COVID-19 Media Impact Map for Canada: Dougall Media
A memo by vice-president and general manager Don Caron issued to staff on March 26, excerpted below, indicated company-wide temporary layoffs and pay reductions. While the company, which operates radio station, news websites and television stations in Thunder Bay, has yet to respond to a request for the total number of employees affected by these measures, a source has confirmed that 15 non-editorial workers have been temporarily laid off.
“In recent weeks, our clients have been forced to make very difficult decisions on how and where they spend their advertising dollars.
The result has greatly reduced levels of income and activity for all of our corporate holdings.
It is forcing us to make some very difficult decisions of our own.
Accordingly, we temporarily are moving to reduce the size of our workforce given the reduced volume of activity in house.”
This post is part of the COVID-19 Media Impact Map for Canada, a joint initiative of J-Source, the Local News Research Project at Ryerson University and the Canadian Association of Journalists. The map will be regularly updated. If you have any additional information about known changes or have knowledge of a new impact, please contact us at info@j-source.ca or fill in details using the form COVID-19: Impacts on media in Canada.
