TVO has confirmed it’s laid off nine staff on its editorial team, but is not cancelling any journalism programming.
John Ferri, VP of Programming and Content at the Ontario public broadcaster, confirmed in a statement released to Broadcast Dialogue that the layoffs impact five members of the web team, two managers and two other positions out of an editorial staff of 70.
“We have not cancelled any of our journalism broadcast programming,” said Ferri. “In fact, we just launched an entirely new weekly show last Sunday called Big (If True) with journalist Molly Thomas that focuses on disinformation.”
Ferri said the network continues to be committed to its documentary slate, producing eight to 12 TVO Originals a year, which won’t change. He said the network is also continuing with production of its roster of journalism podcasts, including #onpoli with Steve Paikin and John Michael McGrath, five-part investigative podcast Queries, exploring what happens when Charter Rights collide, and two more investigative podcast series in production. He said four in-house digital video series are also in production, including NDN POV, which looks at issues through an Indigenous lens.
“Suffice to say that this means that TVO is no way moving away from journalism,” asserted Ferri. “What we have done is make a strategic choice to focus our website more on documentaries, video and podcasts than on text alone. We will still have columns by our in-house journalists.”
“Like you, we are sorry to see our colleagues leave,” he continued. “But I want to be clear that TVO’s commitment to journalism is not going anywhere.”
Among those announcing their departures from the network is Matt Gurney, who had been a freelance columnist for the broadcaster.
