An email to TSF from Rachele Labrecque, photojournalist: 

"My best friend Terri Saunders, a reporter at the Ottawa Sun, died last Sunday. She worked at the paper from 2007-2010. This was the highlight of her career.

"She left her job that she loved to move home to Newfoundland following her younger sister's death in 2010.

"She was an NNA nominee and won a couple ONAs while on staff at the Standard-Freeholder newspaper. She was there from 2000-2007.

"She worked at the weekly the Gander Beacon from 2011-present. The paper is based in Gander, Newfoundland.

"Could something about her be published on the blog?"

Thank you for your email, Rachele.

http://www.staceysfuneralhome.ca/book-of-memories/1584486/Saunders-Terri-Lynn/service-details.php

Thank you, Peter Worthington (+ Memories)

We knew Peter Worthington was in hospital in Mexico when he turned 86 recently because the legendary Toronto Sun co-founder returned home and wrote about the experience in a Feb. 23 column.

That has been Peter's way over the decades - experience life's dangers as a war correspondent, a witness to  Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, a mountain climber and heart operation recipient and write about it for faithful Tely and Sun readers.

This week, we learned Peter's condition has worsened and we wondered where do you begin in thanking a Canadian newspaper icon who has been a presence at the Toronto Sun since Day One in 1971?

The vision of Peter, Doug and Don, co-founders of the Sun, changed the print media landscape in Canada and created thousands of job opportunities along the way. They did it with flare and with fairness to all who joined in for the exhilarating ride.

It was the job of a lifetime for many of the men and women in the Toronto Sun Family, so perhaps the best way to thank Peter for his tireless contributions to journalism and to Sun Media is invite comments on TSF.

We remain in awe of Peter's eventful life. A truly remarkable life, generously shared with newspaper readers around the world. Our thoughts are with Peter and his family.

Thank you, Peter Worthington.

Sun Media Open Forum 2013

Some Toronto Sun Family followers are having difficulty reading the most recent Christmas 2012 layoff casualties forum postings. Perhaps, there is a limit to the number of postings. There are 207 comments to date.

Have your say with this fresh start.

PKP Steps Aside Forum

PKP has stepped aside as president and CEO of Quebecor Inc. and Quebecor Media.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/pladeau-stepping-down-as-quebecor-chief/article9759513/

Is it a light at the end of the tunnel after 14 years of Sun Media mayhem for employees past and present?

Are you hopeful for positive change, or do you expect it to be more of the same old, same old?

Is it too little, too late for the chain's newspapers?

Have your say.

Community newspapers forum

TSF readers have posted volumes about the importance of "community" in community newspapers over the years.

Rob Lamberti, who recently took a buyout after 27 years with the Toronto Sun, will be teaching a course on community journalism at Humber College this winter.

Rob writes:

"I was reading some of the comments since the most recent layoffs and a few messages about community journalism struck me.

"I am teaching a course on community journalism this winter at Humber and I was wondering if it would be possible to start a response section on your blog asking what community journalism means to the blog's users and readers and if the company is meeting the needs of the communities it purports to serve.

"I would then like to use those responses, whether anonymous or not, as a gauge and guide of what responsible journalism is at the community level, how it is defined in small communities and what the communities expect from the news outlet that serves them. 

"And of course, satisfaction. Do they feel the community is satisfied with the efforts of the journalists, the staff that supports the journalism (including  advertising) and the company as a whole?" 

Over to you, TSF readers.

An email from Jim Garnett

An email from Jim Garnett, former award-winning Toronto Sun freelance photographer:

Hi John,
Hope this email finds you well. I recently discovered the blog (TSF) and have enjoyed it a lot. I'm not an-ex-Sun staffer, although I worked for the newspaper for a span of twenty-six years.

1985 - 1992 Freelance photographer, answering newsroom 'phones, police desk overnight (weekends), security officer, head of Toronto Sun security (emergency cover after Smiley was fired - or asked to leave - depending on who was telling you the story) and even mailroom guy for a while (doing inserts into the newspaper).

1995 - 2011 Freelance photographer both in Croatia and back in Canada, police desk overnight (weekends) and freelance travel writer (one time only!)

I had the time of my life at the Sun and met some #$%@ing legends. I was so hard up when I began freelancing I slept in my car to save money so I could pay my gas bills driving around looking for 'spot' news so I guess I created a bit of a label for myself. I also won five 'News Photo of the Year' awards (Toronto Fire twice, Metro Police, Toronto Ambulance and Hamilton Police) so I guess I learned something.

Some 'stars' - aside from yourself - Bob Carroll, Barry Gray, Len Fortune, Jack Cusano, Mike Cassese, Greig Reekie, Bill Sandford, Mike Peake, Paul (Pollywog) Henry, Warren Toda, Mark O'Neill, Rob Lamberti, Ed Montieth, Peter Brewster . . . God, how I miss these guys.

Crooks Bar was our haunt before Betty's. Sneaking home along the QEW after some brews caught one or two out when the red lights came on in the rear view mirror. How sad it is to read how Quebecor have driven 333 into the ground.

Anyway, please say hello to everyone for me. After working a great deal for CHCH-TV in Hamilton and CTV in Toronto, I was diagnosed terminally ill in 2009.

My mother is now 85 and pretty frail so I'm in the UK now taking care of her. But my illness is pretty severe too. I just got out of hospital after an infection meant surgery and quite a lot of my right foot had to be amputated. So I'm at home trying to learn to walk again on what's left.

Take care mate!

Sincerely,

Jim Garnett

333 Jack of all trades

Christmas 2012 layoff casualties

Updated Dec. 12

Another 500 Sun Media jobs have been cut by Quebecor, including a Toronto Sun Day Oner and many other loyal employees across the chain. Names posted will be added to this list.

Known casualties:

Ontario newspapers axed since October
Amherstburg Echo 
Capital City News in Ottawa
Dunnsville Chronicle 
Guelph Review
Kitchener-Waterloo Review
Leamington Post
West Niagara News in Grimsby
Windsor This Week 

The Sun tabloids

Calgary Sun
Jim Legg, desker
Sandra Smith, executive assistant
Roy Clancy, columnist 

Edmonton Sun - All 35-plus pre-press employees, plus three copy editors, a photographer,
Jeremy Loome, editorial writer and letters editor, 17 years service Maria Ladouceur,
long-time executive admin staffer 

Toronto Sun
Jim Thomson, Toronto Sun Day Oner, 41 years service
Lorrie Goldstein, senior associate editor, 34 years service 
Gary Loewen

Ottawa Sun - 10 jobs lost, including
Mitch Axelrad, editor-in-chief
Jackie Lawrence, manager 

Ottawa Sun printing plant

Winnipeg Sun - seven employees

Ontario community newspapers
Brantford Expositor
City editor
Newsroom assistant
Managing editor resigned (Nov. 21) 

Chatham Daily News
Bruce Corcoran, managing editor (shown the door Nov. 26)
Pam Wight, assistant managing editor (Nov. 26)
Jeanine Foulon, ad manager
Ron McLintock; circulation manager
A contract ad rep
A customer service rep
Plus Jim Blake, former managing editor and publisher, who
"had editorial oversight of a host of weekly newspapers in southwestern Ontario" 

Chatham This Week
One reporter

Clinton News-Record
Editor 

Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin
Doreen Sykes 

Cornwall Standard Freeholder - one reporter, an advertising clerk, plus

Milton Ellis, publisher
Anthony Joubert, circulation magaer 

Kenora Daily Miner and News
Bob Stewart, news editor/columnist, 36+ years
Mitch Wolfe, publisher 

Kingston Whig-Standard
Publisher three weks ago, ad director on Monday, sports editor on Tuesday 

Kingston printing plant - more than 40 employees 

London Free Press
Sports editor 

Niagara Falls Review
Seven layoffs, one early retirement. Six are full-time positions

Orillia Packet and Times
Ad manager, 12 years
Circulation manager, 13years
Ad rep, 5 years

Owen Sound Sun Times - two reporters, plus
Cheryl McMenemy, publisher
Karen Pridham, news editor, 27 years service

Sault St. Marie Star - four jobs
Publisher, editorial assistant, reporter and ad sales rep.

Sarnia Observer
George Mathewson, news editor

Simcoe Reformer
Merv Hawkins (gone earlier), group publisher, previously senior group publisher for Sun Media Bowes publishers for about 30 years before that job was eliminated
David Langford, corporate sports editor .

(Daryl Smith, group publisher for southwestern Ontario and Sarnia Observer, ousted last month)

St. Thomas Times-Journal
Patrick Brennan, reporter
Robert Chaulk, photographer

Stratford Beacon-Herald
John Kastner, managing editor 

Welland Tribune - Four jobs lost

Outside Ontario
Drayton Valley Western Review (Alberta)
The publisher and group publisher of Central Alberta 

Portage La Prairie Daily Graphic
Barry Clayton, publisher

Open Forum 3

Keep in the loop by posting comments here on any Sun Media subject: layoffs, retirements, deaths, cutbacks, your memories, union settlements/strikes etc. 

Comments will be moderated and posted, but they won't be edited so do try to be tidy in your typing. 

Open Forum 2

Open Forum 1

Open Forum 2

Keep in the loop by posting comments here on any Sun Media subject: layoffs, retirements, deaths, cutbacks, your memories, union settlements/strikes etc. 

Comments will be moderated and posted, but they won't be edited so do try to be tidy in your typing.

Open Forum 1

Layoff forum

Comments re Nov. 28, 2011 Sun Media layoffs: