Lay-offs, job cuts, and closures have dominated the headlines in recent months as companies try and stay profitable in this economic crisis.  However, in an era of large multinational or national companies are major cuts experienced first in smaller communities?

Last week, “A” Channel announced cutbacks resulting in the loss of 118 jobs.  In an article from The Daily Observer by Aedan Helmer discussing the cuts, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union spokesperson Peter Murdoch commented: “… at the first sign of bad times, it is the small communities and channels that pay the price.”  This is perhaps most evident in Pembroke, Ontario where the local “A” Channel station was cut down to two staff and the local news broadcast was cancelled.

The Pembroke station was created over 50 years ago by local individuals and has consistently offered a unique rural perspective.  Over the last decade the station went through a number of changes, most recently being sold as part of the “A” Channel network to CTV (Uhler, "A Local Dream Dies," The Daily Observer: March 6th, 2009).  The idea was that bigger would be better and that larger networks could protect smaller stations.  However, given the current economic situation it appears as though the smaller stations are the first to pay the price.

We would like to hear from you.  Are smaller communities losing their local perspectives in the media?  What will this mean for people in these communities? Do large networks really protect smaller stations and value the local perspective?

Comments

Add New Search

Write comment
Name:
Email:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."