Expect less N.L. content in the Telegram under new Postmedia owner, says journalism prof

A journalism professor is warning readers to expect less Newfoundland and Labrador content in the St. John's Telegram, following cuts to newsroom staff under its new ownership.

Chris Waddell,professor emeritus in the journalism school at Ottawa's Carleton University, said news outlets are struggling to keep their business models viable.

"Many news organizations have tried to do something, obviously, to deal with declining advertising revenue," Waddell told CBC News on Monday.

"Mostly what they've tried to do is to cut costs. And they've done that by laying off reporters, cutting editors, cutting reporters and people who are out there doing the stories."

Last month, Toronto-based Postmedia acquired SaltWire Network Inc., including the St. John's Telegram, with Postmedia CEO Andrew MacLeod saying the company would implement "significant restructuring" to find a functional business model for the newly purchased Atlantic newspapers. Postmedia also recently announced job cuts across its newly acquired newspapers, including in N.L.

Waddell said those cuts hurt an organization's ability to cover news, which in turn affects readership.

"Audiences aren't stupid, and readers aren't stupid. They see that there's fewer stories or there's fewer stories that mean something to them. So that means the circulation numbers go down, more advertising is lost," he said.

Owners typically respond by making additional cuts to the number of reporters, said Waddell, exacerbating the drop in readership, which he called a "death spiral."

Waddell said readers of the now-Postmedia newspapers might notice fewer stories from their own region and more with a national lens.

"There's fewer local stories and there's more stories that are inserted that come from wire services or come from National Post that are maybe national stories," he said

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The Telegram will continue to publish articles daily online and will have one weekly print edition, printed outside the province and brought in.

Waddell said that business model has been tried in the U.S. but he's not sure whether it's been successful. The biggest question, he said, will be whether the paper has enough staff to provide daily news as well as a weekly paper issue.

"That's difficult to do with a small staff."

Many people use their phones to read news, he said, a major shift over the last several years.

"So the question becomes: can you make the transition from print to a phone and can you persuade people to pay for it?"

There are advantages for publishing news online, he said, including the ability to add video clips and interview audio to stories.

"You can combine all of those things and tell stories that may be even more engaging than they were in a newspaper."

But it's a balancing act, he said, to maintain enough employees to do the work that will continue to draw readers in; the concern is that the remaining employees will be tasked with work they don't have the skills to do and will burn out.

Waddell said there is a motive for companies like Postmedia to acquire more newspapers having more papers does bring in more cash flow, even if revenue is declining overall.

"So you're getting some money in to cover your costs."

He added the Canadian government has introduced labour subsidies to newspapers that can cover $30,000 or $40,000 of an employee's salary.

"So if you own more newspapers, you get more of those government subsidies."

That government-cash injection could be allowing businesses to continue to bring in money while they figure out a long-term solution to making money from the newspaper, he said.

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