HEARD IT HERE FIRST! More bloodletting at the Sun...

If news of Toronto Sun readership editor Alison Downie's departure wasn't proof of how badly the Little Paper That Could is tanking, another high-profile departure is working its way through the crapper 333 King East has become.
Sources tell me Gord Walsh tendered his resignation late last week and will be leaving the building in two weeks or less. The departure comes just months after the resignation of highly-regarded Editor-in-Chief Jim Jennings. A respected design guy, Jennings had been brought in by Quebecor brass in 2004.

*Update* can't find any Google entries, but sunfamily has got the story up on their blog. I'll go and check CP a little later.

Without discussing some of the stuff about Alison's private life that have been bandied about, the optics of this are not good.

Walsh was basically the last dude standing after Quebecor brass canned highly-regarded newspaper guy Jim Jennings. Without getting into all the other schmucks who've either quit or been fired from the Sun over the past since Quebecor bought Sun Media ... EIGHT YEARS AGO!!!..

Since around the time Jennings resigned, Quebecor scion Pierre-Karl Peladeau has commented publicly that paid dailies are basically tired and old, unresponsive to the changing Toronto market, etc. etc. you can read most of the thing here. For those of you who'd rather not (understandable, I mean, what has the Sun done for you lately?) here's the pertinent deets from the same story...

QUOTE
Pierre Karl Peladeau said Saturday that newspapers and network television have been hardest hit by the massive technological change.
"Those business were dominant 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, and because of this revolution in terms of technology, they need to make sure they'll be able to continue," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press following a speech to Quebec journalists.
"They need to change that way that they've been producing because, at the end of the day, they cannot do what the other media do. They're always late in the process of reporting news."
Daily newspapers and evening news programs now have to compete with Internet-capable cellphones and the wireless web, Peladeau said.
"The vast expansion of the Internet has changed everything," Peladeau told reporters. "We must adapt to this new landscape."
ENDQUOTE

Whatever. They've owned the paper for eight fucking years. If the Sun seems dated or old, it happened on PKP and Quebecor's watch, and they are responsible. They can get away with that if they'd bought it a year ago, but they are the newspaper owners, and they ran it into the ground, either through indifference, or through calculation.

It's one, or the other, IMO. I worked for Quebecor for three years, and nothing happened without head office approval. I worked the launch of 24 Hours Toronto, and after a few money-losing months, they laid off a few personnel, including the photographer (an important position when your strength is good visuals). Fine and dandy, but the newsroom needed a camera that could take Toronto glossy daily mass-circ worthy pictures. They certainly weren't going to pay for film to be developed, so the only available camera for the two (count 'em!) reporters who covered All Of Toronto, was a Sony Cybershot. (the 2000 incarnation).
No one in the office disputed the fact we needed a camera. That didn't get us a camera. Over and over, we were told by our bosses that the requisition was sitting on some Quebecor honcho's desk.
We got our camera. More than six weeks after the request went through. That's how tightly they control their properties.

I've got lots more to say, but I wanna get this out there first. I'll update by 6 p.m. EST.