CBC News chief Jennifer McGuire on Monday defended the recent cuts to her department, while insisting international news coverage would not “disappear” from the pubcaster.

“Our choices at the end of the day are designed to minimize impact but it is not realistic to imagine removing 10 million dollars from our budgets without losing things we value,” McGuire, general manager and editor-in-chief, said in an April 16 internal memo to CBC News employees, later released to the pubcaster’s corporate website.

Her attempt to soothe frayed nerves in the CBC News department followed word that $10 million would be cut from its annual budget, with the loss of 88 jobs and bureaus in South America and Africa.

She added the digital and mobile platforms would remain key to the CBC News expansion going forward, and that shuttering two foreign bureaus and cancelling the CBC Radio’s Dispatches show did not mean an end to foreign coverage.

“I know many people will be sad to see a radio show that they enjoy disappear… But we need to separate this from pronouncements about international coverage overall,” McGuire told CBC employees.

Globe-trotting CBC foreign correspondents would continue to bring world news to Canadians, she assured.

“We no longer measure our international achievements by the genre programs we have. International coverage is prominent across all platforms,” McGuire wrote.

The CBC last week announced that 650 jobs will go as the pubcaster deals with a $115 million cut in its annual Parliamentary subsidy over three years.