Updated: Waterloo Region Record centralizing copydesk with sister Metroland newspaper Hamilton Spectator
Fourteen copy-editing jobs will be lost at the daily Waterloo paper. Meanwhile, the Spectator, its sister Metroland newspaper, will hire four copy editors and four paginators. It’s unclear if the new hires will come from the laid off Record employees.
The Waterloo Region Record will centralize editorial page production in early 2014 at the Hamilton Spectator. Fourteen copy-editing jobs will be lost at the daily Waterloo, Ont., paper, which covers Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge.
The newspaper is published by Metroland Media Group, a subsidiary of Torstar. Meanwhile, the Spectator, its sister Metroland newspaper, will hire four copy editors and four paginators. It’s unclear if the new hires will come from the laid off Record employees.
“This is in no way a reflection on the high calibre of work currently performed by staff at the Record, rather a means to achieve needed cost savings and efficiencies,” said Neil Oliver, publisher of the Spectator. “As you know, this change follows an industry trend that has already been taken by most major Canadian publishers.”
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Some of the copy editing and production for the Guelph Mercury, which was also done by Record staff, will also be now done at the Spectator.
[node:ad]“It’s a sad and regrettable development,” said Rob Reid, the Unifor union unit chair for the Record.
“However, I would rather the consolidation involve union newsrooms rather than Pagemasters or outsourcing to India … I hope the company and the bargaining units at both papers will be able to agree to some kind of preferred candidate arrangement.”
Earlier this year, nine Record employees took buyouts. The result of the buyouts and these layoffs has reduced the size of the newsroom by more than 25 per cent, Reid said. However, the newspaper will hire two reporters and one graphic artist in the near future.
“I don’t know how much more newspaper can try to solve revenue challenges by cutting staff to the bone,” Reid added. “The industry is creatively impaired. What’s happening to newspapers now echoes what happened to our manufacturing sector in Canada 10 to 20 years ago.”
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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.