CBC President Sets the Record Straight Following Stursberg’s Departure
A mid-summer note following the events of last week is in order. The news of Richard Stursberg’s departure last week will, of course, generate speculation about what happened, what it means and what it doesn’t. As usual, most of it will be just that, speculation.
So, let me set a few things straight.
I chose Kirstine Stewart to step in as Executive Vice-President English Services not because she was next in line but because she has the leadership skills and the expertise to keep English Services driving forward as hard and as fast as possible while we run our formal recruitment process (which could take up to 9 months). She is not a caretaker. She is not a babysitter. This is not about waiting or slowing down. She is in charge, has full authority and has my complete confidence.
We have several launches coming, a strategic plan to land and then cost, choices to make, a Leaders Forum to organize, a corporate budget to prepare… and that’s only from my vantage point! We are not slowing down. We don’t need to, we don’t have time to.
With the creation of a new strategic plan, this is a good time to review the leadership of CBC. The decision to change leadership was not a sudden decision triggered by any specific incident. And, by the way, we did not escort Richard out of the building (where do people get these rumours?). It was, rather, the culmination of a very long reflection on the future of the Corporation, the culture it needs to adopt in order to change and adapt in an evolving media environment and our ability to agree to a long term plan based on a shared vision.
In essence, the Strategic Plan is about having a clearer definition of what the public broadcaster brand stands for. Our industry is morphing. While we still rely on the conventional broadcasting model we have known , we will, increasingly, migrate to new models that have yet to become clear. Having a shared, compelling and visible set of principles that give shape to the public broadcasting brand will be a roadmap for future decisions. And the brand is about what we do and how we do it and how we communicate it.
However, you should immediately know that there is nothing (and I mean nothing) in our current programming strategies that I don’t stand by: so, those out there who think this is in any way a repudiation of where we stand today will be disappointed big time.
One constant in all this is that CBC/Radio-Canada will continue to fulfill its mandate by responding to the media and cultural challenges facing the country. Implicit in that for me are these points among others:
- The drama/entertainment strategy that has been a source success in television over the last few years will continue to be a central plank of our future strategy;
- The integration and modernization of our news services both regionally and nationally remains essential to our mandate and our success;
- Radio One’s unique role in the media landscape, whether on radio or through new media, will be maintained and nurtured;
- Our commitment to a music strategy that serves Canada’s music lovers and musical artists will continue;
- Our commitment to truly reflecting the regions to themselves and nationally is as important a priority as we have;
- We will not give up our lead in new media;
- And, by now, I hope that you know how much I care about our people.
This is not an exhaustive list so if your own personal area of activity is not mentioned, please do not conclude that it is not important or not included in the strategy. The point is, we are moving forward from the strong position we hold, not going back to the past.
It is about building a public broadcaster for 2015 that is even more successful, more in tune with the needs and wants of Canadians and more engaged in their lives. It is also about building a public broadcaster that is home to the most ambitious and creative workforce in the country. We have the team right here, right now, to do that. I am extremely proud of you and of what you do, every day.
Hope you have had or will have a good break this summer. We’ll need all your energy and passion as we prepare for the fall.
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[...] an article on insidethecbc.com, CBC President H. Lacroix states the [...]
Do whatever you want with the cbc, I stopped listening two and a half years ago.
I do hope this is soon to be in a huge 3D extravaganza.
yawn.. Cue the crickets.
Do we get Da Vinci and Intelligence back?
We do get the context. Anybody there have any plans you might share with how you’re going to proceed?
Rayfield, It’s interesting for sure. John Doyle wrote a piece today saying, essentially, more of the same.
“But, post-Stursberg, CBC-TV now finds itself in a dangerous position. It walks a tightrope. What Stursberg did to CBC-TV has made it much harder to defend as a cultural institution.”
That predicament is key. As I said in this post ( a few days before Doyle’s – just saying ) “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.”
Doyle also said:
“A senior CBC exec told me, “I imagine there may well be some de-emphasis, over time, of the Hollywood hitsville mogul-style commissioning of scripts and pilots in the laser-focused quest for eyeballs, and maybe more quality Canadian-orientation stuff, but they don’t want to lose the audience gained and it won’t be a revolution [back] to old times.”
I’m guessing that that de-emphasis will happen rather quickly, but tactically. Likely less sports, less Hollywood, more arts, more drama, more news. News in particular is ideally suited to the task of shoring up the legacy of a cultural institution. This probably also explain why Conservative partisans are so intent on targeting CBC news.
Either way, Doyle’s piece is by far some of the best stuff he’s done in ages. I encourage you to read it.
It’s a gigantic bureueaucratic mess that needs to be shut down.
Dear Hubert:
Richard’s reign should have ended the day you took office. Although Richard’s decisions were virtually all divisive, dreadful and destructive, at least he was decisive. It’s never been clear who was the real CEO. Now it is finally clear – but more than 2 1/2 years too late.
If nothing is going to change now and you don’t repair the damage, it’s very likely that the presidency will change when your appointment expires on January 1, 2013. If not sooner. People are counting the days.
And your legacy will not be a noble one.
Maybe you can still surprise us. You are a nice guy.
We can only hope.
How can the CBC become the number one stop for Canadians online when it’s now competing with The New York Times, The Economist and pornography? CBC is already struggling with a decreasing parliamentary appropriation and major shortfalls in advertising revenues, amongst other issues.
I would be curious to know what was learned during audience research and planning for the re-design of CBC news that makes the CBC confident it can gain a steady ground.
I’m sure these documents have been shared in the higher rungs, but it would be useful for scholars who study the CBC to understand the logic instead of relying on cynical blogs (not all, some have been useful) and frustrated comments from the CEO and President like the one here.