Cost pressures and plunging share prices have forced Canadian publisher and broadcaster CanWest Global Communications Corp. to slash 560 jobs—about five per cent of its workforce—as the company faces a rougher economy and more competition, Canadian Press has reported. The company, which employs about 10,500 people in Canada, said the cuts would save $61 million a year.
Some details: [Link]
"We are implementing a number of initiatives that will provide savings that will allow us to better compete in the current economic environment, without compromising our core products and services," CEO Leonard Asper said in a statement. "It will not impact our strategy to invest in growth media like digital online, mobile and specialty channels."
The cuts will be made through voluntary buyouts, attrition and layoffs and come on top of several hundred jobs that have been eliminated over the last two years, CanWest said. Shares in the Winnipeg-based company fell nearly seven per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange to 85 cents Wednesday, a drop of close to 90 per cent this year alone.
One analyst from a major Toronto bank said CanWest needed to make "some pretty significant cost-cutting measures" in light of its "tough" balance sheet. The company has piled up several billions of dollars in debt to finance past acquisitions and has expanded its broadcasting operations abroad.
In its news release, the Winnipeg company said about 210 jobs will be cut at through a restructuring of news operations at CanWest Broadcasting's E! stations.
CanWest Publishing, which operates the former Southam chain and other papers, will see about 350 positions disappear through a restructuring of the community newspaper group. The company will also cut the physical size of some newspapers to reduce costs and focus efforts on expanding digital media operations.
In Victoria, where 18 people, including on-air personnel, were being let go at CHEK-TV, stunned employees learned the news at a lunch-hour meeting.
Peter Murdoch, of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, criticized "the binge of acquisitions" for the company's financial troubles.
