EDITORIAL – Cuts to reporting staff at CHNL are bad news for the community

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

BEHIND-THE-SCENES comments are often different than what people say publicly when a news outlet is closed or suffers serious cutbacks in staffing.

The firing of several news staffers at CHNL today (Sept. 24, 2024) is no exception. Community and political leaders are lamenting the loss of jobs and the expected loss of news coverage for Kamloops. Social media posts are being less kind, and there is no doubt a mixture of comments around the coffee shops.

But let’s be kind. People have lost their employment today. The cutbacks at NL are definitely not good news for the community, and are actually part of a trend in the media business here and elsewhere. The beginning of the downfall of news at the station actually began a few years ago when new owners at the station decided to cut loose several long-serving employees because, the story goes, they’d been there too long and were therefore being paid too much.

In order to accomplish it, the entire format of the station was changed, and its news coverage downgraded. Gone were stalwarts like Bob Price and Jim Harrison, along with others, and the death of news legend Angelo Iachobucci further eroded the station’s former reputation as a leader in local news coverage.

Instead of generating new stories every hour as it once did, striving to be first with breaking news, the station began running material that was sometimes as much as a week old. It’s difficult to imagine how that will get better with half the staff.

Still, NL has been one more source for news.

What has to be kept in mind is that the news media aren’t public services. They’re businesses; they have to make a profit to remain in operation. Once a virtual licence to print money, news media have increasingly become a dicey proposition. One way that radio, TV stations and newspapers balance their budgets is to cut back on news staff, which are regarded as cost centres rather than revenue producers.

Another way is replace experienced reporters with fresh-faced journalism-school graduates who know little about community news gathering and aren’t likely to learn much without the veterans to teach them. The more that newsrooms are downsized, the fewer people will want to go into the industry because their opportunities become more and more limited, and the downward spiral continues.

While news media have to keep watch on the bottom line, they also need to remember that the business they’re in is different than any other. It comes with a solemn responsibility to reflect what’s going on in the communities they serve. They have to compromise between making a bigger profit and producing a good product — that product is news.

Sadly, it’s something the media giants don’t pay a lot of attention to.

The real bottom line is that our sources of information about what’s going on in Kamloops suffered a blow today.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.