Image by hellomike via FlickrThe news that Canada’s media giant Canwest is cutting 560 jobs has spread quickly online. It expects to save $61 million a year by reducing its workforce by 5%.

According to the Canwest press release:

These actions are a result of the current economic environment as well as the structural challenges in the conventional television model. They also reflect Canwest’s ongoing review of work processes to achieve maximum operating efficiencies, and its transformation into a multi-platform media company that is building its audience using digital media.

About 350 jobs are going in its publishing division and 210 jobs in its broadcasting division. But the perpetually money-losing National Post lives on.

Chief executive Leonard Asper argued that “it will not impact our strategy to invest in growth media like digital online, mobile and specialty channels.”

But one point that is being repeatedly is that there will be “cuts in web operations at some newspapers“.

The source for this confusion appears to be a sentence in the Canwest release talking about a “web width reduction in certain Canwest newspapers.”

Web width is about changing the print products as a way to reduce rising news print costs.

The Newspaper Association of America has even produced a handy report that “guides you through pre-press, press and post-press implications of making these changes.”

All in all, more bad news about Canada’s ailing media industry.