Vancouver Papers Converts Newsrooms for Lease

Vancouver Sun and The Province are published by Postmedia

Postmedia Network is a conglomerate that owns a lot of community papers across the country as well as the National Post and Financial Post. However Postmedia is not completely Canadian -- 66 percent of it is owned by American media conglomerate Chatham Asset Management.

In Vancouver it owns the Vancouver Sun and The Province, the former a broadsheet, the latter a tabloid. Media is a tough business to be in, and sounds like it's even tougher when the owner is a company that while specialises in media, does not have the passion for it.

So I don't know if readers were shocked or not surprised to find out today that Postmedia has shut down its offices and asked its staff to work from home permanently in a bid to further cut costs.

The office building is located by Canada Place

The office space they previously occupied downtown near Canada Place will be subleased, according to Harold Munro, editor-in-chief of both the Vancouver Sun and The Province.

"It's been three years since we vacated the newsrooms to work primarily from home. Initial concerns about the sudden shift quickly gave way to a pleasant realisation that all of you have the tolls and talent to thrive away from the office," his memo read.

"This is to inform you that Postmedia plans to sublease the newsroom and office space."

He said in the memo that this permanent move would not come as a surprise, as the staff had been out of the office for so long.

"You have all found new ways to communicate creatively and effectively with a level of commitment and professionalism that produces the highest quality journalism in the province."

The memo also said staff were asked to come into the office before April 21 to retrieve their personal belongings.

Last October The Vancouver Sun stopped publishing a print edition on Mondays and actively pushing readers to go online for news content. It's hard to understand as the paper, while thin, is still choc full of ads, many of them full page or even front-page wrappers that cover the front page of the paper. The newspaper also generates advertorial content for money.

The Sun doesn't have a print edition on Mondays

This latest announcement has to be demoralising for staff, and are now stuck absorbing what should be office costs at home. Some may not even have a dedicated space to do their work.

In the meantime good luck with trying to sublease the space when the Vancouver office vacancy rate has increased to about 10 percent. 

Perhaps for those who have been in Vancouver all this time the local media has been dying a slow death, but for people like me it's a shock to see it disintegrate so quickly.

So much for trying to fight disinformation and misinformation, and standing up for democracy. Pretty soon both these local papers are going the way of the Dodo bird...