UPDATE 1-Postmedia cuts jobs; merges newrooms in Ottawa, elsewhere

(Adds union comment, details)
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Canadian newspapers owned by
Postmedia Network Canada Corp PNCa.TO have cut 90 journalists,
or about 8 percent of its editorial workforce, the publisher
said on Tuesday, as it merged tabloid and broadsheet newsrooms
in four major cities.
The publisher of the National Post, Toronto Sun and a host
of other major Canadian newspapers said last week that it was
aiming to wring C$30 million ($20.60 million) more in annual
cost savings as advertising revenue dries up.
Postmedia bought the Sun tabloid newspaper chain from
Quebecor Inc QBRb.TO in a deal that closed in April last year
and gave it control of most of the major English-language
dailies in Canada.
The cuts are the latest in a series of moves since 2010,
when Postmedia Chief Executive Officer Paul Godfrey bought the
titles out of Canwest's bankruptcy.
Under the unified newsroom model, reporters who previously
wrote for either the Ottawa Sun or the Ottawa Citizen, for
example, will be expected to work with an editing desk to create
copy for both styles, Postmedia spokeswoman Phyllise Gelfand
said.
Postmedia said the cuts were effective immediately for 35
jobs in Edmonton, 25 in Calgary and 12 in Ottawa. Vancouver
newsrooms will also be merged, with as many as 50 voluntary
buyouts to be offered in Vancouver and Ottawa starting in coming
days.
As part of a related change in sports coverage, five jobs
were eliminated from the National Post based in Toronto, as well
as one in Windsor and one in Saskatoon.
The CWA Canada union, which represents about 6,000 media
workers including many Postmedia journalists, said the federal
government should move to limit concentrated ownership in media.
"We're now seeing why it's so dangerous to let one
corporation have so much control," President Martin O'Hanlon
said in a statement. "It's bad for journalism, the economy, and
democracy."
In mid-2011, Godfrey had forecast that by 2015 a quarter of
revenue would come from digital platforms, compared to around 10
percent at the time. It accounted for just 12 percent in the
company's most recent quarter.
"This is certainly an initiative aimed at cost reduction,"
said Gelfand. "The rapidly shifting revenue climate has required
that we change the cost structure that was built for a different
revenue model."
($1 = 1.4561 Canadian dollars)