Sudbury newspaper company will no longer have a physical office

Media chain Postmedia Network Canada Corp. announced that it will not be renewing The Sudbury Star’s building lease next month.

A spokesperson for the company said in an email to CTV News that most of the Sudbury staff have been working remotely since 2020.

“We have recently finalized the agreement to end our lease for this location effective February 28, 2023,” the statement said.

“Ongoing transformation initiatives across Postmedia include real estate rationalization and we continue to review all of our real estate holdings to ensure we are maximizing value and realizing cost savings.”

Unifor, the union representing Sudbury Star, said it will be supporting its workers.

“Postmedia’s announcement is a sad blow to journalism in Canada and especially in Sudbury,” said Randy Kitt, director of media at Unifor.

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It said it has collective agreements in place and will abide by them.

“Media workers need a place to work but we need journalism to be supported and that’s going to be our focus here on the journalists and media workers,” Kitt said.

“We have rights and we’ll fight for them.”

The office building in Greater Sudbury that The Sudbury Star currently leases space in on Jan. 19/23. (Amanda Hicks/CTV News Northern Ontario) Postmedia recently announced a plan for restructuring, including moving 12 Alberta papers to digital only. It also announced that it would be selling the Calgary Herald building and laying off employees in the coming months.

Kitt said that more needs to be done to protect journalism in Canada.