This morning, the Globe and Mail published a profile of CBC’s executive in charge of all English-media, Richard Stursberg.

Stursberg has come under much fire recently for his movement toward favouring TV programs which draw audience share (and, of course, advertiser revenue), as opposed to those which are more cultural and/or Canadian in nature. (Witness the bumping of Marketplace for two American game shows.)

At least from a ratings point of view, early indications are that CBC Television’s share is moving up — just past Global TV in prime-time now.

The full article is definitely worth a read. Here are some highlights from the Globe sidebar:

On CBC choosing not to renew the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme song:
Was the jingle a nice jingle? Yeah, certainly it was. Were we disappointed to have it taken away? Sure. But on the other hand, it’s something that’s not going to make any difference to Hockey Night in Canada. People come to Hockey Night in Canada because they’re coming for the hockey. They’re not coming to listen to the jingle.

On selling the U.S. and international rights to more than 1,000 hours of television product, including The Border, and 1,000 more hours of television shows produced in-house, to ContentFilm PLC of Britain:
The way it works is, the signing authorities are delegated by the board to the president and the president to me. It fell way below my signing authority in terms of the value of it. We don’t have any particular requirement in any of our policies to take any of that stuff to public tender.

On why the investigative consumer-report show Marketplace is being pushed aside in the fall season to make way for the resolutely American game show, Jeopardy!
The only reason we put American shows on in the first instance is to generate revenue. … For every extra dollar of margin we can generate out of a show like Jeopardy!, it just means an extra dollar we can put into Canadian programming. It’s not as though the money is going anywhere else.

Your thoughts are welcome about the article itself or topics raised in the article. Personal attacks will not be approved for publication. Remember, folks. You’re welcome to attack the idea or decision, not the person.

	15 Comments »	See also: Executives
	Email this	Posted at 10:53 am (28 Jun 2008)

Radio-Canada Television’s general manager, Mario Clément, is leaving the Corporation.

In a brief news release, Radio-Canada said the “decision was reached by mutual agreement between Mr. Clément and Radio-Canada management.”

Mario Clément joined Radio-Canada as General Manager of Programs in May 2003. He later became General Manager of Télévision de Radio-Canada in November 2006. Mario is “a passionate devotee to the cause of public television,” Radio-Canada said.

Clément’s departure will not result in changes to the TV schedule, the structure and content of the 2008–2009 season have been decided for several weeks now.

The head of French services, Sylvain Lafrance, I will assume Mr. Clément’s duties until a new General Manager is appointed.

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	Email this	Posted at 2:19 pm (05 Jun 2008)

Former CBC producer and journalist Sue Phillips is now the network director of the international broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Phillips, 54, currently lives in west London with her son Charles, 19, and her daughter Melissa, 23. She moves to Doha to take up her now role this month.

Former CBC News head Tony Burman and host Avi Lewis both have positions with Al Jazeera.

(CBC Radio Vancouver’s Don Pennington has moved to Doha as well, following a surprise retirement party, although no announcement has been made about his plans there.)

Phillips joined the London bureau of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a bilingual receptionist and became fascinated with the CBC French network and broadcasting. Within six months a researcher’s job came up and she went on to work in radio with CBC for another eight years.

In her Al Jazeera role, she has set up the entire broadcast centre for Al Jazeera in its London bureau, managing departments from news to programming, to operation and technical, as well as all the administration and finance. In Doha, she will be more concerned with development and the integration of Al Jazeera English and Arabic.

When asked about her most embarassing career blunder, she says:

When I was a television producer in Washington for The Journal on CBC, a very important senator, whose name I probably shouldn’t mention, came in for an interview and one minute away from going live I noticed he had a rather sweaty patch on his bald head. I thought a quick dab of concealer would do the trick, but I tripped over the edge of his chair and left a third of a pot of powder all over his head. It was mortifying.

The Independent newspaper has a lengthy interview with her.

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	Email this	Posted at 12:00 pm (02 Jun 2008)

Hubert Lacroix spoke yesterday at the Canadian Media Guild’s biannual convention. It marked the first time that a CBC/Radio-Canada President and CEO spoke at a CMG convention.

Lacroix said poor communication between the senior executives and guild representatives underscored an urgent need to rebuild a proper relationship. Lacroix’s said his mission since he joined the CBC 18 months ago has been to build a greater level of respect and transparency at every level of the organization.

Lacroix called for a “paradigm shift” (yes, he actually said “paradigm shift”) in thinking to incorporate more pride and positivity. He added that he knew the job was hard because the same executives are in the same place as they were during the 2005 lockout. He also highlighted that each member of his senior management team had been fully briefed on the importance of the CBC/CMG relationship, and “failure is not an option” to them.

Lacroix also spoke of the changing media environment, particularly of the BBC’s move to up their budget for their web services from $200 million to $800 million US annually. He used this as a pointed example; “[Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC] is going to take almost one-half our total annual budget for CBC/Radio-Canada and invest it in Web services and Web-related initiatives,” Lacroix told delegates, pointing to the challenge of working in an industry that is constantly requiring us to rethink our existing strategies. “How can we keep being relevant in this environment if we can’t talk? If our own labour and management team can’t change this, no one can.”

Lacroix has also started up a key initiative, “Challenge Us!”, which brings together 65 CBC employees from all levels and all areas of the country, in order to examine the employee/employer relationship and change it to a healthy and productive one. He recognized the inputs from key members of the Canadian Media Guild, and finished by once again reiterating that failure was not an option, and that the relationship must improve from both sides.

	6 Comments »	See also: Executives, Human Resources, Labour/CBC Unions
	Email this	Posted at 12:48 pm (26 May 2008)

At a conference for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television last Thursday, Hubert Lacroix pointed out that the CBC can not accurately plan its programming on 12 month cycles, and requires a seven year funding plan. The full text of the speech is available here.

He also reiterated that the CBC needs an extra 215 million dollars to maintain quality programming, or $40.00 per capita rather than $33.00 per capita. These requests are based on the February 28 report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

Other highlights of the speech were the fact that he plans to strengthen relations between management and the CBC union, and the fact that the CBC is reliant on ratings and advertising revenue in order to stay viable. The funding increases would help offset some of that reliance.

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	Email this	Posted at 11:06 am (26 May 2008)

According to Reuters, Tony Burman isn’t wasting any time getting things done in his new role as managing director of Al Jazeera English. Negotiations are pushing forward with U.S.-based cable companies to bring the Arabic news channel to wider distribution. Al Jazeera is also augmenting its Internet presence, including refining its YouTube channel which brought it 21 million views in its first year of operation.

The story that Tony Burman had recently joined the Arab world’s leading news channel, Al-Jazeera, has provoked numerous commentaries. When asked to comment on his new role for this Star piece, Burman said

“Without sounding like a typically self-righteous Canadian, we tend to view things with a detachment that in journalism is a very valued asset. Canadians are viewed in a very favourable way that I must say I find flattering”.

The darker side of commentary has been very busy as well, including this piece in the National Post which stops a hair short of calling Burman and the CBC anti-Semitic, and this one in which the headline denotes that “the rest of them” should be gotten rid of as well. Probably all to be expected, given the demonization of Al-Jazeera in some media after 9/11.

	2 Comments »	See also: Executives, The Media Landscape
	Email this	Posted at 11:05 am (16 May 2008)

The former editor-in-chief of CBC News has been hired as the managing director for Al-Jazeera Television.

Tony Burman was recently with CBC News until, according to a recent print article in Ryerson Review of Journalism, he clashed with CBC Vice-President of English services Richard Stursberg.

In an interview with InsideTheCBC.com shortly before his departure, Burman played down the idea of working for a private network:

It’s too early for me to shut any doors, but I doubt if there’s any possibility of me wanting to work for a commercial news organization in Canada. My tribal passions for CBC News are too strong. I respect CBC’s competitors but now is not the time for me to switch horses. However, there is a lot to private broadcasting than simply ‘news’ so I’m always open to stimulating, intriguing ideas and initiatives.

Burman’s job won’t be easy. A number of journalists have left Al-Jazeera recently amid claims of a revolt over working conditions. It is also facing a potential £1m discrimination case brought by the former English head of planning.

Former CBC host and journalist Avi Lewis went to the network last year to host a program about the U.S. election.

	3 Comments »	See also: Executives, Where Are They Now?
	Email this	Posted at 12:50 pm (14 May 2008)

Robert Cooper, executive producer of opera and choral music will leave the CBC at the end of the summer. The program Choral Concert will continue. No replacement for Cooper has been named.

	3 Comments »	See also: Asides, Changes to CBC Radio Two, Executives
	Email this	Posted at 10:19 am (13 May 2008)

CBC president Hubert T. Lacroix spoke to Parliament’s Heritage Committee Thursday afternoon. I was recording the speech on my computer as it streamed but, uh, I ran out of hard disk space. <sigh>

Never mind. The federal government probably would have asked me to take down video of the committee hearing.

(UPDATE: As Mike mentioned in his comment, the Heritage Committee has now posted the video online.)

After the jump, the text of his speech.

Relax, enjoy, and smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

[Read more →]

	6 Comments »	See also: Executives, Our Mandate, Parliament, Programming
	Email this	Posted at 8:15 pm (01 May 2008)

Today at 3:30 p.m. ET, CBC President Hubert T. Lacroix will be appearing before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, his first appearance since starting as President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada in January.

Lacroix, who will be accompanied by Richard Stursberg and Sylvain Lafrance, will address the Committee’s recent review of the CBC/Radio-Canada mandate, highlight some of his priorities for the Corporation, and reiterate the call for a seven-year Memorandum of Understanding with Canadians that would define CBC/Radio-Canada’s role in the evolving media landscape. His address will be followed by a question and answer period.

The proceedings will be webcast here.

	Add Comment »	See also: Board of Directors, Executives, Parliament
	Email this	Posted at 10:07 am (01 May 2008)

What’s on Winnipeg recently published an excellent article about CBC Radio’s new director of programming, Chris Boyce.

In it, Chris talks about the challenges he’s facing in the new job, particularly the hurdle of the format change of Radio 2.

Chris Boyce started out with Definitely Not the Opera, the Saturday afternoon pop culture show on CBC Radio One. He then had an idea to create The Content Factory [disclosure: I work in the Content Factory group], a group of writers and producers who generate cross-format content for all of the CBC. This caught the attention of CBC headquarters, and Chris was then given the job of manager of program development for the CBC.

	8 Comments »	See also: CBC Radio 2, Changes to CBC Radio Two, Executives
	Email this	Posted at 1:38 am (01 May 2008)