QUEBEC CITY – Global Television will be letting 12 employees go from CKMI, the English-language Quebec City TV station, the end of November this year.
Following an industry trend, the company is consolidating its master control operations in Toronto. The group being let go includes one manager and 11 unionized staffers.
“We’re just doing what CTV and CBC and the French networks did ages ago,” CKMI station manager Karen MacDonald told www.cartt.ca today.
MacDonald stressed that Global was not pulling back from its editorial coverage of the provincial capital, pointing to the fact that its four reporter newsroom is the biggest one outside of Montreal among TV broadcasters. “CBC and CTV only have one news crew each. We have four,” she added.
MacDonald added that CKMI recently hired a new reporter and has listed for another (one recently quit) – a hire which MacDonald hopes to make within two weeks. While the station doesn’t have its own news hour, the reporters contribute to the main newscasts out of Montreal.
Most TV broadcasters, in an effort to cut costs and improve efficiency, are downsizing their master control units “into one in a really central location,” adds MacDonald. Fibre optics, satellite, and digital technology make it easy to run news operations this way.
CKMI has 10-15 staffers, full and part time, going forward.
