Bell Media president Sean Cohan says layoffs were necessary to reach company’s goals

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TORONTO — Bell Media president Sean Cohan says current layoffs and programming cuts are one thing he doesn’t take flippantly, however had been essential to speed up the corporate’s objectives within the digital media panorama.

On Tuesday, Cohan made his first public look since getting into the manager function by talking on the inaugural Black Display screen Workplace Symposium in Toronto, the place he used a keynote tackle to stipulate Bell Media’s continued dedication to variety.

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In an interview after the speech, Cohan mentioned he takes difficulty with how layoffs throughout the nation by mum or dad firm Bell Inc., have been characterised as “killing journalism.”

In February, Bell introduced 4,800 job cuts in any respect ranges of the corporate, of which fewer than 10 per cent have affected Bell Media particularly. Bell Media additionally introduced the tip of a number of native newscasts throughout the nation and mentioned CTV’s flagship investigative collection “W5” would not be a standalone program.

Cohan mentioned Bell Media now has “extra devoted journalists in additional territories” in Canada than ever earlier than on account of the restructuring. The corporate says “CTV Nationwide Information” will quickly have devoted newsgathering workers in all 10 Canadian provinces, a primary for the newscast.

Whereas BCE Inc., introduced it was promoting off 45 of 103 Bell radio stations as a part of the restructuring, Cohan mentioned he thinks radio continues to be “a viable enterprise going ahead.”

He mentioned the corporate offered these stations to “dedicated native gamers” it felt had been “higher houses.”

In his keynote tackle on the BSO Symposium, Cohan mentioned an vital a part of his mandate is to create better variety inside Bell Media, including that variety makes for “nice enterprise.”

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He mentioned the corporate desires half of the English and French language applications it commissions this yr to be generated by creatives from Black, Indigenous, folks of color and under-represented teams. A publicist later mentioned Cohan misspoke and was referring to English-language commissions solely.

Cohan, who started his publish in November, mentioned he’s dedicated to creating positive the corporate delivers “differentiated storytelling” by having a “numerous, inclusive workforce.”

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