place to place.”

Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, stated he apprehensive modifications at Bell Media will result in native news deserts and fewer senior reporters who can navigate complicated tales and mentor younger journalists.

He additionally apprehensive the standard of CTV’s news protection will endure if fewer employees are anticipated to take care of the identical output.

“Fewer journalists means more hard work to get the same product out every single day. And that has a personal cost, and it takes a toll on people after a while,” he stated.

From a public relations perspective, Burke stated the way in which the high-profile job cuts have been introduced is unlikely to sit down nicely with viewers nonetheless angered by CTV’s shock cut up with former chief anchor Lisa LaFlamme, who introduced her personal departure on social media final August.

Bell Media weathered weeks of blowback and at one level stated it “regrets” the way in which LaFlamme’s exit was dealt with. The debacle additionally sparked an unbiased third-party evaluate of office tradition within the CTV nationwide newsroom.

“You could argue that how Lisa was let go was a tipping point for Bell Media,” stated Burke.

“Did that possibly contribute to a loss in advertising revenue? And then did that in turn contribute to (this) layoff?”

Jolly apprehensive that journalism and news are more and more being handled as a commodity.

“It’s something that’s being devalued by society as we’re deepening our relationship with tech platforms and relying on the internet to save us from information vacuums,” he stated.

“The public is the one who suffers at the end.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed June 17, 2023.

CTV News is a division of Bell Media, which is a part of BCE Inc.