Toronto Star halts internship program, announces cuts

An internship long heralded as a gold standard for such programs in Canada is being indefinitely suspended.
 

The Toronto Star announced Feb. 13 that it is putting its internship program on hiatus as part of a larger series of cost-cutting measures.
 

In previous years the Star would hire 10 year-long interns and 10 summer interns, all of whom would be members of Unifor Local 87-M. The Star’s general assignment desk had previously mostly been staffed by these interns.
 

The radio room roles, which are also staffed by students in the union, are not affected by this decision.

Unifor Local 87-M President Paul Morse says the loss of these positions means that it will be harder to help develop new journalism talent in Canada.
 

“The internship program at the Toronto Star has been one of the gold standard training grounds for new journalists in Canada,” Morse said. “We hope this is a temporary suspension of the program and not a permanent closure.”
 

The Star also announced other cuts, including reductions to freelance and travel budgets.

In addition, several unionized sales positions in the Metro unit, whose sales staff sell ads for both Metro News and the Toronto Star, were also cut.