by Thinus Ferreira
eMedia has further downsized its prime time etv News bulletin broadcast on e.tv with staffers who have been let go and those luckily to keep jobs moved from fixed positions to freelance retainer contracts.
The etv News behind-the-scenes downsizing is part of the backend of eMedia's latest retrenchment process that started earlier this year, with e.tv's decision to axe the etv News & Sport channel on its Openview free-to-air satellite service, with the localised, South African news content on it that had been produced from Cape Town.
With the shuttering of etv News & Sport, some staffers remained at e.tv's office and studio complex in Cape Town to continue to produce the nightly etv News bulletin which has been performing very well in the ratings the last few months.
As part of e.tv's retrenchment drive, workers who were ending their employment on 31 May, were told that some of them would be moved to freelance contracts to work on e.tv's 20:00 etv News TV news bulletin done from Cape Town.
Staffers became worried in recent weeks as the June deadline neared, telling TVwithThinus the bulletin would have no staff to take it to air from 1 June since the staff producing the 20:00 bulletin were the same people getting retrenched.
Staffers claimed eMedia had been dragging out the process of getting workers freelance contracts, or even providing them with the requested freelance rates, while complaints also revolved around issues like claims that Marlon Davids, e.tv managing director, was "galavanting in and out of the country" and with "staff getting blatantly ignored by their HR department and their MD".
Staffers were finally informed who's staying on as freelancers and who's out earlier this week.
Another insider said that from Wednesday 1 June the etv News bulletin would for instance be done with essentially just two dedicated producers whereas it used to be packaged by around six producers who worked on it in the past.
eMedia didn't respond with answers to questions from TVwithThinus in a media query made last week about the etv News bulletin staffing changes and issues raised by staff.
