Almost two years after his arrival, the general director of the daily Le Soleil, Éric Trottier, leaves his position. In the midst of digital transition, the Information Coops will lose a third of their workforce by the end of the year, with 125 voluntary departures.
This was announced Thursday by the general director of Information Coops, Geneviève Rossier, in an internal communication. Mr. Trottier had been at the helm of the Quebec daily since January 2022. Previously, he had also been vice-president of information and deputy editor at La Presse.
Marc Gendron, the senior director of digital growth, will now occupy the role of publisher of Le Soleil. Mr. Gendron has been responsible for the development of the group’s digital platforms since 2020. His first mandate will be “to review the allocation of roles within his teams” to promote the current transition.
All this comes as the six regional dailies of the Information Coops will no longer be printed in paper format from the end of December 2023.
Some 125 people, representing around a third of the organisation’s workforce, have already confirmed that they will take advantage of the voluntary redundancy scheme offered to them.
According to Ms. Rossier, “this restructuring places Le Soleil and the needs of the media at the heart of our future digital development.”
“Since around a hundred colleagues are leaving the company in January, it is normal that management also decreases. Finally, this restructuring meets the requirements of responsible financial management during a period of turbulence in the media. All my thanks to Éric Trottier for his contribution to the success of our project,” she also says.
The six dailies are cooperatives that were created in December 2019, at the initiative of employees and executives, who managed to raise public and private funding of around 21 million, notably from the Desjardins Movement and the Solidarity Fund FTQ.
At the time, it was the financial difficulties and the bankruptcy of their former owner, the Capitales Médias Group, which caused these upheavals.
In recent months, several other media groups have had to make difficult decisions. Faced with a “critical” situation at the TVA Group, Pierre Karl Péladeau announced last week the dismissal of 547 employees, or nearly a third of the workforce. The Métro Média company, which includes the Métro newspaper and 16 local weeklies, also confirmed in August the immediate suspension of its activities.
On the English side, Postmedia, which notably owns the National Post, the Montreal Gazette and the Vancouver Sun, laid off 11% of its editorial staff in January.
