Bell Canada, a media and telecommunications company, declared that as revenues in its legacy phone and news businesses drop, it will lay off 1,300 people, close six radio stations, and sell three more.
The layoffs, which primarily affect management, are in line with thousands of others in the media industry, which is suffering from decreased revenues, rising inflation, and the ongoing shift to streaming.
Bell Canada expects its legacy phone income to fall by $250 million per year, while its news arm posted yearly operational losses of $40 million.
According to Reuters, Wade Oosterman, the company’s top executive, stated, “Our industry is experiencing a major disruption.” He also pointed to “a challenging regulatory environment that has been too slow to adjust.”
The Canadian telecom industry has been under government pressure to reduce phone bills in recent years. Furthermore, the Canadian government has suggested laws to compel internet behemoths like Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for material, but in reaction to no changes in the business, US corporations have restricted some users from seeing or sharing news content.
As part of the restructure, Bell will close CTV’s bureaus in London and Los Angeles and reduce the size of its Washington office.
Meanwhile, Lana Payne, national president of the trade union Unifor, stated, “Bell had other options in anticipation of policy changes, but chose to pull the trigger on these layoffs.” If the government does not act soon, there will be little left to save in Canadian journalism.”
