CBC heads try to defend new The National style
Dan Say
"The scuttlebutt he's hearing from the network floor, however, isn't
quite as enthusiastic. �The mood,� he says, �alternates between panic and
depression.� One senior reporter, for instance, told Dvorkin this week that he
and his colleagues were being told to focus on filing many quick hits rather
than full reports, and that reporters are now sometimes referred to as
�hitters.�"
CBC Mother Corp. gussies up her all-news baby
http://www.theglobeandmail.
com/news/arts/cbc-mother-corp-gussies-up-her-all-news-baby/article1345511/
But the new CBC News Network has some critics shaking their heads
See also:
Television: The new look
Television: Mixed at best
Comments (98)
Guy Dixon and James Bradshaw
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009 7:00AM EDT
Last updated on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009 9:05AM EDT
Regular CBC News viewers across the country could be forgiven for doing a
double take this week when tuning into what used to be Newsworld, the all-news
channel now restyled as the CBC News Network, or CBC NN. That name � Doesn't
it strongly resemble that of a certain American cable news network?
And then there's the network's new look: busier, brighter sets festooned with
huge TV monitors; a greater emphasis on star reporters; multiple,
ever-changing camera angles; and news anchors talking directly to those
monitors as they chat up reporters delivering their missives from the field.
CBC executives say the changes � part of a massive overhaul of news operations
across the network's television, radio and online services � not only give the
news more immediacy, but make the news-gathering process itself more
transparent. �Transparency� is the new buzzword at CBC News.
To that end, the CBC is attempting, among other things, to break down the old
familiar format in which a Walter Cronkite-like authority figure reads the
news, while reporters discretely file segments from the field. On the CBC News
Network, there's lots more conversational banter happening between anchors and
reporters, part of an attempt to show viewers what reporters know � and what
they're still trying to find out. As well, reporters are filing shorter,
punchier news hits throughout the day, as stories develop.
The idea, say CBC executives, is to give the broadcasts the same feel as a
news special or election coverage. Reporters injecting themselves into the
reporting, and, for instance, referring to what politicians told them or what
they learned, �is deliberate,� says Cynthia Kinch, director of CBC News
Network. �This is far more news as it breaks, as it develops. And we move the
story through in a conversational way, and pull the curtain back on the
editorial process.�
Critics note that CNN pioneered just that kind of reporting years ago, its
news team taking to the air whenever new details become available on a story.
Ditto the practice of more onscreen graphics, and what appears to be a greater
focus on younger prime-time anchors � in CBC News Network's case, the most
prominent among them being Evan Solomon and Mark Kelley.
�Those of us who think public broadcasting has a role to provide something
distinct from private broadcasting were just taken aback by this,� says
Jeffrey Dvorkin, former managing editor of CBC Radio and one-time head of news
at U.S. National Public Radio.
Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC English services, has long
made it clear that he wants to reach the widest possible audience, even
though, as some critics argue, that risks introducing a certain sameness
between the CBC and private broadcasters.
�For the last four or five years, the news [industry] has gone through a
convulsive change,� Stursberg says. When CBC polled Canadians about how they
consume news, respondents said they expect to get headline news instantly, any
time of day, Stursberg notes. Indeed, that's precisely what has led the CBC to
make available an online 10-minute version of The National hours before the
newscast hits TV screens.
Stursberg adds that the relaunch of CBC News had been in the works long before
the industry faced a slump in advertising, and CBC instituted job cuts,
earlier this year.
Over the many years spent working on the News Network's new look � a process
that extends as far back as a 2003 poll that asked Canadians how they perceive
the CBC and Canadian news media in general � CBC executives have visited other
news networks around the world to look over their operations. As general
manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, Jennifer McGuire, points out,
networks as diverse as CNN and Britain's Sky News have long followed the
practice of getting their anchors to engage in back-and-forth conversations
with reporters on large screens.
But �the myth that it's somehow CNN-based is entirely that: a myth,� says
McGuire, who adds that those tours of other networks concentrated more on
learning about their news-gathering operations. �The programming schedule is
our own. We did our own research. We looked at our own resources. And we came
up with our own schedule, designed by our own people.�
As for the interactive use of screens, she insists that's less a style element
than a tool to allow the anchor to appear visually closer to the news. As
well, she adds, those changes that are purely stylistic � including whiter,
brighter sets � were created in-house by CBC graphic designers. �The impetus
is not mimicry. It really is this idea of getting [viewers] to where news
happens,� McGuire says.
What particularly exasperates her, McGuire says, with an exhausted laugh, is
the preoccupation critics have had with anchors delivering the news behind
podium-like tables. The National 's Peter Mansbridge, like the anchors on
various CBC News Network shows, now stands at a table � la Wolf Blitzer on
CNN's The Situation Room . (One difference news junkies will notice is that
CBC anchors are allowed to litter their on-set tables with loose papers,
coffee mugs and pens, thus conveying a more lived-in, on-the-go, busy-at-work
look. A small CBC touch.)
�We're moving away from a static, behind-the-desk experience to a news
environment that is much more adaptable for us, for all the kinds of coverage
that we do,� says McGuire, who has kept her sense of humour amid the sometimes
less-than-favourable reviews: On a tour of the new newsroom, she points out a
row of black stools outside the set of The National that stand ready for use
whenever needed. �This proves,� she says, �we have chairs.�
Mansbridge, standing in his well-appointed office in a corner of the newsroom,
treats criticism of the changes with a shrug. He has been through at least
five overhauls of The National over his long career, he notes. �At the core,
it's still the news,� he says. �If anybody did a serious content analysis,
we're still dealing with the important news stories of the day. � The set is
more about the look than anything else.�
Others aren't as convinced. Dvorkin, currently a visiting professor of
journalism at Ryerson University, concedes that some of his students told him
they find the new design bold and �visually hot.�
The scuttlebutt he's hearing from the network floor, however, isn't quite as
enthusiastic. �The mood,� he says, �alternates between panic and depression.�
One senior reporter, for instance, told Dvorkin this week that he and his
colleagues were being told to focus on filing many quick hits rather than full
reports, and that reporters are now sometimes referred to as �hitters.�
For instance, an early report of the death of folk singer Taylor Mitchell, who
on Tuesday had been attacked by coyotes on Cape Breton's Skyline Trail, raised
more questions than it answered. On-air host Heather Hiscox, in an apparent
attempt to extend the segment for a few more minutes, asked the reporter, �You
have calls out on this story?�
Reporters have traditionally been posed such questions by editors and
producers behind the scenes. Faced with Hiscox's queries, the CBC reporter had
to tell her and viewers that he did in fact have more calls out � how could he
not? � and then went into detail about which questions still needed answers.
With the News Network overhaul, more than 1,000 CBC employees have seen their
job duties change. Also rearranged is the physical organization of the
newsroom, and not just in front of the cameras. Assignments now originate from
a central hub at which producers give stories to TV and radio reporters and to
the CBC.ca news desk. The main CBC News Network set sits as a bright, shiny
appendage to this central hub.
As for the name change itself, it's part of an effort to emphasize the new
all-news focus of the network, which is jettisoning, among other shows, The
Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (it will still air on the main CBC network)
and Antiques Roadshow.
�There's a really good reason behind the name change. There's so much value
and awareness of CBC News as a brand. And it speaks to who we are and what we
deliver,� McGuire says. �When we did the research around Newsworld, we found
out there really wasn't a great awareness for the specialty channel that's
been around for 20 years. And even the core audience didn't really care if we
changed the name or not.�
A truly successful rebranding, however, may prove difficult for the CBC, says
Lisa Bednarski, head of Canadian consumer marketing at the international
consulting firm, Weber Shandwick in Toronto. �Rebranding is more than just
changing a logo or developing new packaging. It's really about having a strong
identity that's consistently communicated. The challenge for the CBC is that
part of its mandate is to be all things to all people.�
Convincing the harshest critics will be an especially steep uphill battle. For
Dvorkin, for one, says those busier on-screen graphics make him want to �pass
the Dramamine.� These are the kind of comments that make Mansbridge shrug
again. It's par for the course with these kinds of stylistic changes in a
medium that's not just about content � but style. �I get it,� he says. �It's
television.�
Dan Say
[Thursday night's CBC lineup] "all added up to no boost for the new news,
watched by 664,000 at 10 and slipping to 495,000 at 10:25. Meanwhile, rival
newscasts continue to grow: CTV National News Wednesday 1,360,000, Global
National at 5:30 1,121,000."