Toronto Sun moving to National Post headquarters by 2016
In a townhall meeting with Toronto Sun employees, Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey said the paper would move to Bloor Street but retain its newsroom.
By Chantal Braganza, Associate Editor
On the heels of closing its acquisition of Quebecor’s English-language Sun Media properties, Postmedia has announced preliminary plans to move Toronto Sun employees from their downtown Toronto newsroom on King Street East to National Post’s Bloor Street building.
In a townhall meeting with Toronto Sun employees on Tuesday, Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey said the paper would retain its own newsroom but move to the National Post’s building toward the end of this year. “The hope is ‘as soon as possible,’” Postmedia communications vice-president Phyllise Gelfand told J-Source, “though there requires some planning and renovation to take place, and that is yet to be done.”
Postmedia’s acquisition of the Sun chain of newspapers and digital properties closed Monday, adding 2,500 employees and 170 brands to its roster. Between the time of the purchase announcement last October until now, employees in certain divisions of Sun Media’s Toronto offices, including its QMI Agency and Canoe, launched a drive to organize a union with Unifor in advance of the acquisition.
“There are concerns about how people’s jobs might change, and the fact that they won’t have any say in what happens to them. The union gives them the ability to do that,” Unifor Local 87-M representative Brad Honywill told J-Source at the time.
For the Toronto Sun’s part, which has been unionized under Local 87-M since 2003, not much will change for now. “They’ve come in and said they’ll respect our contract,” said Toronto Sun Unit Chair Jim Slotek. “That’s all you can ask for, and that’s a good thing. All the benefits and things in there are as they are. As far as that goes we’re all keeping the same jobs.” The bargaining unit’s contract for editorial and pre-press expires in 2017.
