Recent layoffs don’t spell the end of news anchors and hosts, they’re a shift in branding
On February 10, fans of Breakfast Television were stunned when co-host Devo Brown announced on-air that Meredith Shaw and Sid Seixeiro were let go from the morning show. A Rogers sports and media representative told Postmedia that these latest moves were an “evolution” for the program and new plans would be announced in the coming weeks. Days later, Broadcast Dialogue reported that Corus Entertainment confirmed another round of staff cuts—part of the company’s plan to cut 10 percent of its workforce and streamline operations.
The cuts at Breakfast Television and Corus are far from isolated. The previous year, the Toronto Star revealed that roughly 6,700 individuals were laid off in the Canadian media industry between June 2023 and February 2024. Companies included were Vice Media and the CBC, but the biggest number of layoffs went to Bell Media with over 6,000 employees terminated over nine months. A year later, the broadcast sector has become the latest victim of shrinking newsrooms.
Casey-Jo Loos, former host of Toronto radio show 102.1 The Edge, took to Instagram just last month in response to her layoff. One line from her message read, “I’m worried that being an impactful radio host isn’t valued or sustainable and never has been.”
Graham Richardson agrees anchors are no longer the “voice of God,” but they still possess an important responsibility as journalists to inform the public. Richardson stepped away from anchoring at CTV Ottawa after over 14 years and is now the managing director of media and communications at the consultancy firm Edelman. “We’re not snobs,” he says, regarding anchors. “We’re like your neighbours delivering you what’s important. That’s who we are. The audience understood that and is still responding to that in a very positive way.”
A trusted voice and face who delivers accurate news is difficult to replace. To Richardson, 10 to 15 years ago, it would be rare for so many anchors to lose their jobs. “Too much change is not good, and all executives know it,” he says. “When you can transition an anchor out by choice, like in my case, that’s helpful because I wanted to make sure my colleagues succeeded, and we told the audience about it.” For the modern anchor or broadcast host, Richardson says to increase engagement and visibility, they need to embrace all the channels at their disposal, including Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Alan Carter was let go from Global News after 25 years and is now a reporter for CityNews. He says the role of a news anchor has evolved to delivering a multi-platform experience. “In traditional legacy media, you must have those capabilities, or you are not getting employed in this industry anymore.”
Becoming the Brand
When BNN Bloomberg did not need her to produce newsletters anymore, Amber Kanwar knew she could build an online audience and pursued that goal. “A couple of years ago, would I have felt safe leaving a steady organization like Bloomberg that had strong brand awareness?” she wonders. “Probably not, but things have shifted so rapidly for podcasting.”
Kanwar was confident in her multifaceted capabilities as a journalist, so she risked leaving her job as a BNN anchor to produce her own YouTube show called In the Money with Amber Kanwar, which she promotes on Substack. Kanwar felt her newsletter allowed her to inject personality into the more informal medium, compared to hard news. She also believes there is an audience for her work.
A study by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission indicates more than one in five retail investors make investment decisions based on what they see on social media. “It isn’t about changing the content I provide. It is just changing the place that I provide that content,” says Kanwar. “That’s the reason that change has to happen—that’s where people’s habits are.”
Though the social media audience may seem untapped to some, Richardson is not in a rush to disregard the importance of traditional reporting. “Mainstream media journalists make mistakes, but you can’t just throw something on CTV News because you feel like it,” he says. “On social media, you can—that’s a huge difference.”
Kanwar, however, believes the 12 years she has been an anchor allowed her to apply her experience in formal journalism to a less structured style. “I know a lot of people like to crap all over legacy media, but there are standards there,” says Kanwar, who says she still practices the rigour she learned at BNN in her work today. “There is a concerted organizational effort to get to the truth. And as a journalist, just because I’m not with the organization anymore, that doesn’t leave me.”
Looking forward, Carter says it is not all bad news for the broadcast sector. “In my 35 years in Canadian journalism, there has been nothing but bad news about cuts and it seems simply part of the industry,” he says. “I would tell aspiring journalists that there are positions and jobs available. It’s just difficult to see what they are.”
Kanwar says big-name media personalities looking for a career outside legacy media, such as Shaw and Seixeiro, have a good chance at succeeding. “They have very clear brand propositions. Everybody knows what they are and what they’re good at,” she says. “The challenge can be the infrastructure around you. I’m a startup. I’ve had to invest in podcasting equipment. But once you solve for that, it’s all pretty much gravy.”
