Well, you couldn't say this one was unexpected. TQS is gutting its news departments across Quebec, laying off dozens of workers. (Radio-Canada incorrectly refers to this as "decimating", when it's clearly more than 10% of staff).
Regional news will be hardest hit, with just about every newscast outside of Montreal being cut to nothing. The entire news department is being eliminated, with 110% the only locally-produced show left. Here, some newscasts (like the morning Caféine) will be cancelled, and others reduced in length.
The changes are happening over the summer. By fall, TQS will be practically unrecognizable, and will no doubt find ways to suck even more than it already does.
The drastic cuts to local programming will require CRTC approval. But considering the alternative (bankruptcy and the loss of an entire network), a compromise will probably be worked out.
Jean-Michel Vanasse, by the way, will be among the victims.
UPDATE (April 24): The Canoe blog asks whether the loss of TQS's news department is a big deal, since they don't do any real journalism anyway. The Canoe blog. Sun Media's Canoe blog. Yeah.
from an outsider's point of view, this is self-suicide. journalists and reporters were the only one providing original content for TQS.
I guess their next plans is to broadcast more cheap american series and videos of cats and silly jokes.
Oddly I tuned in to see Mongrain's Le Grand Journal but instead they're airing the tired Douglas-DeVito-Turner movie..Diamonds something or other.
First Global gets downsized and now TQS..
These local newscasts are where the information is so much more pertinent..than the national newscasts
Remstar sucks and this will go down as a huge blunder in Local News coverage
Decimate doesn't mean just 10%. It does come from the practice killing of every tenth person, in antique Rome, but the meaning has evolved.
This has happened because all media is owned by 5 people across the world. So ANY TV OR RADIO station is biased and tainted in its reporting. TQS doesn't want to play the game by BIG MEDIA OWNER Rules ( dummy down the masses and hide the important stuff) so they have to go. Why stay and spew the same line towing garbage as everybody else. We have enough repetative robots even here in Quebec.
Heartbreaking when you think about it. So many jobs being cut, and for what really?
[...] laid off as the tech columnist and tech blogger for TQS, Jean-Michel Vanasse showed up on TVA’s Salut bonjour week-end, where he’s their new [...]
[...] went into bankruptcy and was sold to Remstar, the struggling network laid off dozens of employees, including its entire news division. Remstar offered 20% of their contractually-obligated severance pay, arguing that the station was [...]