The challenging media industry landscape is forcing Bell to lay off staff again, Cartt.ca reports. This means that a few journalists you will have seen or heard are out of work, such as CHUM veteran Ingrid Schumacher, CHOM host Heather Backman and TSN Radio Vancouver play-by-play voices Scott Rintoul and Peter Schaad.
Bell Media reduced staff in the fall of 2015 and last summer when Canada AM was cancelled. The media division’s vice president of communications, Scott Henderson, confirmed with Cartt that more than two dozen Bell Media locations across Canada are impacted by the restructuring process, which began on Monday and is still ongoing.
His argument for Bell’s move was that media companies countrywide face increasing international competition, “the evolution of broadcast technologies, and advertising and regulatory pressure.”
Apparently, the CRTC’s decision to suspend simultaneous substitution regulation for the Super Bowl had a role in the layoffs, but that’s not the main reason. The problem is that “Bell Media and other Canadian media companies are facing notable change on all fronts, and as a result we need to adjust our business appropriately,” Henderson added.
He declined to comment on how many people are or will be affected by the layoffs.
Bell said it estimates losing around $80 million in revenue if it isn’t allowed to substitute Canadian ads for American ads during the Super Bowl for the final three years of its NFL contract.
Image credit: Strategy Magazine
