A sad day for local journalism across the province. A reporter with a Hamilton-area community paper points out that all staff will be laid off no later than December 31st. While the digital publications will remain, there will be no full-time journalists left to report on local news. For folks in Durham Region, and more than 70 other communities in Ontario, this move will leave us one step closer to becoming a "news desert" with fewer and fewer outlets available to hold governments and corporations accountable.

According to an article in the Star, the company that owns the so-called "paper for the people" won't even be giving the over 600 ex-employees any severance. 

"No termination or severance pay will be paid because “the Company does not have sufficient funds,” according to the FAQ.

“Affected Employees will have the opportunity to file a claim in the course of the restructuring process for the amounts that they are owed by Metroland.”  

I wonder what the Toronto Star would have to say about any other company that would do that. Shameful hypocrites.

RadioActive wrote:

According to an article in the Star, the company that owns the so-called "paper for the people" won't even be giving the over 600 ex-employees any severance. 

"No termination or severance pay will be paid because “the Company does not have sufficient funds,” according to the FAQ.

“Affected Employees will have the opportunity to file a claim in the course of the restructuring process for the amounts that they are owed by Metroland.”  

I wonder what the Toronto Star would have to say about any other company that would do that. Shameful hypocrites.

Gee RA, the only shameful thing I see is your biased and foolish over the top comments.  Nothing said about the employees that lost their jobs but rather another chance for you to run down a company that you dislike.  Lots of class.  Why not wait and get the facts and see how this plays out before the short sighted comments.    

 

Also sad to note, this is the last week of The Glengarry News out of Alexandria.

https://theglengarrynewsepaper.pressreader.com/the-glengarry-news-e-paper

Last edited by andysradio (September 15, 2023 5:23 pm)

They're legally entitled to severance so Metroland may be forced to pay it out. I don't know if bankruptcy protection exempts Metroland from that responsibility.

Last edited by Hansa (September 15, 2023 5:32 pm)

paterson1 wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

 

Gee RA, the only shameful thing I see is your biased and foolish over the top comments  

Do paterson1's frequent attacks on the board monitor make anyone else extremely uncomfortable or am I too sensitive?
 

"Speaking of jumping the gun, you aren't even aware of what you're talking about. I happen to have a very good friend who works for a company owned by the Toronto Star and he's told me stories of how they play hardball with everything regarding his union and think nothing of cutting budgets, salaries and yes, people." 

"They constantly portray themselves as "The Paper for the People," stick up in print for unions and the poor and disadvantaged and rightly decry companies that take advantage of their employees. Yet when it comes to their own backyard, well, it's OK to apparently be ruthless and fool around with cutting pensions, sick leave and other essentials."

First off, I worked for Torstar for 15 years, so yes I should know a little of what I am talking about.  The Torstar that I worked for was not the company that is laying off 605 people and closing the print editions of 71 weekly papers. The company that I worked for until retirement is not around any longer and hasn't existed for over 3 years.

Today's news didn't have anything to do with the Toronto Star.  Metroland and The Star newspapers are run as separate companies.  True they have the same owner. Nordstar Capital, controlled by one individual, but the two divisions have always been separate.

The former Torstar was run by newspaper people, a public company traded on the TSX.  The new owners run a private investment firm, not on the stock market, and not of the newspaper business. The much vaunted "Atkinson Principle's" have never applied to any papers other than the Star. 

So your rant was misplaced and about a company that no longer lives, and hasn't since May 2020.  The Toronto Star or it's philosophy had nothing to do with what happened today with Metroland.

Comments about severance are a little premature.  Like I said let's see what happens with the reorganization, and this is up to Nordstar who own the papers.  I am sure that the Star or any of the others were tough at negotiation time.  Why wouldn't they be?  This again has nothing to do with the news today.

Finally, I do not attack RA.  I point out inaccuracies and comments that are overly one sided, which seem to come up regularly.  RA tends to be blunt in his comments and revisits a lot of topics many times.  So if the inaccuracy is repeated again, I point it out again. Isn't this part of what makes the site interesting and fun?   People are free and do criticize my comments anytime.  Some also agree with me and my comments, others not so much and are critical.  That is part of posting comments, correct?

Ok, one more finally.  I was involved with flyer distribution for years.  I had elderly people who would call me regularly since they had my number from an earlier flyer complaint.  Some were lonely and just wanted to talk to someone.  I did my best to make time for them, and we would put them on what we called a hot list to make sure they always got their flyers promptly. 

Aplogize for the long post.



 

Last edited by paterson1 (September 15, 2023 8:46 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

I also have an intensely personal reason to be upset about this lack of severance and the way the 600+ are being treated. 


So yes, I was pretty ticked when I heard these people were not getting severance. They went above and beyond for me and my mother and seeing them treated this way is enraging. I wish them all the best and hope they land on their feet soon. And I cannot thank them enough for their kindness all those years. 

Canada's bankruptcy laws need to be changed so that employees go to the head of the line ahead of all other creditors when the Company's assets are distributed.
 

Fjiri wrote:

Hansa wrote:

They're legally entitled to severance so Metroland may be forced to pay it out. I don't know if bankruptcy protection exempts Metroland from that responsibility.

Unfortunately, bankruptcy does change the game when it comes to severance packages: https://stlawyers.ca/blog-news/metroland-eliminates-605-jobs-bankruptcy-stops-print/

That was my first thought ... that it will be bankruptcy law that determines what the employees will get. I was never faced with a situation like this, but many years ago I lost my job due to downsizing and I started taking an interest in employment-related laws as a result. 
 

These newspaper magnates emulate what happens to radio stations.

I'm old enough to remember real small-town daily newspapers, with legitimate journalists on staff. The Oshawa Times-Gazette. The Port Hope Evening Guide. The Cobourg Daily Star.

All these, and many more scross Ontario, had large local staff and published daily news, gathered by real investigative reporters.

Along came Metroland with its free throw-away advertising flyers, combined with  a smattering of easily-gathered news press-releases to make them look like real newspapers.

Once the subscription-based, daily newspapers were beaten up enough by the 'free' advertising handouts, they closed or were bought and rolled into nothingness. Then, the 'free' newspapers told their carriers to start banging on doors to ask for 'delivery' payment...for advertising flyers, and not much else.

Now that Metroland has succeeded in killing local journalism across Ontario, it's surprised that most people don't want to pay for advertising flyers?

Congratulations to the early, middle and late owners of Metroland. Like carpetbaggers, you came into small-town Ontario, raped and plundered the market, destroying legitimate local journalism in the process, sucked as much money out over the decades as you could, and left a smouldering pile of nothingness in your wake. PROUD OF YOURSELVES?

With apps like flipp, flyers have become obsolete.  I haven't touched a physical flyer in years.   The few that did arrive went straight into recycling; mainly because the electronic version arrived days earlier.
 

Peter the K wrote:

With apps like flipp, flyers have become obsolete.  I haven't touched a physical flyer in years.   The few that did arrive went straight into recycling; mainly because the electronic version arrived days earlier.
 

My phone is on the kitchen wall. It doesn't do aps. I still rely on the flyers. If they don't send my one, I probably won't visit their store.

Radiowiz wrote:

Peter the K wrote:

With apps like flipp, flyers have become obsolete.  I haven't touched a physical flyer in years.   The few that did arrive went straight into recycling; mainly because the electronic version arrived days earlier.
 

I go mental without the paper version because I like to circle things to remind me what I am looking for.
However, one other factor that killed the print version of the flyer is when Walmart & Others decided not to price match anymore. 
It was a lot easier to quickly show a flyer special (circled) in print than it was to search for it online. 
 

With Flipp, just touch the item on the digital flyer and it's circled.  But unlike regular flyers, there's a place on the app where you can see all the items you've circled together making comparisons simple.

I know it sounds like I'm a shill for them.  It's not perfect but trying it (it's free) gives you a pretty good idea where things have been heading and why companies like Metroland just can't make a go of it anymore.

But ultimately, to each their own.

 

The N. Y. Times weekly supplement has been dropped from the Sunday Star.  THAT is shameful, biased, foolish and over-the-top!      

Well worth a read from Toronto life last spring. All about the difficult times with the Star since the new owners took over. Supposed losing a $1,000,000 per week on their purchase at one point.

https://torontolife.com/city/star-wars-inside-the-vicious-battle-for-control-of-the-countrys-largest-newspaper/