Stewart had been filling the role on an interim basis since the former vice-president, Richard Stursberg, was dismissed in August.

A few minutes after the announcement Stewart sent this note to staff:

January 10, 2011 – When I was little, I had a tickle trunk. It was red, just like the one on TV. In the morning I watched Casey and Finnegan and Mr. Dressup discover new things everyday, dressing up in what they found in their tickle trunk.

The CBC has for 74 years been that place where Canadians, of all ages, are taken on journeys, of all kinds, to so many different and interesting places.

My particular journey has taken me from watching Mr. Dressup, to working at the place that brought those magical stories into my home. And now today I have the privilege of leading an organization that holds such an important place in the hearts and minds of people across this country.

Canadians have always expected that their public broadcaster reflect, engage and inspire them, and that is when CBC does our best work. It is when we recognize and respect this country’s unique attributes that the CBC, in any form or medium, truly thrives.

The CBC gives the information and analysis Canadians need, from breaking news to enterprise stories to current affairs and everything in between. And even when the news we deliver is hard, we make it easy to get to, whether hearing it on 99.1, watching it on Rogers 582 or using an Android app to connect to CBC News.

The stories we tell, whether real or fictional, showcase a diversity of voice that recognizes and respects that Canadians have an insatiable curiosity. As a nation we enjoy a wide range of content that stimulates our brains, our hearts and even our funny bones. Canadians can thrill in the victory of favourite hockey teams, jump into a heated discussion of today’s politics, and the next minute, can relax to the sounds of a favourite piece of music.

And CBC knows how important it is to make programming that satisfies all these varied desires, and we build on what we’ve learned to make programming that celebrates and programming that challenges. But while the content may be challenging, CBC will make how Canadians get to their content easier than ever before.

CBC will define contemporary public broadcasting. We will use new platforms, new means to connect Canadians to the CBC, and to connect Canadians to each other. We will help to facilitate conversations both national and local.

For the past 74 years, the CBC has mattered. And as we move forward we will build on the best of our past to make the greatest of our future, so that CBC will matter even more.

Kirstine

The presentation will be from 12:30 to 1:30 at the Glenn Gould studio in Toronto.

Stewart will be joined by Neil McEneaney, executive director, finance and administration management, Jack Tomik, general manager, the revenue group (aka sales and marketing) and Fred Mattocks, general manager, media operations and technology.

They will be providing an overview of their respective areas.

If you’d like to put a question to any of these guys, or to Stewart herself, you can submit it in advance, to Quarterly.Update@cbc.ca. Note that this is an internal employee presentation and questions are meant to be from CBC employees only.

Since the departure of Dave Scapillati in 2009, Moore has been serving as the Executive Director of CBC Sports and the General Manager of the marketing and sales department.

In a note to staff this afternoon, Kirstine Stewart, the interim vice-president of English CBC, said “I know this wasn’t an easy choice for Scott to make, as he believes deeply in the mandate of the public broadcaster and has been a strong supporter of our current strategies. He’s made a “next step” career decision, which is not uncommon among talented people. I want to thank Scott for his contributions to the organization over the past four years.”

You can watch video of the event here.

Speaking notes of the speeches are also available here.

The article describes one of Stursberg’s last quarterly updates to staff, in which he announced CBC Television’s strategy would be to focus on entertainment.

Here you get an image of CBC collectively sunk to its knees, holding its head in its hands, keening in memory of its lost golden age, when the network’s news resources were the envy of broadcasters around the world, when it had more African bureaus than anyone but the bbc. Gone, all gone.

It describes another incident during the layoffs in 2009, in which staff from the Fifth Estate and Marketplace and Stursberg got into a argument:

“Hold my jacket now; we’re going to take this outside,” Stursberg said at one point, according to a transcript of the event. “I think it is invidious and unfair to start this kind of conversation.” Moments after the proceedings concluded, he did in fact take it outside, marching up to Findlay and Docherty before witnesses in the cbc atrium and, with his finger wagging, furiously accusing them of undermining him in front of employees and the press.

But for all his faults, Stursberg also wasn’t shy about making tough choices. “If there were hard decisions to be made, decisions that were going to make him enemies, Stursberg wanted to make them,” it reads. It also says:

Even some CBCers are now willing to admit that, in the face of the network’s harsh realities, Stursberg’s pursuit of ratings success for the public broadcaster was the only logical, perhaps the only responsible, choice.

This was Stewart’s first quarterly update following Richard Stursberg’s departure, and it had a distinctly different tone.

Although Stewart kicked off the presentation with an update on the revenue picture, the discussion quickly turned to content.

“The CBC is here to reflect Canadians, and what it is that they want to talk about,” she said before turning over the microphone to the heads of the radio, television, news, and the regions to elaborate on the content picture.

Denis Donlon, the general manager of English Radio, said radio is still on a roll “virtually all of our morning shows, which is prime time on the radio, are top three in their markets.”

Donlon added that CBC Radio now has 13 shows that are broadcast internationally, and radio is well positioned to respond to the new multi-platform world. “The Debaters is going to television in January,” Donlon said, and Canadians are downloading 1.2 million podcasts every week. “We will thrive in the world of choice.”

Christine Wilson, the interim general manager of CBC Television, said the TV side has had a number of big successes recently, pointing to Dragons’ Den, Battle of the Blades, Being Erica syndicating in 40 countries, the Nature of Things’ 50th anniversary season and the upcoming premiere of the the Queen in 3D, on September 20th.

Jennifer McGuire, the general manger of CBC News, also focused on the content, “enterprise journalism defines us as a public broadcaster,” she said, noting that the news department had broken an unprecedented number of stories this spring and summer.

Concerning the news renewal process, McGuire acknowledged how difficult it has been, calling it a “tremendous upheaval,” that had challenged all the assumptions about how the department operates.

McGuire said “It was necessary to take a good hard look at what we do,” and “work on ways to better serve our audiences.”

She added that there are still tweaks to make as part of the renewal process, “but the emphasis this year for CBC News now shifts to content.”

In response to a question about the ratings for The National, McGuire said “Specifically with News we need to shift the narrative not only to an audience-revenue narrative, but also in terms of the value of the journalism.”

McGuire said CBC News set the news agenda a number of times recently, and that contribution needs to be acknowledged.

Here it is in its entirety:

As Duke Ellington would say: “I hope you will not be embarrassed if I tell you that I loved you all madly.” I loved your passion for the work, your belief in success, your hope for the country and your extraordinary commitment to making something exceptional.

What I learned over six years is that the CBC is at its greatest when it focuses on what counts and the only thing that counts is serving Canadians. They vote every day with their viewing, their listening and their reading. When they say yes, you serve them well.

And you have served them well, historically well. They have never come to the CBC in greater numbers, and they come from every part of the country. They say yes to your entertainment shows, your sports, your news, your music, your talk, your documentaries and your current affairs. They say yes to celebrating Canada. They say yes when you show them how funny, clever and interesting they are.

You have also served our clients and partners well. Your revenues are on pace for an excellent year. Your relationships with the advertising agencies and with Apple, Rogers, Bell, the Post, and all our other great collaborators are stronger than ever.

I am sorry I cannot be with you the rest of the journey. It saddens me deeply not to continue. I wish you all the absolute best and even greater success in the future.

Richard Stursberg

From talking to some of you over the past few days, I know that you are wondering how the senior management changes will affect CBC News — the news renewal process, our budgets, the renewal of our journalistic policy book, and how we do our journalism and programming daily.

The short answer is, nothing changes.

It’s important to remember that we’re on a course that we set for ourselves to better serve Canadians. There is still a lot of work to do, but we are already seeing great success. We have had some hallmark moments this year. Here are just a few examples:

On The National, we broke powerful stories about CSIS and about the RCMP mutiny. And who could forget Bob McKeown of the fifth estate chasing down Graham James? Peter Mansbridge landed definitive interviews with newsmakers such as Helena Guergis and British Prime Minister David Cameron. On Radio, The House did an outstanding job with its Quebec special, which resonated across the country. The Charest interview was picked up by all of the major English daily newspapers and much of the French media in Quebec. These are just a couple of examples of journalism that had impact. There are many more.

And we are gearing up for an impressive fall. The investigative unit is delighted to welcome Diana Swain. It is pursuing several stories, and its work will be a high priority in the months ahead.

This will be the second season for the new local news formats and late night newscasts. It will be a great chance to build on our success in these areas. Local programs have seen strong ratings growth, and ensuring that they are able to deliver more original and enterprise journalism will solidify the gains. To support this, we have launched a local investigative initiative out of Winnipeg.

In the fall, we will continue the development of local radio news. We have new research that gives us insight into the radio news programs, and how Canadians use them and feel about them. As you know, local radio is an incredible strength for CBC Radio and CBC News. It is important to invest in the continued success of these newscasts. I will be sharing more details about this work soon.

Fall will also be critical for the renewal of our digital platforms. We plan to launch changes to breaking news online in October, and a more extensive change to CBCNews.ca in January. You can get a glimpse of some of the new territory by checking out some of the impressive work done during the G20: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/g20/index.html

We continue to commit to innovation and have started a push to develop new programming initiatives. We have a series in the works on volunteering. The Marketplace team is working on a project about hospitals and healthcare that will be featured on The National. We will continue to explore new program ideas in current affairs. Make the Minister Work will get a run as a series. The fall will also see CBC News Network going more often to the stories that matter to Canadians, just as it did when Mark Kelley traveled to the Gulf of Mexico to cover the oil leak or when Heather Hiscox was in Vancouver for the Olympics.

In newsgathering, we are looking at how we organize breaking news coverage. The Hub will sharpen its focus on this to better serve CBC News Network, radio hourly newscasts and our digital platforms.

All this to say that CBC News is on track and still moving forward. I hope everyone has been enjoying summer. I look forward to a great fall.

Jennifer McGuire
General Manager and Editor in Chief, CBC News

Some have been less than kind.

Lise Lareau, President of the Canadian Media Guild, called him the “Dick Cheney of the CBC.”

Others celebrated his departure. Friends of Canadian Broadcasting’s Ian Morrison, said he was “hard-pressed to define Stursberg’s legacy.”

That comment seems to caught the attention of Jason MacDonald, Stursberg’s former CBC Chief of Staff at CBC Television. He responded to that in an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen today.

How about this for a legacy?: In an era when Canada’s public broadcaster receives less than half of the public financial support that public broadcasters in other OECD countries receive, Stursberg was able to turn CBC Television into the second-most-watched network in the country.

In prime time, (the evening viewing period from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. when most Canadians are actually watching television) he was able to secure an audience share of 10 per cent. How significant is that? When he took over as head of CBC Television the network’s share was at an all-time low, at just over six per cent.

MacDonald went on to say:

Sure, the early evening schedule, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., featured two U.S. game shows, something the “Friends” of Canadian Broadcasting make much of, but there is method to that madness: those shows are low-cost to acquire and generate desperately needed funds for a CBC that has been forced to secure more than half of the revenue required to fulfil its mandate from commercial sources.

And finally:

He pushed the CBC to improve its online offering and he challenged CBC Radio to reach even more Canadians than it already does. (Today it enjoys the largest share in its history.)

Hard numbers to argue with. I encourage you to read the entire article. It’s here.

It’s official, there is no such thing as a ‘quiet time’ in our world, no matter if the summer beckons with promises of vacation and time off, the CBC never really takes a holiday.

As you know, last Friday our President, Hubert T. LaCroix, announced a major change in leadership in English Services with the departure of Richard Stursberg.

I am used to writing these notes in times of celebration and in honour of the many achievements of our great team here at CBC. And although this is a different occasion, I think that it is our progress and those great markers of achievement that are important for us all to focus upon during this period of transition.

The CBC is a collection of remarkable people working in collaboration in every region of the country across each of our centres – from the front-line staff putting shows to air, to our managers, our leaders, and our talent. Together, we deliver the best of Canadian programming.

We are all moving ahead as we do our work for the CBC. Despite media speculation regarding the change that has just happened, Hubert made it clear to me that he supports our programming and is a fan of the shows that we make.

We do our best work when our programming on radio, online and on television, created by the CBC and its partners, reflects and engages Canadians. Our relationship with audiences has been deepening as of late with more people tuning into CBC’s multiple platforms to enjoy our great sports coverage, our in-depth first class news analysis, our challenging documentaries and current affairs and our engaging music and entertainment shows. Hubert has reinforced with me that he does not want that momentum to slow down or risk being lost.

We have an opportunity going forward, to build on the legacy of programming developed both in CBC’s past and in its present, the best of both survive and thrive to combine and give Canadians a broadcaster they can truly relate to, and one that they can absolutely rely upon. And it’s time to seize that opportunity, to prove again and again that Canadians want to see and hear their lives and priorities reflected in the programming CBC gives to them.

As we head into our 75th year, and with Canadian private broadcasters calling for reductions in their commitment to Canadian content, we are alone positioned to take up that mantle. And we will succeed by engaging and entertaining people across the country, whether they argue out loud with Anna Maria Tremonti’s latest guests on The Current, or with Peter Mansbridge and The National’s At Issue panel; whether they cheer on the Leafs, Habs or Canucks, or their favourite hockey player battling to figure skate; whether they laugh with Rick as he shows us the funny side of our Canadian lives, get confounded by Pat and Peter on This is That, or triumph with Erica as she battles through her own life in a way people can all relate; whether they discover new favourite bands with Rich Terfry, or get their 24-hour news fix from CBC News Network, and at the end of their day watch their local news report. We are CBC and we are here to remind Canadians why they are special. And we are here to learn from them and now more than ever we have the chance to listen in as well as we broadcast out.

Here’s to a less eventful rest of your summer. I’m honoured to be in a role currently where I get to work with all of you together as we move the CBC forward. I thank Hubert for the opportunity, his direction and his support. And as he has said – ‘full steam ahead’.

Best,

K

Kirstine Stewart

Interim Executive Vice President

English Services

He sparked a revolution within the corporation. His departure is going to have a huge impact. It’s what everyone was talking about on Friday, and I’m sure it will continue this week.

So what does his departure mean?

Why don’t we sort through a few of digital tea leaves to find out.

First, let’s start at square one. What happened?

Was he pushed or did he jump?

Apparently he was pushed: “The decision was made by Mr. Lacroix,” CBC spokesman Bill Chambers said.

On the cusp of leading the Crown corporation in drafting a new five-year strategic plan, CBC president Hubert Lacroix felt the time was right to “bring in new leadership.”

Ok. So when and how did this happen? The Toronto Star says it happened after: “a meeting in Toronto late Thursday between Stursberg and Lacroix.”

“There were lots of debate, but no fisticuffs, I’m afraid,” CBC vice-president of communication Bill Chambers said of the final tête-à-tête.

So after a late Thursday meeting, that’s it.

So what does it mean?

Most Significant Development at the CBC in Years
It’s obviously a big indication of some competing visions. “I can’t think of a more significant development at the CBC in years,” Lise Lareau, President of the Canadian Media Guild, said on her blog on Friday.

In order to figure what his departure means you’ve got to look at his legacy. Lareau says:

Stursberg took the CBC — our public broadcaster — down a very commercial road. It was his way of dealing with tepid funding and unreliable support from the federal government. Programs were judged as successful only by ratings, not by the value they may contain for public discourse or the public record.

She makes a good point there.

The Tightrope
Stursberg was walking a tightrope.

He was getting less assurance from the government, and he had to shore up the dike.

His tried to replace depreciating public money with ad money. But to get ad money, you need eyeballs, and that’s what he was after, and that’s exactly what he delivered.

The Ottawa Sun crunched the numbers, and during his time the TV ratings went up, way up, gaining 52 per cent.

So Stursberg saw a problem – dwindling tax dollars funding the mother corp – and he sought a solution: more ads, and more expensive ads.

Unfortunately for him, and for the CBC, bringing in more ads doesn’t help much when you have to defend the importance of a cultural institution in a committee room on Parliament Hill.

“Richard Stursburg’s departure came about because his vision for the CBC and the traditional mission of public service became increasingly irreconcilable,” Jeffrey Dvorkin, a former CBC Radio executive said on his blog.

That was, in essence, the sword that Stursberg fell on. He was a victim of his own success.

Does this mean the CBC is going to reverse course now that he’s gone? Are we going back to more arts programming and longer stories on The National?

Mr. President, over to you.

The boss of the CBC on the English side, Richard Stursberg, a controversial executive just as well know for his brash manner as his many accomplishments  - including driving ratings higher across the network and introducing a more commercial approach to the corporation, is leaving.

His departure is effective immediately. The sudden timing of the announcement will likely lead to speculation about the circumstances of his departure.

The news will come as a shock to the entire corporation.

Stursberg was a divisive figure in the corporation. Sometimes derisively labelled ‘King Richard’ he was responsible for locking out CBC staff in 2005, and even got into a confrontation on the picket line. But his successes at the network are undeniable.

He introduced a host of changes during his tenure. He reversed several years of declining ratings at CBC Television, he introduced more reality programming and factual entertainment to the network. He also integrated the radio, television and online newsrooms and he made it a priority to push CBC content on multiple platforms.

An announcement was made on the internal employee web site this afternoon. “When Richard was appointed executive vice-president of CBC Television six years ago, he brought with him a revolution that shook the foundation of the organization and eventually the whole of our English services. He challenged every premise, attacked conventional wisdom, and uprooted whole parts of the internal culture,” the note from the office of the president says.

The president of the CBC, Hubert Lacroix, said Stursberg turned the CBC around.

Kirstine Stewart, who is currently in charge of CBC  English Television is taking over Stursberg’s role on an interim basis.

The note also says “We are in the midst of developing a new strategic plan that will guide CBC/Radio-Canada through the next five years. This is the opportune time to bring new leadership to English services and to ensure alignment of the senior team on the future of the public broadcaster.”

What do you think of Stursberg’s departure?

In a article in yesterday’s National Post, Stursberg said

Maybe a few observations about “bias” are in order, from an organization that has been accused of bias from most points of the political compass for much of its nearly 75-year history.

Here’s the thing. Rabid partisans — of whatever view — will never agree with the CBC’s coverage of their areas of interest, unless we provide unqualified and uncritical support for their opinions. Nothing else will do. Everything else looks like “bias.”

Our news is never — and can never be — usefully addressed to those whose minds are already made up.

The CBC has been facing complaints of bias for weeks prior to the launch of Sun TV News, a new conservative-slanted all-news channel.

Kory Teneycke, a former communications director in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office is behind the new venture. During the launch event last Tuesday he said CBC News is boring:

Canadian TV news today is narrow, it’s complacent and it’s politically correct. It’s bland and boring. Our aim is not to bore people to death, we’ll leave that to the CBC.

PM: What is your vision for CBC Television?
KS: I really believe that the public broadcaster has to be entertaining and engaging with the public. We get a lot of debate about whether we should be pandering to viewers, whether we should be trying to go out of our way to attract them, and I don’t think we do… You own us. We want to reflect your interests, your passions. Everything you’re curious about we want to explore with you.

That’s what I’ve tried to do, to really create a lineup that really whether it’s sport, entertainment, comedy, it really gives an offering to Canadians of how interesting they are. If we’re lucky enough to get you to watch us, it better be something that you really deserve.

PM: What demographic do you want to capture? Is there a particular demographic that you’re looking at saying ‘I’d like to have more of them’?
KS: I’m always trying to widen the demographic. CBC over the years has been excellent in delivering news and sports coverage, and largely the viewership was older and a bit male – it skewed male. And that’s great, I want to expand that, I don’t want to abandon those viewers because they’re very important to everybody. But a 22-year-old woman out West is equally a Canadian as an 85-year-old grandfather. I like to broaden the audience.

What you see on the schedule, what I’ve tried to commission is a real mix of programming that can engage, hopefully, as wide an audience as possible, but always has a bit of a slant… So I think what I’m really trying to do is offer up a menu of what it is we have, but with the core basis that they’re all great authentic Canadian stories, not just to attract a specific demographic but also to get more people to watch each show.

PM: I’d like to touch on the criticism about the American programming. What’s your reaction?
KS: Unfortunately it’s unrealistic. I would love to be in the position of having a 24-hour Canadian schedule; I honestly cannot afford it on the budget that we’re given. When we put on American programming we do it within the allowance of our license. We have to be careful, we try to be respectful of the rest of the schedule when we take American programming, but knowing that sometimes, and quite often, that American programming brings in larger viewership that can showcase our Canadian shows right after. We did find that after introducing Jeopardy to the scheduled last year our eight o’clock time slot grew thirty percent. That was in part in compliment to Jeopardy as a lead in, and part in compliment to the producers who are making better shows. It’s a combination we need to take advantage of to make sure we have the most viewers possible watching Canadian shows.

PM: Does it surprise you that that criticism always focuses on the American programming?
KS: And not the British ones? It was very interesting to me. Not surprising, but interesting always. Because we had Coronation Street on the schedule in the same slot that Wheel of Fortune is in now for years and years and years.

So yes, I believe because we need to be more sensitive to the cultural sovereignty of Canada versus the United States because we share the border, that can be a trigger for people who want to keep CBC Canadian. But I’ve got to say, it’s more Canadian now that it’s ever been in years. People get a bit myopic or have a short-term memory when it comes to schedules, but I have an old one sitting outside my office: Dallas was in prime-time; it’s got Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. It wasn’t that long ago that we had a very U.S. schedule.

But we’ve kept it Canadian in prime time, we’ve got the only Canadian late-night talk show, we do a lot of things that push the boundaries, that let people know that we make all kinds of Canadian programming.

PM: The TD integration. Do you see this as something the CBC can take advantage of because of how much programming we make? Is there a flip side to that, is there a danger?
KS: We go into this with eyes wide open. We know that the bar is going to be very high for the CBC, in particular as a public broadcaster, when we look at integration. We look at other broadcasters who do this, and we know we are going to be more heavily scrutinized. We are so careful that the integrations are organic and very natural to the story lines and respect the characters and the characterization – that it doesn’t make them do anything wacky or weird. When it’s done well actually integration ends up looking like real life, you know, you take the brand cereal box off the shelf, and that’s what people do in their homes, nobody has blank cereal boxes in their cupboards.

Hopefully, if it’s done in the right way, it will look authentic from the beginning.

PM: Are intending to expand it, or are you at the testing phase?
KS: We’re doing well with it already. Expansion is probably not the right word as much as looking for the right fit with the right shows. We turn down a lot of things, and we only do this when we feel it’s the right fit for the shows. There’s a lot of matchmaking going on. Some shows, and some genres, like Factual Entertainment, reality shows and lifestyle shows in particular, can be really open to product integration, other shows that are editorial like news are going to be less or none. So we’ll take a look at the schedule and we’ll only do it where it makes sense.

Saunders: It’s been a tough couple of weeks, can you give me a sense of where we’re at?

Lacroix: It’s been really tough at CBC/Radio Canada. We all realize that, me the first.

First off, let’s talk about the redundancy notices. They have been given out… the famous pink slips. I was listening George Stroumboulopoulos who was interviewing our minister on his show a couple weeks ago, and I think he was interviewing him on the day where notices went out. Interesting coincidence.

So 250 notices went out. About 170 in English and 60 in the French network and about 20 across the other corporate components. That’s going to start the bumping process under the collective agreements. We figure it’ll take the whole summer to go through the bumping process and by the end of September we’ll have seen all the departures.

Saunders: In March there was talk about doing everything we could to reduce the number of involuntary departures. What have we managed to accomplish on that front?

Lacroix: Well, we were happy, in some ways, if you could say we were happy about introducing voluntary retirement incentive programs, but we did that. And through the leadership of Katya Laviolette and her team and people in culture there was about 300 people or so that we were able to see the requests met.

Add to that our year-end numbers, March 31 2009, which were a bit better than expected by a couple million bucks. That allowed us to reduce some of the cuts that we had planned, particularly in the regions, so we saved a few jobs there.

We continue to work with the unions, and with the work that we’re doing in reducing our expenses, because I really believe that every job counts, and as I’ve told the world since I walked in here, my first “p” of my three priorities is people, and we are trying to look at every single job and keep it inside our company instead of trying to eliminate it.

Saunders: Obviously it’s been an emotional time for all of our employees. Can you give me sense of how you are feeling about all of this?

Lacroix: I’ve been tough, I know that. You were saying a few seconds ago that this weekend you had to say goodbye to five or six people that you had been working with for 10 years at CBC-Radio canada. A lot of that. A lot of that is happening on each one floors that I walk around on.

So yes, it is difficult. It’s difficult for the people that leave, because I think it’s a great place to work at CBC/Radio Canada. We are a great institution.

It’s difficult for the people that stay on, because they see their friends leave and they also are concerned about the kind of work and stuff they have to do to compensate for these departures.

But that’s where we are right now. The people that stay here, we have all sorts of support that we’ll put in place for them. Whether it’s career counselling or programs of that kind.

I’m looking forward to stop being a number number-cruncher and spreadsheet person because I’ve been doing this non-stop for six months now. So I’m looking to September or maybe end of summer to start visiting the centres again.

I look forward to sitting down with our people, and listening to how they’re dealing with this and wether they have some things to say to me. But in the meantime, as I’ve been finishing my notes with, we have to hang tough. We will survive this and you’ll see CBC Radio Canada will be very strong when we finish this exercise.

The move comes as the CBC is trying to sell assets to finance the majority of a $171 million shortfall. CBC President Hubert Lacroix said on Friday that Saint-Cyr “created some one quarter billion dollars in value on a 10-year horizon…” by “monetizing” under-used assets.

Others, such as the President of the Canadian Media Guild, Lise Lareau are less charitable. “The impact of the Real Estate grip on CBC decision-making and the mantra of “monetizing” the public broadcaster’s space cannot be underestimated,” Lareau wrote on her blog.

“Desks were measured with a view to squashing as many people as possible into some newly leased space,” she added.

Lareau also said the real estate division precipitated the layoffs of 80 set and costume designers in Toronto, and that the success of the division served to mask the CBC’s financial crisis. “Here we are eight years after the creation of the Real Estate Power, with a $171M shortfall that Real Estate can’t fix, 800 layoffs on the horizon, and an unleased partly empty building in Toronto,” she wrote.

The impact of the resignation on financing CBC’s shortfall is unclear.

I didn’t have time to tune in myself, but if anyone did, leave a comment below with what he said.

On Saturday, Kirstine Layfield, the executive director of programming for CBC Television, responded to some of the criticism.

People say the CBC is chasing eyeballs. Personally, I have never met an eyeball. I have met Canadians from across our great country who have eyes — and ears and hearts and minds. They have a thirst to understand their world from a Canadian perspective and a desire to hear their own stories and music. This is the audience of the CBC.

Layfield also addressed some of funding issues, ratings, and competition with the privates. Her full comment is here. It’s worth a read.

“This means that the compensation for each of our eighty or so top managers will on average be reduced by 10 to 20 per cent next year,” CBC President Hubert Lacroix wrote on Wednesday.

Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild, told the Globe the clawback “rang the wrong way” to many people. Most CBC staffers don’t receive performance and incentive bonuses, “What’s a bonus?” a commentator on this blog asked. ”You remember that time there was half a sandwich left in that boardroom and you got to it first? That was your 2008 bonus,” another replied. 

The reaction was covered in a story by the Canadian Press last night.

CBC spokesman Marco Dube explained that cutting the bonuses and freezing salaries will save the about $1 million this year. Based on those figures, even if the bonuses were eliminated entirely the savings wouldn’t likely amount to more that a couple million dollars a year, which would help, but it’s a long way from addressing a revenue shortfall that stands between $150 and $200 million.