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The axe fell at Citytv Tuesday cutting several on-air seasoned journalists as well as many staffers on the other side of the camera.
Anne Mroczkowski, Pam Seatle, Laura DiBattista, Marianne Dimain, Merella Fernandez, Farah Nasser, Michael Serapio and up to 10 cameramen were laid off Tuesday.
Michael Robins, a senior producer of CityTV Toronto news for more than 25 years who started CP24 and Bob Lawlor, who was in charge of Breakfast Television and CityLine were also among the 35 full-time staff laid off.
Mroczkowski, who has been an institution on Toronto TV with more than 30 years in the business, was given the boot, along with DiBattista who joined CityTV in 1983 and Pam Seatle, who started in the City newsroom as a volunteer in 1989.
"They've decimated the newsroom. This is the absolute destruction of the local key people who put out the daily news," said one employee, who requested anonymity. "I'm just stunned at some of the people getting fired. They're also cancelling the noon news show, the 5 p.m. and I've heard maybe even the weekend news show," the employee said.
Rogers Communications purchased CityTV Toronto in 2007.
Michelle Overholt, who works in management for CityTV/Rogers, did not return repeated phone calls and Tina Cortese, national VP of CityTV five TV stations, did not return calls either.
When asked about the layoffs, Veronica Logue, Rogers Media Television spokesman, said: "We don't comment on personnel."
When asked if the noon, 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and weekend news show were axed, Logue said the executives are "tied up at the moment" and would comment later.
Logue only had a press statement to offer saying: "CityTV announced today a restructuring of its television operations in order to focus on areas of the business that deliver the best results and better serve changing audience patterns."
"(Tuesday's) changes, although difficult, are necessary to align our operations with the economic and regulatory realities of our industry," Leslie Sole, CEO, Roger Media Television, said in a statement.
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