Cost pressures and plunging share prices prompted Canadian publisher and broadcaster CanWest Global Communications Corp. to cut 560 jobs -- about five per cent of its workforce -- Wednesday as the company faces a rougher economy and more competition.
I've heard 350 of those cuts are on the print side, and 210 in TV.
The company, which employs about 10,500 people in Canada, said the cuts would save $61 million a year.
"We are implementing a number of initiatives that will provide savings that will allow us to better compete in the current economic environment, without compromising our core products and services," CEO Leonard Asper said in a statement.
"It will not impact our strategy to invest in growth media like digital online, mobile and specialty channels."
The cuts will be made through voluntary buyouts, attrition and layoffs and come on top of several hundred jobs that have been eliminated over the last two years, CanWest said.
My condolences to all those at CanWest who lose their gigs. Soft landings to all.
It would appear the huge strategic bet on convergence that the Aspers made in 2000, taking Southam off the hands of a U.S. federal inmate whose name escapes me, isn't really paying off.
As regular readers may have seen from earlier postings, CanWest has a $3.6-billion bill that starts coming due in 2010.
On top of that, the company's share price is below a dollar -- it closed at 85 cents on Wednesday.
Fourth-quarter results come Friday. But revenues in the media business are cyclical, and right now, the cycle is heading down, not up. :(