Don't know how I wound up there, but this blurb on Canoe.ca caught my eye: "Recognizing the changing media landscape, Quebecor is converging its resources to create a new and exciting path to a successful future, its president and CEO said yesterday."
Here's the full document: Riding the Changing Wave (.pdf).
Let's look deeper:
Consumers of media want control over when and how they access information — “it’s empowerment,” Pierre Karl Peladeau said in a keynote address to the Canadian Media Directors’ Council.
Toronto’s competitive media market is indicative of what is happening around the world, he said. Consumers want access to new information and content quickly, Peladeau said, and like Quebecor, other media companies must be prepared to tackle that challenge. ...
Quebecor is going to be well-positioned to address those changes by converging its newspaper, TV and Internet resources, he said.
Quebecor is integrating its Toronto newspaper and television divisions for a new current affairs program on Sun TV and streaming live on canoe.ca, Peladeau said. Among other initiatives, Quebecor will use input from “citizen journalists” with cellphone cameras and other digital technologies.
The program, to be called Canoe Live, will be launched in May, and will include reports from journalists at The Toronto Sun newsroom with interactive feedback from the street and other sources. “We want to create a dialogue with viewers, readers and website visitors to evolve and improve the product,” Peladeau said.
Wow! Exciting stuff! What do others have to say about it?
The headline over an Antonia Zerbisias story in the March 24 Toronto Star is: Lights out for SunTV staff.
Another 13 people have lost their jobs at Sun TV, the station that viewers forgot. ...
That leaves an estimated 20 or so production staffers at the station that was acquired by Quebecor last year in an attempt to gain a foothold into Canada's richest TV market. ...
Keith Maskell, a staff representative for the Canadian Media Guild, which is currently in contract talks with Sun TV, told the Star that "Inside Jam is moving from a nightly program to a one-hour weekend broadcast, effective immediately.
"I have also been told that a new program called Canoe Live ... will fill the 6-7 p.m. weeknight slot, starting probably in May or so.
``What we haven't been told yet is whether this will be an in-house production. I'm guessing it won't be."
The changes raise the question of whether the station is in violation of its condition of licence since it appears to be producing almost no original programming aside from some low-cost talk shows using Sun writers.