Vancouver 24 Hours newspaper has laid off 16 people, or 40 per cent of its staff, The Tyee‘s David Beers reports on The Hook blog.

Beers specifies that 5 of the layoffs are from the editorial department.

24 Hours reporter Sean Holman, who also writes for the Tyee and runs a blog on B.C. politics called Public Eye Online, said:

“The recession isn’t just impacting the media – it’s impacting democracy. The public’s ability to find out what is really happening at some of society’s most powerful institutions is under threat. If there’s no one to investigate those institutions on a full-time basis – without respect for partisanship – how can the public hold them to account?”

Tyee columnist Steve Burgess commented on layoffs at the Hook:

“At the best of times, Canadian media markets lack the population bases to allow for large, well-funded journalistic teams. And clearly these are not the best of times. The scary thing for Canadian journos is the discovery of how few options there are after the hammer falls.”