The following is a memo sent to Toronto Star employees today by the newspaper’s publisher, John Cruickshank.

As many of you know, Torstar Corporation announced its 2008 financial results earlier today.

It also announced that Rob Prichard will step down as President and CEO at the Torstar annual meeting on May 6th and that David Holland, the current Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer will succeed him as Interim President and CEO. In addition, it announced that Hon. Frank Iacobucci, who has served as Chair of the Board of Torstar since 2005, has decided not to stand for re-election to the board. He will be succeeded by John Honderich, a Torstar director for 11 years, Chair of the Voting Trust and former Publisher of the Star.

Regarding the financial results, they reflect a very challenging year for the Star, which like virtually every other media organization in North America has been affected by the unprecedented economic downturn as well as the longer-term structural changes affecting our industry. As a result of these factors, the Star unfortunately did not meet the financial performance thresholds outlined in the Star’s Profit Sharing Plan for unionized staff, and therefore no payout will occur for 2008 under this Plan.

Regarding the Torstar Board and management changes, Rob said this morning that after eight years with Torstar, he asked the Torstar Board late last summer to plan for a transition in leadership, that he is confident about the future health and growth of Torstar and that the annual meeting “is the right time to make the change.”

As you are aware, 2009 is turning out to be yet another difficult year. We face unprecedented economic challenges, both in Canada and abroad, and considerable uncertainty about the timing and pace of economic recovery. In this context, I have a few important messages for all staff.

First and foremost, the Star is determined to — and will — survive the current set of challenges. Since joining the Star in January, I have been struck by the tremendous assets we have at our disposal. These include a unique and valuable mission as set out in the Atkinson Principles, unparalleled brand power, a strong and loyal readership base, and a dedicated and talented staff. We have all the essential ingredients needed to build a multimedia news organization that will continue to aggressively pursue its mission and serve our readers, our advertisers and the broader community well into the future.

In short, the Star can look forward to an exciting future.

Second, for the Star to thrive in the coming years, we must take the steps necessary to ride out the current economic and structural challenges facing us. In the United States in recent weeks, several major news organizations have been forced to file for bankruptcy protection. Others are ending seven-day home delivery, significantly reducing their workforce or threatening to close completely. The same economic and structural challenges that are affecting our U.S. counterparts exist here in Canada.

My overriding message is that despite the current challenging environment, the Star can and will survive and indeed thrive if we take the right steps now to refocus our organization for the future.

That’s why I have started an in-depth review of all aspects of the Star’s operations, with the aim of focusing the organization on what is truly important for our readers and advertisers.

In these reviews, we are looking both at new opportunities for revenue growth and at ways to restructure our cost base for long-term sustainability. Our goal is to refocus and restructure the Star to meet our immediate challenges as well as build a solid foundation for the future. We will communicate the results of these reviews as quickly as possible, in many cases within the next few weeks.

While the reviews are still ongoing, what is clear already is that we must change what we do and how we do it. Change is not always easy, but it is necessary if we are to succeed in repositioning the Star in a way that allows us to flourish in the very different world that lies ahead.

Finally, I want to thank all employees for their continued dedication and commitment to the Star and what it stands for. Our talented staff is what makes the Star a great metropolitan newspaper and a leading online media company. It is our employees who are the key ingredient that will enable the Star to reposition itself at this critical time and remain one of the world’s top news organizations for years to come.