COVID-19 Media Impact Map for Canada: Postmedia

In May, Postmedia announced 44 permanent layoffs that would affect staff at publications across the country.

Permanent layoffs at Postmedia (some of which may be eligible for voluntary resignations) will affect a total of 44 positions. Most of these have been under negotiation since April, with 8 from the Vancouver Sun and Province having been announced today. https://t.co/hWUqe1pNjp pic.twitter.com/gCULB1f7CZ
— J-Source (@jsource) May 27, 2020

After a voluntary buyout negotiation process as permitted by papers’ collective agreements, the final departures — which total 38 — are as follows:

Unifor

Windsor Star: 9 production layoffs, 1 in newsroom

Winnipeg Sun: 4 production layoffs

London Free Press: 1 voluntary layoff

Brantford Expositor: 1 voluntary layoff

Chatham Daily News: 1 layoff

Simcoe Reformer: 1 voluntary layoff

Belleville Intelligencer: 1 voluntary layoff

Toronto Sun: 4 voluntary layoffs

Vancouver Sun and Province: 4 voluntary layoffs

CWA Canada

Windsor Star: 5 production layoffs

Montreal Gazette: 2 non-newsroom layoffs

Ottawa Citizen: 2 voluntary layoffs

Kingston Whig-Standard: 2 layoffs

Updated March 11, 2021:

Postmedia notified Unifor Local 2000 on Nov. 19, 2020 that it would be reducing salary expenses by 15 percent at the Vancouver Sun and the Province newspapers. The voluntary buyout process resulted in the departure of 10 employees: 6 from editorial, 2 from advertising, 1 from business and 1 from IT.

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.

Postmedia COVID-19 Media Impact Map for Canada