The Globe and Mail

By Gayle MacDonald

CBC's communications group handed redundancy notices to 35 employees yesterday -- mostly publicists -- as part of a bid to shave $1.7-million from that department's annual budget.  

At noon yesterday, the affected employees who are based in Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver were told their positions were being axed as part of an overhaul that will see much of the publicity for both radio and TV outsourced to independent public-relations firms.

One disgruntled staffer, who has been with the public broadcaster more than two decades, said it was interesting that, as part of the cost-saving plan, the CBC will however be hiring five new promotions managers, so-called "gatekeepers" two of whom will be based in Toronto, two in Vancouver and one in Halifax.

They will be in charge of managing the outsourcing recruits hired to raise the profile of radio and TV programs. "They basically laid off every TV and radio network publicist, with the lion's share of affected jobs in Toronto," he said.

"I think their business plan is flawed and some of us have already taken it up with the Canadian Media Guild."

The jobs become defunct at the end of June.

The cuts account for a savings of roughly $860,000, said Ruth-Ellen Soles, spokesperson for the CBC. The remainder of the $1.7-million cost-saving target -- which represents 12 per cent of the communication's groups total budget -- "was found elsewhere in the department," Soles said yesterday.

"The communications department at the CBC is going through a realignment to make it more efficient, and to deliver a more comprehensive marketing, publicity and public-relations service to our internal clients," she said.

"What we're trying to do is deliver publicity to our audience on a market-by-market basis, as opposed to it all being done by Toronto." Soles added that local publicists in centres such as Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon and Charlottetown will keep their jobs.

"We're moving toward more of an agency model."

Last week, an investment group led by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore announced it will close Newsworld International, a 24-hours CBC news cable channel created in 1994. Roughly 58 employees will be affected, and the cable channel will officially become defunct at the end of July.

Gore is part of a group that purchased Newsworld International for $155-million (U.S.) several years ago.