Excerpts from a memo sent to Canadian Press staff on April 3, 2020 from president Malcolm Kirk:
"...There is no way to ignore the realities confronting society today and confronting every business in the world. Obviously, we are not immune to these forces.
"The elimination of virtually every sporting event means there are no results to report, and that means almost no sports agate for our PMNA desks to handle. We have seen a sharp revenue drop in our commercial assignments business. Custom content work – material that is invariably part of a client’s marketing strategy – has also slowed down.
"Amid the backdrop of a sizable number of layoffs, wage rollbacks and the cessation of print editions in the past two weeks, it also won’t surprise you to learn that many wire clients are looking for payment holidays and suspension of billings. Advertising revenues, already in a decline before the crisis, have dropped dramatically for many of our customers, which means cash flow is tightening for everyone.
"You may have heard the federal government has announced business assistance initiatives in recent days. We are assessing our eligibility for these measures. Candidly, we are not optimistic that these programs will be very helpful to CP in the immediate term simply because of the eligibility requirements.
"We are pressing Ottawa and the Quebec governments on these and other possible initiatives that could support our sector and CP specifically."
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