Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Torstar cuts 52 jobs, drastically reducing tablet edition staff

The Globe and Mail's media reporter James Bradshaw writes:
"Less than a year after the Toronto Star launched an ambitious tablet edition designed to reshape the newspaper’s digital future, parent company Torstar Corp. has slashed 52 jobs, dramatically shrinking the project’s core staff.
The cuts announced Tuesday include 45 people from the Star’s newsroom, 26 of whom were on contract jobs and mostly dedicated to Toronto Star Touch. Another 19 were full-time staff, including 10 reporters and five editors, while three digitally focused positions and four jobs outside the newsroom at the free Metro daily newspapers were eliminated.
"The layoffs represent a major retrenchment in resources devoted to the tablet edition as the company lowers its expectations for the project’s popularity with readers, but also shows the deep financial troubles afflicting Torstar. The publisher of newspapers including the Star and The Hamilton Spectator recently closed its printing plant in Vaughan, Ont., outsourcing printing of the Star and putting 285 people out of work, and posted a $23.9-million loss in the first quarter of 2016."

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