Canadians losing voice

Postmedia slashes 90 newsroom jobs in four cities

Another dramatic round of bloodletting in the newspaper industry has occurred at Postmedia, Canada's largest owner of daily newspapers.

On January 19, Postmedia slashed 90 newsroom jobs in four cities — Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, and in a highly controversial move, merged newsrooms at dual papers in those cities into one.

In Ottawa where Postmedia owns the Sun and the Citizen, more than half the Sun's journalists lost their jobs. A consolidated newsroom will now produce both the Sun and the Citizen, which will continue to be published as separate newspapers.

Local President Paul Morse said newsroom merging means Canadians are losing precious independent editorial voice and lessens the papers' abilities to deliver high quality professional journalism.