They offered me the office, offered me the shop. They said I'd better take anything they'd got. Do you wanna make tea at the CBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?

Thursday, November 22, 2007

All your media are belong to Stursberg

by Ouimet

Today it was announced that Richard Stursberg has been made King of All Media in the CBC.

As a structural change, it makes a lot of sense. There are efficiencies to be had. In the future, these 3 media lines will be more converged anyways. We're seeing it already.

And while they say that "there is no plan whatsoever for any reduction in staff," of course there isn't right now. That only comes a little later. when you're merging 2 distinct bodies, and one indistinct one, something has to give. That's just science.

I'd like to go one further and see more English and French services merged. In the chaos of the Dawson College shooting, we were scrambling to find some visuals to put onair, and rolled the same kids fleeing in terror, over and over. At Radio-Canada they had all kinds of footage. No one thought to call them.

Why can't we bring this together a bit more?

Radio-Canada merged their media lines years ago. The transition was painful at times. Sometimes frustrating. But people were treated with respect and the process was overseen and guided by the keen, compassionate hand of Sylvain Lafrance.

But Stursberg is no Lafrance.

Let's just leave it at that.

Stursberg and Jennifer McGuire said in a memo today
We both feel strongly that today marks the beginning of a new chapter for the CBC - a chapter that will extend our reputation as one of the finest broadcasters in the world.
This has been one hell of a week what with the wheel of fortune and the organ harvesting and the mandate review and all of the rest of it, but they're right. And there's no turning back.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

English and French could not and should not be merged, but video sharing could be done faster and the technology ought to be made easier to transfer and take live images. The saddest thing which I don't think many CBC managers know is that almost none of the video monitors in the SRC TV newsroom in Montreal are tuned to CBC Newsworld and in Toronto almost none of the monitors are tuned to RDI. The chase producers, line up editors and show producers rarely watch each other's programming. They barely know the other exists.

11:22 PM, November 22, 2007

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just want to make sure I've got this right: Stursberg is now the "executive VP", and now Radio and TV have no VPs at all (but new and improved titles like "executive director" and "publisher").

I guess we know why Jane Chalmers "retired".

But I'm betting there are still VPs for important things like, say, Communications, and Real Estate?

12:47 AM, November 23, 2007

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We've snuck TV news reports onto the radio for years, usually overnight.

They sound terrible. There's lots of extraneous noise, and the emphasis on voice quality that's supposed to be a crucial part of radio is often missing (usually because the reporters are outside).

But that's not the worst part. The worst part are the inevitable lines like "the people pictured here", or "you see behind me". That's funny, I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING! OMG I'M BLIND!

2:12 AM, November 23, 2007

 
Blogger Dwight Williams said...

I understand Communications(AKA "PR"), although it seems like everyone working on the business end of a camera or microphone at CBC/SRC ought to already have some grounding in the principles. It's the existence of "Real Estate" that still puzzles me to this day!

9:18 AM, November 23, 2007

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

SRC and CBC have been collaborating for a few years online in the Children's area.

They did it because they were being starved for resources. And because it makes sense, no doubt.

1:59 PM, November 23, 2007

 
Blogger Johnny Happypants said...

Gosh...Radio folk have been whining for a year about Q and Freestyle. They ain't seen nothing yet.


Don't be surprised to see Casey Kasem's American Top Forty anchor the Radio Two evening schedule. Makes sense when you think about it. Bring in a younger audience and have a strong lead-in for our own quality programs.

It would be nice to join the French too. It would be nice to have their staffing levels and budgets too. And it would be nice to have a props/design department and it would be nice to be able to make our own programs. It would be nice to have a cafeteria and a downtown building without space rented out to students.

Any word from our Junior Achiever friends at .ca?

JH

7:16 PM, November 26, 2007

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of the Anonymouses said:
"But I'm betting there are still VPs for important things like, say, Communications, and Real Estate?"

The Real Estate division actually has its own President!

The new position I think is cool is the Director Of Wellness. Reminds me of Nineteen Eighty-four. :-)

5:58 PM, November 28, 2007

 

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