TORONTO – Look for what’s likely to be a sweeping overhaul of the www.cbc.ca web portal in the coming months.
CBC announced this week that Jonathan Dube, an award-winning journalist and leader in the online news industry, is taking on the role of editorial director for CBC.ca, responsible for all CBC.ca’s editorial programming, including news, arts and sports sections. He joins the company in July.
Dube comes to CBC from Seattle, where he is currently managing producer of MSNBC.com. He is also a columnist with the Poynter Institute in Florida; a board member of the Online News Association; and the founder and publisher of CyberJournalist.net, a resource site about the online news industry.
"I’m very pleased, and I consider it testimony to CBC.ca’s many recent successes, that we have been able to attract a journalist and industry leader of Jonathan’s calibre to lead our award-winning news, arts and sports coverage," said Sue Gardner, senior director of CBC.ca. "The editorial director is a new position at CBC.ca, and it’s a critical step as we continue to invest in increasing quality and service for the online audience. CBC.ca’s goal is to be in the very top tier of quality media sites, on par with the BBC and the New York Times. We’re confident Jonathan can help us do that."
Prior to his arrival at MSNBC.com, where he also served as a senior producer and technology editor, Dube was a national producer for ABCNEWS.com, where he covered the Columbine High School shootings, the Microsoft antitrust trial and the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. He has also written for the Columbia Journalism Review, the Washington Monthly, the Charlotte Observer and contributed to several journalism books. In 1998, while at The Observer, he provided blog coverage of Hurricane Bonnie, which was the first time a news site had used blogging as a way to cover breaking news.
He won the Online News Association’s first Online Journalism Award for Breaking News in 2000 for his coverage of the World Trade Organization protests. Dube has also won four online journalism awards and two investigative reporting awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as the first-ever new media award from Columbia University.
