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Updated: 7 take buyouts at Ottawa Citizen

Seven staff have confirmed with J-Source that have taken buyouts at the Ottawa Citizen, including six-time National Newspaper Award-winning photographer Bruno Schlumberger.   By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor Seven staff have confirmed with J-Source that have taken buyouts at the Ottawa Citizen. Sports reporter Allen Panzeri, sports columnist Don Campbell, reporter Zev Singer, videographer Scott Parker, night-desker…

Seven staff have confirmed with J-Source that have taken buyouts at the Ottawa Citizen, including six-time National Newspaper Award-winning photographer Bruno Schlumberger.  

By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor

Seven staff have confirmed with J-Source that have taken buyouts at the Ottawa Citizen.

Sports reporter Allen Panzeri, sports columnist Don Campbell, reporter Zev Singer, videographer Scott Parker, night-desker Chris Yzerman, columnist Dan Gardner and six-time National Newspaper Award-winning photographer Bruno Schlumberger are leaving the Citizen. A Citizen article described Schlumberger as “the most decorated photographer in Canadian newspaper history” who is retiring after more than 30 years as a journalist.

The departures at the Postmedia newspaper start effective Monday and will continue throughout the summer. J-Source has heard from several sources that the number of departures is higher, but was unable to confirm that with Postmedia management. Citizen editor-in-chief Andrew Potter declined to comment, saying he cannot discuss human resources issues with J-Source.

Earlier this month, columnist Dan Gardner said he was told his column was no longer required, and senior website editor Melanie Coulson, also J-Source's education editor, was laid off. 

The buyouts are the latest round of cuts at the Postmedia. Earlier this year, the company shut down its parliamentary bureau and laid off five staff, with the remaining political journalists moving to the Citizen. The company also laid off staff at the National Post.


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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.