Massive firings at CityTv/CityPulse today. Many vets.
Crazy. Those Rogers peeps totally destroyed that station.
| quote: | The axe fell at Citytv Tuesday cutting several on-air seasoned journalists as well as many staffers on the other side of the camera.
Anne Mroczkowski, Pam Seatle, Laura DiBattista, Marianne Dimain, Merella Fernandez, Farah Nasser, Michael Serapio and up to 10 cameramen were laid off Tuesday.
Michael Robins, a senior producer of CityTV Toronto news for more than 25 years who started CP24 and Bob Lawlor, who was in charge of Breakfast Television and CityLine were also among the 35 full-time staff laid off.
Mroczkowski, who has been an institution on Toronto TV with more than 30 years in the business, was given the boot, along with DiBattista who joined CityTV in 1983 and Pam Seatle, who started in the City newsroom as a volunteer in 1989.
"They've decimated the newsroom. This is the absolute destruction of the local key people who put out the daily news," said one employee, who requested anonymity. "I'm just stunned at some of the people getting fired. They're also cancelling the noon news show, the 5 p.m. and I've heard maybe even the weekend news show," the employee said.
Rogers Communications purchased CityTV Toronto in 2007.
Michelle Overholt, who works in management for CityTV/Rogers, did not return repeated phone calls and Tina Cortese, national VP of CityTV five TV stations, did not return calls either.
When asked about the layoffs, Veronica Logue, Rogers Media Television spokesman, said: "We don't comment on personnel."
When asked if the noon, 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and weekend news show were axed, Logue said the executives are "tied up at the moment" and would comment later.
Logue only had a press statement to offer saying: "CityTV announced today a restructuring of its television operations in order to focus on areas of the business that deliver the best results and better serve changing audience patterns."
"(Tuesday's) changes, although difficult, are necessary to align our operations with the economic and regulatory realities of our industry," Leslie Sole, CEO, Roger Media Television, said in a statement. |
SOURCE
CityNews' Post:
| quote: | It’s a tough time to be in the news business and Citytv is not immune.
On Tuesday, the company announced it would be restructuring its television operations, leading to lay-offs and cancelled shows.
Citytv will continue to produce Breakfast Television and CityLine for all markets, as well as CityNews at Six and CityNews Tonight in Toronto.
However, there will no longer by a CityNews at Noon, CityNews at Five, or CityNews International.
Stations in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver will no longer produce a six o’clock newscast.
"Today's changes, although difficult, are necessary to align our operations with the economic and regulatory realities of our industry," Leslie Sole, CEO, Rogers Media Television, acknowledged in a press release.
"We are improving our core business by tightening our operations and concentrating on the strengths of our top performing local programs."
Long-time CityNews at Six anchor Anne Mroczkowski was laid off on Monday evening. Other affected employees found out about the lay-offs on Tuesday morning. Many were crying.
A full list of the remaining on-air employees can be found here.
Aisling Slattery, who anchored Breakfast Television and News@ Noon in Calgary, was one of the first on-air personalities to speak publicly about the changes.
“Today was my last day @ #citytv - it has been an absolute honour anchoring the news in #yyc - i will miss you all very much,” she wrote on Twitter.
Rogers Media acquired five Citytv stations – Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver – in 2007. It was part of the sale of CHUM to CTVglobemedia. The CRTC ordered the network sold over concerns about media concentration.
Citytv began with a single UHF outlet in Toronto back in September 1972.
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