Bell Media fires 'trash decision': Trudeau

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit out at BCE Inc's widespread layoffs on Friday, calling the Bell Media cuts a “trash decision.”

“I'm angry,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in King City, Ont.

Bell Media said Thursday it is suspending several television broadcasts and cutting other programming after its parent company announced job cuts and the sale of 45 of its 103 regional radio stations.

Trudeau said the company should have known better.

He says that radio stations and small community newspapers are increasingly being bought by large corporations, who are laying off journalists and changing the quality of their offerings.

“And then when people don't see a lot or engage a lot, the corporate entity says, 'Oh, they're not profitable anymore, we're going to sell them.'

Bell Media's advertising revenue is down $140 million in 2023 from a year earlier, and its news division is losing more than $40 million in annual operating costs, CEO Mirko Bibic said.

The prime minister said the move would undermine quality local journalism and Canadian democracy.

The stories of local communities unite the country, he said.

“We need those local voices, and in recent years, corporate Canada — and there are many to blame for this — has abdicated its responsibilities to the communities that have always benefited so handsomely,” Trudeau said.

“Yes, I am very angry.”

Bell Media did not respond to a request for comment on Trudeau's statement.

The company said less than 10 percent of its 4,800 eliminated positions will come from Bell Media, which includes its news and entertainment teams. As part of the exit, he said news reporters and technical teams in some provinces would be replaced by “multi-skilled journalists”.

Analysts say the cuts could further degrade local newsrooms and lower the quality of journalism perceived by audiences.

According to Concordia University's Magda Koniecna, who studies local news, journalists are forced to do more despite fewer resources.

“Can one person record video, audio, and text, ask good questions, and come up with story ideas?” Yes, of course it is possible. But they don't do any of those things, if that's their pure focus, they're as good as they are,” he said.

“In the end, you're going to get stories that aren't deep, that aren't contextual.”

As part of Bell's programming changes, all CTV stations except Toronto ended their weekday noon newscasts. It also dropped the 6pm and 11pm weekend newscasts on all CTV and CTV2 stations except in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

On CTV News, Bell has ended the evening programs “The Debate,” “This Hour” and “Top 3,” which will be replaced by a four-hour weekday newscast beginning at 6 p.m.

BNN Bloomberg is “optimizing” weekday daytime programming to reduce the number of private messages.

W5 has also transitioned from a stand-alone documentary series to “multi-platform investigative reporting” airing on CTV National News, CTVNews.ca and other news platforms.

“The result, I think, is that audiences aren't hearing or seeing the same local content that they used to,” said Christopher Waddell, professor emeritus at Carleton University's School of Journalism and Communication.

“Viewers are not stupid and when audiences change, they find that the things they used to listen to or the programs they used to get are no longer about their local community – In a competitive world, when you do things that alienate your audience, you pay a very high price.”

Decisions made by Bell could lead to a “vicious cycle or death spiral,” Waddell said. Advertisers won't pay as much if viewers are less likely to tune in to their hometown CTV station, frustrated by gaps in local coverage.

“So that means there's less revenue, which means they're laying off more people, which means less coverage and less local programs,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 9, 2024.

CP24 is a division of Bell Media.