A former journalist and media instructor is taking a cautious stance on the potential takeover of SaltWire by national media giant Postmedia.
SaltWire, which own’s the St. John’s Telegram, filed for creditor protection earlier this year with debt totalling nearly $94 million.
Former CBC journalist and instructor Anthony Germain warns that the sale, if approved, could result in job cuts and reduced local content.
In a statement, Postmedia stated a new business model was needed at the company—something Germain interprets as code for job cuts, layoffs, or freeze in pay.
“Think of the SaltWire family of twenty newspapers as people who have been washed overboard,” said Germain. “Postmedia’s rescue vessel arrives and it’s got some lifesavers, big floatation rings, and some of those papers are going to be given a ring and they’ll be kept afloat as those papers. Then there are others that are going to be thrown a raft and they’re going to be told ‘okay, get inside that raft, you need to work together in that raft,’ and what I’m getting at with this belabored analogy is I can’t see this not happening without some consolidation or some closure of newspapers.”