as ctv continues to forge alliances with u.s. television networks and international press agencies, the downsizing of its foreign bureaus is gaining momentum.

In a recent announcement, 11 ctv staff members were handed pink slips, including Jerusalem bureau chief Elliot Schiff.

Although there are no plans to completely shut down the Jerusalem bureau, the intention is to replace Schiff with a local hire, preferably a Canadian who can double as a videographer/photo journalist, returning to the way the region was covered before ctv opened a bureau there more than six years ago. ‘We’re looking to have in one person the embodiment of what we had in three,’ says Henry Kowalski, senior vp of news at ctv. ‘Most of our other foreign bureaus have already gone to some kind of a smaller model and [Jerusalem] is one of the last bureaus that still has a sizable infrastructure.’

Since opening the bureau, the broadcaster has made significant alliances with cbs, abc and, most recently, cnn. It also receives an abundance of material from Reuters. As a result, the bureau has become less significant and the broadcaster believes ‘restructuring’ it will not affect the quality of ctv’s international news coverage.

‘It isn’t the question that it’s supplied by anyone else, the question is: is the quality as good as something we may hatch ourselves?’ says Kowalski.

Similarly, cbc recently closed down bureaus in Paris, Cape Town and Mexico City.

Although the Canadian public’s appetite for international news may be waning slightly, Kowalski assures that it’s stable and has had nothing to do with the cutbacks.

Advancing technology, on the hand, plays an integral role in ctv’s restructuring. As it stands, digital cameras are inexpensive, high quality and extremely portable. And eventually, Kowalski points out, ‘you’re going to be able to record your track and edit your pictures on a laptop and send everything by phone line instead of satellite. When that happens, it will liberate a great amount of money that’s now caught up in costly technology. News teams, like mine, are going to be able to give back some of the savings to the company’s bottom line so it can be reinvested into things that really matter, which is programming, not technology.’

Meantime, ctv is currently investing in satellite news-gathering trucks and an online news service, expected to launch early next year.

Since the company consolidated its operations under single ownership, there have been close to 500 layoffs. In addition to Schiff, the most recent cuts include journalists Ken Ernhoffer in Toronto, Dave Rinn, Diana Bishop and Elizabeth Chu in Ottawa – half the Ottawa bureau – and Al Sweeney in Vancouver.

‘You never end up having a progression that’s always forward moving – if you take two steps forward, every once in a while you have to take a quarter step back,’ says Kowalski.

ctv’s news department has 780 full-time employees.