Canada's highest-selling newspaper, the Toronto Star, is cutting 55 jobs, some 9% of its total staffing. Half of the cuts will affect editorial staff because editing duties are to be outsourced to Pagemasters North America, the Canadian Press agency operation.
The Star's publisher, Torstar Corp, owns Canadian Press in company with the Globe & Mail and the Square Victoria group.
Outsourcing is much cheaper. According to a Globe & Mail report, the top union rate for a Pagemasters editor is $48,000 (£31,000) while the salary for the same job at the Star is close to $85,000 (£55,000).
Torstar's outsourcing move is part of a world-wide trend. Several British and Australian publishers have used the same ruse.
The Globe & Mail, which also outsources some work, quotes a Toronto Star spokesman as saying: "It's challenging times in the newspaper business. And in these challenging times we need to protect the reporting side of the business, which we have managed to do here."
Torstar is set to announce fourth-quarter earnings tomorrow. It earned $14.1m (£9m) in the third quarter, down from $25m (£16m) a year earlier.
According to the latest circulation figures I can find (for 2010), the Star sold 381,310 on weekdays, 546,819 on Saturdays and 337,846 on Sundays.
Source: Globe & Mail
