Rogers lays off 94 people from media division

Rogers Communications Inc. has issued layoff notices to 94 employees in its media division across the country today, a cut of about 2 per cent of the unit's total workforce.

The cuts were scattered across the country. Rogers Media ownsCityTV and Omnistations, specialty channels such as Sportsnet, dozens of radio stations and some of the most widely read magazines in Canada, including Chatelaine, Macleans and Canadian Business.

"We are evolving our business model to adapt to the changing media industry, with a strong focus and investment on our priority brands and strategic growth initiatives," Rogers Media president Keith Pelley said in a statement. "Todays changes are never easy, but are necessary to position us for continued success."

No details on specific cuts were offered in the statement.

Although still profitable, Rogers' publishing unit has seen margins squeezed in recent years as print revenues are declining at a much faster rate than digital advertising is increasing.

The media divisionstook in an operating profit of $112 million in the first three quarters of this year. That's less than three per centof the entire company's $3.8 billion in operating profit over that same time period.

The cuts come after several dozen employees were let go after a streamlining of the CityTV properties earlier this summer.