A memo issued earlier this week by Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank led their union to denounce “the largest outsourcing in Canadian newspaper history” — while future-of-journalism prophets inevitably took to Twitter to feign sympathy for a scenario they’ve been wishing for all along: the day the copy desk died. Feature writer Jennifer Wells could not be reached for comment, because she is retracing her steps on a trip to India she took 30 years ago, an example of the kind of in-depth feature writing the Star hopes to emphasize. Meanwhile, a Continuous News Desk established at One Yonge Street is attempting to further the case that link roundups are the future of web journalism. As severance packages are being offered over the next month, at which time outsourcing of one-third of the newsroom takes effect, will they ever again publish an original story worth a tweet? For a sense of how employees feel amidst the chaos, a professional copy-edit of Cruickshank’s memo, sent to Mondoville via the most archaic of delivery systems — a fake Hotmail account — can be read below.

Toronto Star memo rewrite