“I always thought it would be A.I. that phased me out of this job. Nope, just economics.”
CTV Vancouver Island is among the Canadian newsrooms affected as BCE Inc. announced it was cutting 1,300 positions, shutting or selling nine radio stations and closing two foreign bureaus as the company plans to “significantly adapt” how it delivers the news in the face of rising financial pressure.
“I always thought it would be A.I. that phased me out of this job,” Jordan Cunningham wrote. “Nope, just economics.” “We are also faced with strong economic and inflationary pressures, a pullback in advertisers’ budgets, and a challenging regulatory environment that has been too slow to adjust,” said Oosterman in his memo to staff.
“One of the key things that I think has helped radio is its claim to local representativeness and so this really takes a knife to that,” he said. Taylor said those affects would be felt locally, where the range of voices offered to Canadians would be limited.Malcolmson said regulatory challenges affecting both the telecommunications side and media arm left the company in an “unenviable place,” with no choice but to make widespread cuts.Malcolmson did not rule out further layoffs in the foreseeable future, saying the company will take a wait-and-see approach to the regulatory environment.
Telecommunications consultant Mark Goldberg said it’s fair to criticize Ottawa for a narrow focus on price reduction at a time when much investment is still needed by Canada’s major providers to meet consumers’ needs.But Winseck called it a situation that Bell could have avoided with better decision-making over the past decade.
The company has also failed to invest in its own domestic catalogue to compete on the streaming side, said Winseck.