CHEK: the incredible shrinking TV station

Canwest Global laid off another 19 staff at CHEK TV last week, reducing a workforce that once numbered 140 to just 40.

The jobs of the others will be done from Canwest Global`s Vancouver studios as the Winnipeg-based media conglomerate (which also owns the Times Colonist and a chain of weeklies on Vancouver Island) responds to a disappointing 2007- 2008 fiscal year.

Canwest had already laid off 20 staff in September. The earlier layoff saw several producer positions move to Vancouver and local camera operators replaced by robotic cameras controlled from Vancouver.

"It`s disappointing," commented Richard Conwick, assignment editor at CHEK and president of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union Local 815 M. "Those that remain will continue to do our best to provide the same level of service to the people of Victoria and the island, but it gets harder with each cut."

The latest round will see the disappearance of commercial production at CHEK and across the Canwest Global chain, says Conwick.

But news reporters, camera people and news-show anchorpeople will operate from the Island and the newsclips will be put together by editors here. Commercials will be farmed out to private production houses.

John Pollard, the new general manager, says "the look" of CHEK newscasts will be the same, and the reporting and editing will continue to originate here. He foresees no decline in advertising revenue because of the change, while granting that "revenues are down everywhere because the market has fractured as 13 TV channels have expanded to 200. "We plan to expand our advertising revenues," he says.

Steve Hutchinson of Treehouse Media, an advertising consultant in Victoria, says he`s received those same assurances from CHEK. "I`m hypersensitive to how CHEK will do its news because that is virtually the only programming my clients can afford." Ad spots next to American programming shown by either CHEK or A British Columbia will find four times the viewership on the mainland and cost proportionately. "Only regional or national advertisers can afford those spots. " For locals, that leaves the news. He`ll be watching closely for any deterioration the look or content.

Hutchinson says when A British Columbia hired Hudson Mack away from CHEK to do its news, it became a serious player in the advertising market, and with A British Columbia`s increased community involvement under Mack, and Bruce Williams as the ubiquitous face of the station at events around the Island, A British Columbia can`t help but impress advertisers. "CHEK needs to emphasize its own community involvement now more than ever," advises Hutchinson.

Michael Real, professor of communications and culture at Royal Roads University, says what is going on at CHEK is part of "a troubling trend" across North America. Partly the motivation is a need to respond to the development of the Internet and new ways that young people are getting their news, but it is also due to "corporate greed."

Canwest reported a $1.04- billion loss, but $1 billion of that was a one- time write down of its asset value.

In fact, Canwest reported a 13-per-cent-increase in its operating profits to $558 million; it followed this up with the announcement that 560 positions would be cut from TV and publishing to save $61 million yearly.

What`s troubling to Real is that a TV station operated remotely from Vancouver or Winnipeg simply provides less service. "In the U.S. there is a TV chain doing all its local weather reports across the country from Baltimore. The weather person maybe won`t pronounce local names correctly and won`t know what weather is really being experienced by the audience."

If CHEK`s stories are edited in Vancouver then they will not reflect a local understanding of the issues.

The cutbacks seen in most North American radio and TV chains in part is a response to the pressure from online news. Networks and newspaper chains are taking resources from their traditional operations and putting them into online editions. "In some cases dedicated news people are making these decisions as they cope with how to do their jobs in the changing market," says Real.

The U.S. election, he adds, illustrates the changes as young people increasingly relied on the Internet or comedy shows such as Saturday Night Live, The Daily and The Colbert Report for news.

However, many broadcasters are taking a calculated risk in reducing services-not to save marginal operations, says Real, but rather to preserve the high profit margins of the past. Real put these at 30 per cent and up. "They are prepared to lose some revenues due to reduced services because the reduced costs will increase their profit margins."

Real says CFAX radio, though owned by CTV, puts a heavy stress on local programming and is a bright light in the Victoria market. However, its success has not shaken loose its rivals from their cost-cutting and profitable approach.