(Quebec) Faced with the financial crisis and job cuts which are once again shaking the media industry in Quebec, the Legault government is preparing, in consultation with Ottawa, a “temporary media aid plan”.
Upon his arrival at the government caucus on Tuesday, before question period, The Press noticed that the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, was holding in his hands a document for approval “to the ministerial authorities” concerning new aid measures.
“You have good eyesight, I’ll hide that,” he said, laughing.
Mr. Lacombe then held a press scrum in reaction to the announcements of job cuts at Radio-Canada. He refused to give more details on the next aid measures that his government will put in place.
“This is work that we are currently doing with the federal government,” said the minister, admitting that the aid that has been granted to the media so far mainly concerns the written press.
“I said it publicly, it’s not a hiding place, we need to coordinate better with Ottawa because indeed, at the moment, there is a gap” with regard to TV stations and radios, said Mr. Lacombe.
“The support plan for Quebec media is already very generous […] for writing. We have the best, if not among the best, subsidized written media in North America. I think the Quebec government is doing its job,” he added.
Last winter, the information coops (which brings together regional dailies The right, The sun, The gallery, The Nouvelliste, The Voice of the East And The Daily) announced the end of their paper editions at the end of December in order to focus solely on their digital versions. This shift also leads to the elimination of around a hundred positions, or approximately a third of the organization’s workforce.
The Métro Média company, which includes the Metro Journal and 16 local weeklies, also ceased operations last summer.
Péladeau meets Legault
Earlier Tuesday, the president of Quebecor, Pierre Karl Péladeau, who recently announced the elimination of 547 positions at the TVA Group, also met François Legault in Quebec. The Prime Minister discussed with him “the future of the media, […] film and television production [ainsi que] different development projects,” he wrote on the social network
In the context that Radio-Canada attributes “largely to the drop in advertising and subscription revenues, the impact of inflation on operating costs and production costs as well as to the savings requested by the federal government to departments and state corporations”, the state corporation announced Monday the elimination of 600 jobs and the abolition of 200 vacant positions across the country.
Last month, Quebecor also announced that 547 employees, including 300 in internal production, will lose their jobs at TVA Group, which represents 31% of its current workforce. Other media outlets have also made budget cuts and job cuts in recent months. Last June, Bell (owner of CTV and Noovo, among others) notably cut 1,300 positions across the country.
With Tommy Chouinard, The Press