{"id":3415,"date":"2012-04-30T07:33:02","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T11:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=3415"},"modified":"2012-04-30T07:22:55","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T11:22:55","slug":"rci-cuts-pink-slips-no-clear-strategy-for-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/rci-cuts-pink-slips-no-clear-strategy-for-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"RCI Cuts: pink slips – no clear strategy for Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Source: RCI Action<\/a>)<\/p>\n

April 25, 2012:<\/p>\n

Facing the reality of job cuts in any workplace is hard enough. When you\u2019re an employee at Radio Canada International \u2013 it\u2019s more than a job. It\u2019s more than just a job loss.<\/p>\n

Most of us have worked several decades for RCI. It may be an\u00a0 under appreciated service in Canada. But in the last few weeks, since the April 4 announcement that we would be cut by 80% and stop being a radio station, listeners around the world have rallied to our cause to stop the cuts. They have also told us how much they appreciate what we do, and are astonished that our national public radio and television broadcaster CBC\/Radio-Canada would hit us with such a huge budget cut, much more then any other service under their control.<\/p>\n

Strangely, even when we say an 80% per cent budget cut, it sounds sort of theoretical. When the letter is given to you that you no longer have a job, that your decades of service to Canada\u2019s Voice to the World are redundant, well, that\u2019s something else.<\/p>\n

Today that happened to most of us.<\/p>\n

About 15 permanent staff have been told they still have a job, 30 have been told they don\u2019t. Three contractual webmasters will remain, but about 10 to 20 contractual employees (researchers, interviewers, hosts) will lose their jobs. Another 10 or 20 people who fill in for staff will have little or no work.<\/p>\n

More importantly to us RCI has been almost made to disappear, no more radio programs, just a website, that is yet to be conceived, with little support. How much three employees in each of the five language services: English, French, Arabic, Mandarin and Spanish can do, even with the best of intentions, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Management is saying we\u2019ll be putting up text, photos, audio, maybe even video. But details are scarce. In fact, that\u2019s the most surprising thing of all. There\u2019s little information on how the website will look or function, there\u2019s no real lead up time to prepare it, we\u2019ll all be busy doing are regular programming until June 24. Then the new website is supposed to be up and running and those of us left, will have to somehow magically make it work.<\/p>\n

[…]Next week we are promised a blueprint of the new RCI. Today it\u2019s hard to believe in that future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I will be very interested to see the blueprint for RCI’s internet future. \u00a0Frankly, it will need a strategy to delineate itself from the hundreds of\u00a0thousands\u00a0of well-established Internet media sources out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Source: RCI Action) April 25, 2012: Facing the reality of job cuts in any workplace is hard enough. When you\u2019re an employee at Radio Canada International \u2013 it\u2019s more than a job. It\u2019s more than just a job loss. Most of us have worked several decades for RCI. It may be an\u00a0 under appreciated service […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3],"tags":[1042,1041,1071,1070,631,1040,30,1039,1046,1044,1043,1045,4082],"class_list":["post-3415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcasters","category-news","tag-cbc-budget","tag-cbc-cuts","tag-how-to-help-radio-canada-international","tag-how-to-help-rci","tag-radio-canada-international","tag-radio-canada-international-cuts","tag-rci","tag-rci-cuts","tag-rci-ends-shortwave","tag-sackville-closure","tag-sackville-new-brunswick","tag-sackville-transmitter-site-closure","tag-shortwave-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-T5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3335,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/rci-listener-comments-carry-common-theme\/","url_meta":{"origin":3415,"position":0},"title":"RCI listener comments carry common theme","author":"Thomas","date":"April 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"On RCI's Listener Letters and the RCI Action committee's website, you can read listener reactions to the looming RCI cuts. To their credit, I've noticed that RCI programs (like The Link\u00a0with Marc Montgomery) are continuing \"business as usual.\" I've noticed no degradation of their content or quality.","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/TheLinkRCI.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3202,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/radio-canada-international-to-end-shortwave-broadcasts-sackville-to-be-closed\/","url_meta":{"origin":3415,"position":1},"title":"Oh, Canada: Radio Canada International to end shortwave broadcasts, Sackville to be closed","author":"Thomas","date":"April 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another sad day for international broadcasting. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has announced sweeping cuts that will eliminate 650 jobs over the course of 3 years. In a strategic plan called, Same Strategy, Different Path, they specifically outline their cuts of shortwave and satellite transmissions which will also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/CBCbuilding-300x168.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3217,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/the-link-talks-about-the-cuts-at-rci\/","url_meta":{"origin":3415,"position":2},"title":"The Link talks about the cuts at RCI","author":"Thomas","date":"April 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In this interview with Levon Sevunts, producer for RCI's The Link, we get a little more insight into the impact of these cuts at Radio Canada International. One notable quote from the audio interview:\u00a0Sevunts states rather bluntly, \"RCI is getting out of radio altogether.\" RCI's last day of broadcasting will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/TheLinkRCI.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3214,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/helene-parent-two-out-of-three-rci-employees-will-lose-their-jobs-by-the-end-of-july\/","url_meta":{"origin":3415,"position":3},"title":"Helene Parent: “two out of three RCI employees will lose their jobs by the end of July”","author":"Thomas","date":"April 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It appears that the cuts at Radio Canada International will be deep and swift (see below). (Source: RCInet.ca) Spending cuts announced last week in Canada's latest federal budget have reached Radio Canada International. Speaking to employees at RCI's headquarters in Montreal on Wednesday, RCI director Helene Parent declared that two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/RCI-300x93.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3445,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/the-toronto-star-publishes-my-thoughts-on-the-cuts-to-radio-canada-international\/","url_meta":{"origin":3415,"position":4},"title":"The Toronto Star publishes my thoughts on the cuts to Radio Canada International","author":"Thomas","date":"May 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As many of you know, I find the downsizing of major shortwave broadcasters around the world deeply concerning, especially since so much of the world still relies on the medium as a source of news and information, and for some the only source of potentially life-saving information. The recent cuts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/TheNetwork-TheTorontoStar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3292,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/the-gazette-tributes-to-rci-pour-in-from-around-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":3415,"position":5},"title":"The Gazette: Tributes to RCI pour in from around the world","author":"Thomas","date":"April 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A sampling of messages to The Gazette in response to the cuts to Radio Canada International (RCI): (Source: MontrealGazette.com) \u201cThis is absolutely dreadful. RCI has been one of the best shortwave radio stations and a much-needed voice of solid, objective reporting. I\u2019ve been a loyal listener from the mid-1990s and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Broadcasters"","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/RCI-300x93.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}