It is a bad day to be in the print business in Canada.  Sun Media, the owner of 43 dailies  and more than 200 community newspapers and other publications in Canada, is cutting 600 jobs as a new survey warns of plummeting newspaper revenue in the coming year.

Sun Media is planning to act quickly and lay off the majority of people during the holidays.

The group’s owner, Quebecor, said the cuts were in response the shift away from print and to the Internet. In a statement, Pierre Karl Peladeau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Quebecor, said:

The speed at which the current economic environment is deteriorating forces us to make difficult decisions at this time of the year. This decision in no way changes our commitment to our publications, our readers and our advertisers.

16 full-time editorial staff, as well as jobs in other departments are going at The Toronto Sun, the company’s largest English-language daily. Editor-in-chief Lou Clancy wept while he told the newsroom of the job cuts.

Sun Media said the moves will cost about $14 million.

The news came as a  a survey of 400 daily newspaper executives (PDF) by Toronto-based marketing research firm Kubas Consultants predicted declining revenues.

The online survey of  US and Canadian newspapers found a shared negative outlook,  with falls in ad revenues in areas such as jobs ad, car ads and property listings.

The only positive sign was a continued growth in online revenue, though the report suggested that “recent trends indicate that this may be a challenge”.