‘News is hard’: Canadian media group Overstory sheds jobs as staff push back

Two-year-old local news startup had heady plans when founded, but now trims jobs while execs snipe at workers on Twitter

Nearly two years ago, a journalism startup made bold promises to reshape community news in Canada, announcing plans to hire more than 200 journalists and open 50 new publications across the country.

But this month, as they culled nearly half the staff from their most successful publication, executives from the Overstory media group admitted that - despite the cascade of recent failures across the industry - they had thought turning a profit in local journalism would be a lot simpler". The job cuts have raised larger questions over the company's future, and about that of alternative models of experimental journalism.