CBC broadcaster Evan Solomon.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Staff within CBC News are being actively shuffled to different jobs as the public broadcaster moves closer toward unifying its TV, radio and online news operations and Newsworld shifts away from such programs as Antiques Roadshow to a CNN-style, 24-hour news cycle.
The change in Newsworld to continual news programming could come as early as this fall, with hosts Evan Solomon and Carole MacNeil as likely contenders for more visible weekday TV-hosting spots. Program development for the reformatted Newsworld is still in the works.
Meanwhile, the overall reorganization of CBC News will likely continue into next year, said spokesman Jeff Keay. The reorganization has been in the works for years - before the arrival of the current head of CBC News Jennifer McGuire.
As changes started to be implemented in recent months, staff were told that the unified assignment desk will resemble the model used by CNN, in which a constant flow of news reports feeds into different programs throughout the day.
The reorganization is seen as a major shift away from the culture within CBC News of gearing primarily toward The National , CBC News at Six and other major shows, and instead broadcasting the news on whatever platform on which they can get it out fastest. That's not to say that the CBC is walking away from shows such as The National , which is expected to air seven days a week.
"They are shuffling people like mad, and they are reassigning people to Newsworld," said Karen Wirsig, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Media Guild, the CBC's main union, which closely tracks these job shifts. With news programs are still in the development stage, "a lot of people don't know exactly what they are going to be doing in the end. But I think a lot of that is going to be firmed up over the summer. I believe the real changes will be seen in the fall."
There are other factors pushing the process.
Newsworld, which is one of the CBC's few areas which attract advertising revenue, will be up for a licence renewal before the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission next year. The idea among CBC managers is to get the changes in place before then, partly to improve the chances of more cable companies being required to pick up the service.
Solomon and MacNeil are frequently seen as likely contenders to host new shows now that their CBC News: Sunday was cancelled last month. One rumour circulating is that Solomon may be headed for retired political host Don Newman's 5 p.m. news timeslot, while MacNeil could be in the running for a new noon news program. The CBC spokesman could not comment on these rumours.
"On the specific programming [changes]and the hosts, we are in the process of talking to people now about the new assignments. That's been under way for the last week or so and is going to continue," Keay said.
Although the staff reshuffle is happening at the same time as massive job cuts of nearly 800 throughout the CBC's English and French services, and the subsequent bumping of some workers out of certain jobs by senior staff, Keay said that the news revamp and its job changes should be seen as a different process.
"It's happening in the context of those cuts. But this is a separate and parallel process. This whole news renewal has been going on for a long time. It was going to happen anyway," Keay said. "Yes, we're under severe budgetary constraints. But we still have a budget [for the changes] we still have a strategic direction, with all the stuff we're doing with regard to Newsworld and to CBC News as a whole. Really Newsworld is just one piece of an overall re-engineering."