Toronto Star Offers Buyouts, Launches Massive Restructuring

TORONTO — Canada's largest circulation daily has launched what its publisher said will likely be the biggest restructuring in the newspaper's history by offering voluntary buyouts to employees in all divisions of the company.

Toronto Star Publisher John Cruickshank said in a memo to employees Tuesday that the broad reworking of the company will affect every job in every corner of the organization and could include layoffs.

He said the paper is also exploring the possibility of contracting out some work in both copy editing and pagination.

The Star's union said the Star has told them it plans to contract out as many as 100 union editing jobs. The newspaper has 390 employees in the editorial department.

"We must find the best way to operate our business at the lowest possible cost, including contracting out non core functions where there is a sound business case to do so," he wrote in the memo. "This will involve what is likely to be the biggest restructuring of the Star's workforce in its history."

The newspaper, which celebrated its 117th birthday on Tuesday, has been grappling with industry-wide problems that have worsened with the weaker economy.

Comments

[Enid]

Maybe if they just added glosey paper like the SF Chronical.

[MikeCanada]

This is an unfortunate story. The Star is a fantastic newspaper, one of the few left that is actually worth paying for.

[ontariogirl]

Funny I live here and read this paper everyday. No mention of this story but not everything makes it to the headlines I suppose...­..........­.....

[greysells2]

Another mainstream print daily on the way down. Most papers were in the business of making money through ads. News was a means to an end. When other alternatives became available, they were carrying huge overheads and were too fat and lazy to see the train coming down the track. Too late. I do not invest any of my retirement savings in any print media company. I'm not telling you what to do; I telling you what I do.

[unclelew]

The feeing is that these jobs will be sent overseas, including 100 editorial positions. I cancelled this morning after almost 50 years.