It seems that Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 didn’t save 25% of the workforce at Corus Entertainment.
One of the things we heard throughout the Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 debates is how the situation is dire in the legacy media industry. One by one, they told lawmakers that jobs would be lost unless Bill C-11 (now the Online Streaming Act) and Bill C-18 (now the Online News Act) was passed. For them, there was no other solution. Passage of both bills will miraculously save all those jobs, prevent news deserts, save culture in Canada, stop global climate change, cure cancer, end all global conflicts, etc. OK, not the last three, but you get the idea.
Naturally, observers and experts like us were highly skeptical of these wild claims. The more we dug, the more unlikely those wild claims became. So, people like us told lawmakers, among other things, that these two bills won’t be the thing that “saves” anything. It won’t “save” jobs, heal everything that ails the major news sector, and, what’s worse, would be subject to legal challenges in various ways. That evidence was presented to lawmakers in thoughtful and meaningful ways, showing not only how these laws weren’t going to be the miracle cure-all its supporters have long claim, but also bring about a host of problems in the first place.
To our surprise was the massive amounts of personal attacks we all got for, well, doing our jobs. People like us were told that we didn’t know what we were talking about, accused of being “shills for Big Tech”, gaslighted, the subject of wild conspiracy theories, and even threatened with politically motivated “investigations” among other things. While some of us who had been around a long time were prepared to receive pushback, the militant nature of the attacks even took some of the veterans off guard. False propaganda and lies about the facts were nothing new, but the personal threats were certainly novel. Unsurprisingly, some opted not to partake in the proceedings despite how meaningful it was to them for fears of those threats while others braved the elements.
The rhetoric was so bad, experts like Michael Geist had to premise his expert opinion by saying “I’m not paid by Big Tech” which, as far as we know, is certainly not something we’ve seen from him before, but it spoke to just how militant the other side of the debate had gotten. If that doesn’t speak to how hard it is to speak the truth on these subjects, I’m not sure what does.
Yet, that’s the thing. People like us are merely analyzing the situation and trying to be truthful and honest with our thoughts on the subject. Even if our thoughts aren’t listened to by lawmakers, we did our job. When those laws were passed, all reporters and experts could do afterwards is document the chaos and destruction that ensued as a result of the ignoring of all of the evidence and expert opinion on the subject. I can tell you that people like us had no problem filling our pages with that documentation.
With Bill C-18, Meta predictably dropped news links on their platforms. Large media companies saw drops in traffic. Smaller outlets started either slowing down or going bankrupt altogether. A situation that people like us were widely expecting and predicting.
With Bill C-11, things aren’t any better. Already, there’s not just one, not just two, but three lawsuits that were filed against the government over the legislation. This with likely more on the way. Foreign investment was halted while streamers are openly consider leaving Canada altogether. That’s not even getting into the impending trade war the legislation is seemingly sparking between Canada and the United States. Again, experts like us predicted all of this, but were ignored. Now… it’s happening as we said it would.
As for all the jobs the bills were supposedly saving? That continues to fail to materialize. In fact, once the bills were passed, that seemed to signal to the large media companies that they got the green light to issue those waves of pink slips. For instance, the CBC announced that it would be laying off 10% of its workforce. Those layoffs were only cancelled once the government agreed to issue a separate bailout specifically for the CBC. Mysteriously, the CBC managed to find the money to shower their CEO with bonuses afterwards, though. Bell, for their part, slashed 9% of their workforce, took the money and gave a huge dividend bonus to their shareholders, then issued a second round of layoffs after on top of it all. They were moves so outrageous, even the government that backed Bell’s position was pissed off at Bell.
Of course, as I repeatedly have said all along, this isn’t a problem specifically tied to one company, but rather, a sector-wide problem. Today, I found even more evidence of this. Corus Entertainment, an organization that openly backed Bill C-11, saying that the industry is on the verge of collapse and how Bill C-11 was urgently needed in order to save it, has become the latest company to drop all pretense and issue their massive round of layoffs despite getting everything they wanted in these debates. Indeed, Corus Entertainment was at the CRTC saying that 64% of the streaming loot should go to radio, so they are expecting a massive financial windfall from all of this. Yet, all that didn’t stop the massive wave of layoffs. From the CBC:
As revenue slumps from a “challenging advertising environment,” Canadian media company Corus Entertainment — which houses brands like Global News and YTV — is “aggressively” cutting costs, continuing layoffs and shutting down parts of its business.
In the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Monday, co-chief executive officer John Gossling said that by the end of August, Corus expects it will have reduced its full-time workforce by 25 per cent — or nearly 800 jobs — compared with September 2022. By the end of May, Corus had cut about 500 employees.
The company will also stop operating two AM radio stations in Vancouver and Edmonton, and Gossling said it has identified more opportunities for savings in the future. “We can and will do much more,” he said.
So much for Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 saving Canadian jobs.
Coincidentally, we covered the ongoing financial problems with Corus not too long ago. It’s no secret the red ink flowed with that organization. Their headwinds include the Rogers Shaw merger, the failure of Bill C-18, and a whole heap of problems brought about by poor business decision making. Yet, supposedly, Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 was supposed to make it all better. The big media companies got everything they wanted with Bill C-11 and Bill C-18, so what’s the problem? Ironically, what was cited was the “regulatory environment”. From CTV:
Corus Entertainment Inc. says it expects to have slashed 25 per cent of its full-time workforce by the end of next month compared with the beginning of its 2023 fiscal year, as the company continues to “aggressively cut costs.”
The job losses, which amount to around 800 positions, come during a turbulent year for the Toronto-based television and radio broadcaster, mired by advertising revenue declines, regulatory challenges and licensing battles.
It’s funny how often the large companies get everything they want and still blame the government anyway. Not the first time we’ve seen this, but still funny to see.
At any rate, all of this is just further evidence how worthless the Online News Act and Online Streaming Act really was when it comes to “saving” Canadian jobs. As I’ve said all along, those layoffs were always going to happen regardless of the outcome of both bills. It was just a convenient talking point for companies to use when they knew both bills were going to do squat on that front. What’s more, the Canadian government really only have themselves to blame for falling for these lies hook line and sinker. Honestly, it wouldn’t be a surprise of the layoffs continued into the future.
At any rate, there was a very good reason why I argued that if the large media companies were to be getting the money, that money had to be tied to spending on actual news and programming. This as opposed to the current no strings attached rules that are currently in place. While upper management, hedge funds, and wealthy shareholders are happy, the layoffs are continuing to happen. After all, there’s no real reason to innovate when the government is cutting the paychecks to keep the businesses afloat. Still, if you wanted further proof that things aren’t improving, well, Corus Entertainment just handed that further evidence to you on a silver platter.
