A disaster “. A blow “. “Terrible news”. TVA’s regional news rooms are struggling to absorb the shock of the announcement of 98 job cuts. From Sherbrooke to Trois-Rivières via Rimouski and Chicoutimi, dozens of workers have received a dismissal letter since Thursday evening.
“The regions are as if we were second-class people. We will no longer have the same quality of information as in Montreal or Quebec, absolutely,” laments Michel Boivin, from Chicoutimi, a TVA employee for 33 years. He learned that he was losing his job along with 19 of his 26 colleagues.
As in other regional TVA stations, only four journalists and two cameramen will remain on the job within 16 weeks. Their reports will be assembled in Quebec, then the news bulletins will be pre-recorded and read by a news reader in the Old Capital.
“Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean is big. From start to finish, it takes a good three or four hours. There are certainly places that will be less covered from now on,” worries Mr. Boivin who is also Saguenay vice-president of the provincial union of TVA employees.
In Rimouski, star news reader Martin Blanchet has learned that he will no longer read the news, but he does not know if he will be reassigned as a reporter in the field. In this Bas-Saint-Laurent station, which has 29 employees including a journalist in Sept-Îles and another in Baie-Comeau, employees have also been informed that only four journalists and two cameramen will keep their jobs.
Across the network, the cuts will be in effect in 16 weeks.
“We are still losing ground to the benefit of large centers,” underlines Mr. Blanchet. People here, sincerely, they like to see their world, their reader, their journalists. But now they will have someone imposed on them who has no knowledge of the region. It’s a reader from Quebec who will talk to them about their region. “.
Not just journalists
The Rimouski station, which covers all the news in Eastern Quebec, has also learned that it will move since the large studios will no longer be used and that the workforce will be reduced by almost 80%.
But it is not only journalists and cameramen who will lose their jobs, specifies Mr. Blanchet. Production operators, technicians, directors, sales coordinators are all affected, without exception, by layoffs.
“It’s really a big shock to take […] People are shaken, it’s terrible for our staff,” he said, speaking of a “catastrophe” for the regions.
In Sherbrooke, experienced journalist Jean-François Desbiens, who has covered major events such as the train derailment in Lac-Mégantic or the death of the little girl from Granby, estimates that nearly 50 people work at the regional station. This is because TVA has a department that produces advertisements. Here too, only six people will remain in post.
Mr. Desbiens, who has worked at TVA-Sherbrooke for 25 years, is not worried about his fate, but for young journalists who dream of a career in the field.
“We have several young people who have invested a lot of time in training and studies because they have aspirations. I hope that we will not pull the rug out from under their feet and that we will give them the means to be able to move forward in this,” he said a few minutes before going on air with a report on… regional information.
Gatineau and Rouyn spared
In Gatineau and Rouyn-Noranda, the TVA stations are operated independently by the broadcaster RNC Média. These newsrooms are not affected by the cuts.
“We are very supportive of our colleagues. This is really not good news for our industry, but viewers in the Outaouais, who are used to listening to our local bulletins, will not see any impact,” indicated Sébastien Côté, general manager and director of the information at TVA Gatineau-Ottawa. He added that the two stations, in Outaouais and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, are however also living “under pressure”, in the context of the media crisis.
The Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ) also expressed concern for regional information, especially since the Coops de l’info also announced, earlier this year, the end of the printing of their six daily. The group will eliminate around a hundred positions in the region by the end of the year.
“In the regions, the distances are great. Will TVA journalists have the means to travel and do their work, or will they be concentrated in central cities like Rimouski? “, asks Éric-Pierre Champagne, vice-president of the FPJQ. The latter will become president of the Federation on November 12.
Out of 98 positions eliminated, TVA says that around twenty concern journalists. “We have chosen to protect as many journalist positions as possible in order to preserve the quality of the information that we deliver to the public,” indicated the Quebecor Public Affairs team by email. Thus, around twenty journalists, mostly temporary, will see their positions abolished in the region and in Montreal. »